Ebay sucks for buying cars.

[djNickb]

Thats what the feedback system is for though - If people were concealing defects or problems with the cars their feedback would definitely reflect this. I mean if a seller has high feedback ratings and a brick and mortar establishment to back their online front wouldn't you think that they were in fact selling quality vehicles?

 

[vi edit]

Originally posted by: djNickb
Thats what the feedback system is for though - If people were concealing defects or problems with the cars their feedback would definitely reflect this. I mean if a seller has high feedback ratings and a brick and mortar establishment to back their online front wouldn't you think that they were in fact selling quality vehicles?

Yes, I understand that, but when you're spending 5k, 10k, 15k, 20k, 25k on something, I don't think it hurts to have too much info on it.

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: djNickb
Thats what the feedback system is for though - If people were concealing defects or problems with the cars their feedback would definitely reflect this. I mean if a seller has high feedback ratings and a brick and mortar establishment to back their online front wouldn't you think that they were in fact selling quality vehicles?

No, that's not the point. The point is to enable an out of state buyer to "inspect" the car with someone elses eyes. Many(most?) times, the seller may not necessarily know or realize a problem with the car. It goes even beyond that though- what if they could help you get the car loaded and shipped, etc? Many car auctions are also private seller.. That's mainly what we're talking about here.

Having someone knowledgable inspect the car could be invaluble, because there are indeed people that try and sell complete junk.. or perhaps a certain model of car has an inherent problem that the seller doesen't know about..

The bottom line is that when you're spending thousands of dollars on something, it never hurts to know too much.

 

[damiano]

Originally posted by: fuzzy bee
<insert Alabama joke here?>

yeah look under pickup or trailer category you will find alabama
those rednecks don't buy cars 😛

 

[StageLeft]

Another benefit is that the inspector could write you a lot of info on it and they would be entirely unbiased because they don't care if you buy it or not. Personally I'd feel more comfortable paying somebody $50 to check out a car I was thinking of buying.

 

[djNickb]

Originally posted by: Skoorb
Another benefit is that the inspector could write you a lot of info on it and they would be entirely unbiased because they don't care if you buy it or not. Personally I'd feel more comfortable paying somebody $50 to check out a car I was thinking of buying.

I may be mistaken, but I thought I've seen links off of auto auction pages where there are services like this available. I guess you could also use yahoo yellowpages to find a vehicle inspection service in the seller's locale that would be able to do this for you. Plus if the seller was serious and stood by their car I don't see how they would have a problem allowing a 3rd party to inspect the vehicle.

 

[DainBramaged]

Originally posted by: djNickb
With as cheap as cars are going on ebay why not just pay shipping costs or fly out and drive it home. Seriously, cars on eBay are going for way less than blue book values and way less than dealer prices. Do some reseach and shopping and see that there are definitely some deals to be had.

I agree, I got my Maxima (now wrecked) on ebay and the transaction went just fine. I did take a risk flying down to Texas but I would do it again for the kind of deal I got.