Would you buy a car from E-Bay?

Under what conditions would you buy a car from E-buy?

And if you have what has been the good, the bad, and the ugly of the whole process?

I want to know what members of this forum think because I have thought about buying a car from E-Bay, have come close to actually doing, but have always held back. I am just afraid that most of the cars on E-Bay even though they look good, sound good, and everything else, they are lemons/junk. Is this an unreasonable fear?

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Bluerio

I have come close but haven't taken the plunge yet. Hopefully if one comes up I am interested in it, it will be close enough for me to go inspect it personally. If not, I would definately pay an appraiser to go look for me.

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95 SL500 Smoke Silver, Parchment 64K
07 E350 4matic Station Wagon White 34K
02 E320 4Matic Silver/grey 80K
05 F150 Silver 44K

The car in my link. I checked it out before buying though. Why would anyone buy sight unseen, I don't know. But technically I bought it on ebay... no rules on not seeing it before hand...lol

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1995 E320 smoke silver / parchment

...and NEVER will!

That's a particularly large investment to make sight unseen.

If the location of the vehicle being auctioned is close by, I would take a gander at it...and if I like it enough, offer to buy it from the seller right there...no e-Bay transaction to deal with.

For that matter, if I can't afford to lose the money I'm offering to bid, then I won't engage in the bidding process...

...that said, I would LOVE to acquire a vintage Phase Linear 400 amp...but that's another thread!

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2009 ML350 (106K) - Family vehicle
2001 CLK430 Cabriolet (80K) - Wife's car
2005 BMW 645CI (138K) - My daily driver
2016 Mustang (32K) - Daughter's car

found my integra on ebay, but bought it strait from the dealership(local). Couple of things, pictures hide dents/dings VERY well, even if it looks like the picture should show it all. My integra had many dents on it that i had no idea it had by looking at the pictures. I'd never buy a car sight unseen with very few exceptions.
Ryan

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83 300SD.......sold
96 integra SE....sold
99 a4 quattro....sold
2001 IS300.......sold
2002 330i.........current.
2004 highlander limited....current.

Thank you all for the responses and help.

I think the different comments confirm my suspicions. I agree that the only way to buy a car is to physically being able to see it and have it inspected. The amount of money involved is too great to do it blindsided

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Bluerio

I bought mine on ebay, but it was right down the street and I looked at it first. I'd never buy a car without looking at it and driving it, to many potential problems.

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2016 Corvette Stingray 2LT
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

The Phase Linear I don't recall drawing that awfully much, unless it's pushing 270 watts per channel, which mine spec'd out at, if I recall...

How about a Class A Krell amp (KSA-250, etc.) that draws its full output current all the time it's on!!

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Bob Roe
Lehigh Valley PA USA
1973 Olds 88, 1972 MB 280SE, 1978 Datsun 280Z, 1971 Ford T-Bird, 1972 Olds 88, 1983 Nissan Sentra, 1985 Sentra, 1973 230.6, 1990 Acura Integra, 1991 Volvo 940GLE wagon, 1983 300SD, 1984 300SD, 1995 Subaru Legacy L wagon, 2002 Mountaineer, 1991 300TE wagon, 2008 Murano, 2007 R320CDI 4Matic 52K, some Hyundai, 2008 BMW 535xi wagon, all gone... currently
2007 Honda Odyssey Touring, 2014 E350 4matic

I bought my 99 E300 with 63K on the clock for 24K. Had a fuel leak and they fixed it for free. Not a problem. Would work with them again. If the car is not what it should be when I get there, I walk.

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01 Ford Excursion Powerstroke
99 E300 Turbodiesel
91 Vette with 383 motor
05 Polaris Sportsman 800 EFI
06 Polaris Sportsman 500 EFI
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Red
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Yellow
04 Tailgator 21 ft Toy Hauler
11 Harley Davidson 883 SuperLow

My parents bought my 1985 300D Turbo for $3000 on ebay (wihtout driving it or seeing it in person first). In retrospect I think they got ripped off since the car has some ugly dings and dents (and two 3 cm holes from where they pulled the dent) towards the rear. I do love the car but honestly don't know why they paid so much for a 192,000 mile car with some nasty dents (although no rust, CA car). The interior however is damn near perfect (no cracks in the dash), MBTex seats with no tears. Although the driver seat is a bit saggy, the car still fits me like a glove, with the huge steering wheel, huge arm rest...just a comfortable car. The factory white paint still shines, but there are of course paint chips at the front from pebbles and such.

Anyways, it also drove like crap at that time. My father's experience on the whole matter is that he wouldn;t have bought the car if he had driven it first. Although the compression is very strong, i assume, since the engine barely cranks at all after the glow plugs do their thing (or is it that someone simply messed with the timing?), it simply needed an ALDA adjustment. The alda adjustment wasn't performed until 1.5 years later, which is sad because we all assumed it was supposed to be that slow since it's a diesel. The tires were crappy no names which were replaced with michelins when the cords started showing. My parents told me the dents were listed but not nearly as apparent in the photographs as they were in person It also had some vacuum leaks which caused the transmission to shift pretty damn hard especially in first gear (or 2nd rather?) We spent some money to get the vacuum leaks fixed and got some new tires and shocks, though the crappy green coolant is still in there.

To conclude, my parents never actually regretted the purchase; they wanted to get me a safe car to learn to drive in and they certainly succeeded. And now that we got it running well, we're all pretty happy with it.

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1985 CA 300D Turbo , 213K mi

My W116 was bought on Ebay....and my W123 was on ebay when I found out about it. But it didn't meet reserve price and I bough i a month later for $100 less that the unsuccessful High bidder offered. It was a local car and I did give it a going over and test drive before I bought it. My Purchace pice was $2,800 and it had an Ebay reserve price of $3,600 with only 142,000 miles and a clear carfax. And ZERO rust. and nice interior.

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Proud owner of ....
1971 280SE W108
1979 300SD W116
1983 300D W123
1975 Ironhead Sportster chopper
1987 GMC 3/4 ton 4X4 Diesel
1989 Honda Civic (Heavily modified)
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Section 609 MVAC Certified
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"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche

I bought my '72 on e-bay, no problems. I also bought my '03 Super Crew Ford on e-bay, no problems. Both times sight unseen, no prior inspections. One was in Jersey (trailered home), the other Texas (drove it home). I have good mechanical knowledge (thanks in part to this site), and spoke at length with both sellers prior to bidding. I had good vibes that they were being truthfull, they both had good feedback (very important on e-bay), so I took the plunge! No regrets, currently looking for a nice 2001-2003 R type Jag....we'll see

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1992 500SEL 25K
1995 E320 40K
1995 SL600 120K
2002 JX8 Sport 43K
2005 Volvo S40 95K
2006 Isuzu NPR 304K (Frankencamper)
2007 Crown Victoria 150K
2014 Smart Electric 20K

I bought my E300TD, sight unseen, on ebay in Feb. The car is awesome. I wanted a southern vehicle because I live in Chicago. I had the vehicle inspected twice before "buying it now". One inspection was by ebay, which I found to be ineffective. Never use the ebay inspection service. Those people are idiots. The guy selling me the vehicle told me that the inspector did not do a thorough job of checking the mechanical parts. The cosmetics were only checked. Then I found out from our board where to get a reputable indy in north Virginia. I had the seller bring the vehicle to W.B. motors and they thoroughly inspected it. Nothing was wrong mechanically with the vehicle. I had the seller touch up the paint and pull a few "door dings" out. The car is very clean and no one believes it has 95,000 miles. I drove it from Virginia to Chicago non-stop and it ran great.

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Ed
-1984 Mercedes 190D 2.2 5-speed gray market(bought@30,000 miles) (Sold back to original owner@170,000 miles)
-1999 Mercedes E300DT (245,000 miles)
-1999 Mercedes S500 Grand Edition (80,000 miles)

I would only buy from eBay if I could go see the car myself, or if I had a trusted friend I could send to evaluate the car. There is too much you can't determine from pictures on a computer screen. There's nothing to prevent you from searching for cars that are in your state or neighboring states, then actually making the time to go see cars that are especially interesting and that meet your criteria. My friend who does sell cars on eBay for a living says that almost no one ever comes to see the car in advance, and it really puzzles me how many people will make a fairly major cash outley on a car sight unseen. I'm not trusting enough to do it myself.

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http://webwench.net/albums/new83-300...1700.thumb.jpg
1983 300D-T
348,000 miles

I would buy a car on Ebay, but it would have to be close by or just exactly what I wanted at a price I cannot ignore.

Seems to me that Ebay's prices make it a buyers market, and a good place to purchase. Most of what I see on Ebay goes for about 1500 more when it's listed on Autotrader or in the paper. I am in the market for an older Cherokee, and one of my resources is Ebay. If the right one comes along I wouldn't hesitate.

Had some friends just buy a mid-80's land cruiser on Ebay with the specification that it had to pass emissions or the PO would pay to have whatever it needed done. They bought it, shipped it from Jersey (to Denver), and it cost just north of a grand to fix it. The seller never blinked an eye. Payed for everything.

The secret (I imagine) is in the fine print, get that right and it might be the best place in the world to buy a car.

Paul X.

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Pxland

2001 Honda Accord

1995 Jeep Cherokee

1973 MB 280SEL 4.5