Buying via eBay?

VaSteve · 10-31-2003, 09:28 AM

I have seen some people who have posted links to things on eBay:
- do you know this car?
- what do you think of this?

Has anyone here actually bought a car via eBay? What were the results? I know some people swear by driving a car first, how do you overcome that?

Please tell me your success/horror stories. I have never bought high dollar stuff this way and *some* of the low dollar stuff I was disappointed in.

Thanks!
Steve

john walker's workshop · 10-31-2003, 09:55 AM

pig in a poke. ya pays yer money and ya takes yer chances.

mtelliott · 10-31-2003, 11:28 AM

John's right. If you can't go, see, drive, it's a crapshoot.

I picked up my 911 project via e-bay. My max price was what I thought it was worth as parts. When I picked it up, some things were as described, some were less, some were better. All in all, I got a good deal. Could I have been screwed. Absolutely.

Jim Richards · 10-31-2003, 05:58 PM

Steve, some folks have done this successfully; however, it helps to find someone knowledgeable (and discriminating) that's local to the car in question and willing to look at it for you before you bid on it. Seller's pic's in the ebay listing usually are worthless for really determining the condition of a car. So, consider ebay for a 911 purchase but use other means to reassure yourself you've made a good decision. Happy hunting!

73911s31 · 11-07-2003, 11:37 AM

I bought a car on ebay. Pictures looked great. the car was suppose to have just had a complete restoration. I was going to take a 3 day weekend with my wife to drive it from Georgia to Calif. When we got there there was no spare tire and we had to push it to start it. I got my deposit back but had to pay for 2 sets of expense one way plane tickets. At the least I would have a PCA or Pelican member check it first and only send a small deposit until you drove it. There are good buys on ebay that warrent some risk.

Jadams1 · Jadams1's Garage

I bought mine on e-bay and I was lucky. The seller was honest and legitimate. It could have been a very painful experience if it went the other way. The car turned out to be very clean with about 8 years and $14,000 worth of maintenance history. I paid $10,500 for the car.

Next time I have to see and drive the car in addition to having a PPI done.

88911coupe · 11-07-2003, 11:53 AM

My brother just bought a 328is off EBay and is thrilled with the car. However, the seller was a large dealer out of Houston with EXTENSIVE positive feedback and had no problem letting him have a PPI done. Our only concern was that the color was a rare "Techno Violet" color only available with the M Appearance pkg and we were not sure how accurate the pics were considering monitor variations, etc. It's a very cool bluish purple that almost looks black in some light.
In addition, a friend of my brothers has bought a Ferrari Testarossa, a Viper, and a Lamborghini all off ebay and has had no problems.
YMMV

dfw911 · 11-07-2003, 01:41 PM

I bought mine on E-Bay, but the car was local and I was able to check it out first. The car has been better than advertised, but I'm not sure that I would do it (e-bay) again. The hard deadline attached to the auction can make it hard to get all of the info you would like to make a good decision.

GB83SC · 11-07-2003, 01:42 PM

I bought my BMW 525 on Ebay, But the dealer was only 40 miles away.
No inspection. Ran a car fax one owner low mile car, service records.
It was a nice car at a great price. It worked for me.