Cars on ebay.

[Frankieola]

Has anyone bought or sold a car off ebay? If so, How did the transaction go and were there any problems? Would you do things differently if you had the chance again? Many thanks.

[Toureman]

You have got to be very careful.

Motorcycle news has just done a survey on buying motorcycles on ebay and I think it would be very simular to cars, they found out that good bikes were usually overpriced and did not sell or underpriced bikes were absolute rubbish.

[Loosehead]

You have to treat it like buying a car from any other source, go and see it, test it , check paperwork etc, then bid if it's what you want.

It's tougher from the selling point of view, you'll probably get problems with no shows, time wasters etc

[peterd]

My brother sold a car on ebay in Jan06. He had a few silly offers & time wasters but it eventually sold at a reasonable price. He lives in North West & a dealer from Devon eventually bought it. He drove up in a trailer and took it back explaining he already had a buyer for it. Infact he was on his way to Lincoln to pick up another car which he'd also bought on ebay.

[PhilBy]

Happy to report that I have bought & sold cars and motorcycles off ebay with no problems what so ever.

If buying, ask as many questions as you can think of to be certaion of condition, service history etc etc.

If selling be honest and try to include as many photo's as possible........... spend some time reading how other sellers describe vehicles for sale and learn from the ones who get the best prices.

Unless being sold as scrap and clearly stated as such all road vehicles have to be fit for the purpose they are intended for, basically this means even if the seller puts "No warranty given or implied" and a few miles down the road the brakes fail or some fault shows up you can still demand a full refund (Not really sure but I think it is a 30 day period... but do not hold me to that)

Also remember when buying anything off ebay that feedback if god! No matter how good the bargain seems, if the seller has loads of negitive feedback then be it on your head.

Use common sense and you will see that ebay is a superb market place to both buy and sell :-)

[erimus1]

I'be bought and sold a few cars on ebay with good success (on both sides). I think that, as with any purchase, you have to be extremely careful.

The cars that I sell are done so in good faith. I will point out every possible fault that I can so as to be as fair as possible. i buy bargains and try and sell them at a bit of a profit. Likewise, when I buy, I will look more at cars that advertise more faults than good points. I know that they will be selling on ebay for one of two reasons (just like any normal car auction). Either they are trying to realise some quick cash, or they are trying to get rid of a white elephant.

I'd rather sell two cars on ebay with a bit of profit than one with a huge one - makes more sense for everyone. Hope this helps. We're not all rouges.

[madein1978]

I've successfully done 3 Transactions for cars on ebay and I'm about negotiate a fourth, all so far without problems. All I can say is Caveat Emptor, the golden rule when buying a car at any auction. Analyse the wording of the advert very closely if you are serious, scrutinse the pictures, you can check if the car is taxed if you have it's reg on www.vehiclelicence.gov.uk. Check the sellers feedback, anything negative should ring bells, especially when buying a car! Above all just use common sense and 'keep the heid' as we Scots say!

[mimififi]

we sold our car on Ebay and it ended up being bid on by a late bidder who didn't even contact us before the end of the auction to come and see it or anything. he just bid on it, and I must say a few thousand under what it was worth, we just scraped the right amount to clear the finance, short about 20 quid (which was our reason for selling it...)

He sent the money down with a man from his firm who gave us the cheque and test drove the vehicle and drove it away back up to lincolnshire (we live in sussex)

then a few days later, the buyer who turns out to be a used car salesman, emailed my husband and complained about all sorts of things, some things that were already listed and some things that we certainly did not sell it with, various scratches and marks. We had it fully valeted and serviced and checked by an independent garage before listing it and put everyhting in the listing that was not immaculate, everything else was as it was only 2.5 years old. He demanded payment back for the problems, we never even saw any pictures of them. We refursed.

Next thing he has lodged a complaint with ebay and we were having to fight it. In the end, he went on and on and we didn't want ebay to think badly of us, it was our word against his and we want to keep using ebay. We have sold loads of stuff before and only ever had positive feedback. IN the end we just wanted to make him stop so we offered him a small payment as goodwill.

[mimififi]

We didn't have to do this and feel really let down by trusting people too far.

If we were to ever sell again, which we wont, I would insist that i will only sell to people who have actually come to view the car before the end of the auction and will only allow the car to be driven away by the buyer and not the representative. If someone hasn't contacted me before the end of the auction then I wouldn't sell it to him and I would state this in the listing.

We are really very upset by the whole matter and it has made me rethink about using ebay at all. I don't really think you can quibble when you have paid just under 13000 for a 2.5 year old discover with low mileage and all the trimmings. As a used car salesman, he will sell it for loads more than that. and the amount we paid him that he accepted would certainly not cover the things he was complaining about. I imagine the car went through the company books and the goodwill payment directly into his personal account.

in other words, negative feedback will be left and the more unusual: SELLER BEWARE.

[gessoo]

As long as you view first and check it out it's no different from buying from any dealer. My son has just got a real bargain in immaculate condition.

Have never tried selling.

[tweenyb]

a woman i used to work with sold her k reg corsa on ebay and got the guy to collect. shegot over her reserve and when the guy showed up he handed her the cash and didnt even look at the car... she was lucky but i dont think its so simple for every body

[tali122]

you'll generally find cheaper cars reguarly in the autotrader and bargain pages

[AllYourBase]

I sold my wife's car (a ford Ka) on ebay, and was lucky enough to sell itto someone from close by to where I work, so I dropeed it off for them too. I made sure every last bit of detail went into the ad, which I think made it more appealing to the buyers. A set of good photos, including the miles and a photo of the service book ans stamps are all helpful. Also include a caveat to state that you will terminate the auction if you sell it yourself sooner (as I had a poster in the window). It is also worth putting on a warning to bidders that they are entering into a contract and therefore must complete or action will be taken etc.

However, when I tried to sell my BMW on Ebay, I had no takers, even though it was an in demand model ( a 320d SE). I suspect it wasn't keenly enough priced, but that's a learning point - start the auction just below the minimum you need to make, not at the point of making a profit. Maybe that's where I went wrong.

I certainly got �600 more than I would have done trading in on the Ka, however with ebay and paypal fees of about �100 that did shrink a little. Key point - get payment by cheque, cash or draft, as a paypal payment for a large value costs to process, extract and the transaction is slow.

[thrustmaster]

Bought a BMW last Friday off e-bay , sold my Honda on the sunday, could have sold it 10 times over, phone didnt stop ringing......bloke came up from London to M/cr with cash to end the auction early..............no problems for me!!!