have any of you bought a car on ebay before?

since the car can be so far away... did you check it out in person prior to buying or get it inspected prior to buying? or did you just buy it first then go look + pick it up?

even with a lot of pics, pictures can be decieving...


debating whether i should buy a car on ebay right now... since i failed to find one anywhere near me

I got my FC off eGay. Just call up the seller, get as much info as possible. Once you win the auction, fly where the car is, test drive it, if it's cool, take her home. If it isn't, tell the seller to **** off find a way home.

so in your case you won the auction before ever looking at the car in person?

if after you win auction and go take a look and it wasn't what you expected you can jsut walk away without ebay getting on your a$$ about it right?

buying cars on e-bay scares me. I think i'd only fo it if the car was close enough for me to check out and test drive before i bid on it.

all i have to say is BE CAREFUL!!
a friend of mine bought a 95 Mr2 turbo, all done up. Kit, wheels, engine, Turbo. NICE!!
Turned out to be a good deal and everything worked great.

Same friend then bought a 99 Civic with a freshly built engine, turbo, all the goodies.
He said the guy told him he just built the engine and it needed to be broke in B4 turning up the boost.
We found out the turbo was blown.
It was blown when he got it.

I just say be careful man.

yea... i'm a bit scared of buying cars on ebay too... which is why i'm posting this...

but both cars i am looking at are stock... one is about a 10-12hr drive away from me... the other... i think a bit further

would any of ebay's vehicle protection stuff be of any help?
one of the sellers doesn't provide the free warranty... and neither offer the one for guaranteed condition... but then ebay has the vehicle protection for up to 20k... woudl that be good protection?.. it is ebay afterall...

This post has been edited by elvasoshexai: Aug 19, 2005 - 11:19 AM

ur still lookin 4 a celi man?...man u got bad luck.

yea.. someone bought the one i was looking at

i would never buy a car online or anything used for that matter. like you said, pictures can be very deceiving. however, my friend bought his mustang cobra off ebay and i went to ca with him to pick it up. test drove it and then we drove it home. overall, was a good experience, especially the ride home >> like phat said, be careful if you do decide to do it. i know its hard finding nice cars locally though, but just be patient, if you can afford to be, and wait for something you can see up close before you commit.

buy slow celicas haha buy from the forum, i always wanted a 240sx before i got my celi and almost bought 3 off ebay (not at the same time) turns out 1 was sold, another needed rims, brakes, tires and the last one had no engine but the pic shown it?? i dont think buying off ebay is good but i had some friends with really really good expierences.. 97 infiniti q45, when it came out it was 50k, bought off ebay in 98 for 10k and thing is freaking mint

I kind of bought my celi off ebay. It was 2 states over so I just called them up and asked to test drive. We did a private sale. Sellers prefer that because of less work and there may be something about paying ebay for the sale (?)

hm ic... thanks for the replies... maybe i'l ltry and go for it... i'll be really careful about it tho...

i would use ebay as a place to find the car you like....but then call up the owner and deal with him directly. ask to see the car, test drive it ,etc... but dotn bid on it on ebay. dont give anyone your money unless u get to see the car in person and see if its worth it to u

my celi was purchased off ebay for a couple grand, I live in washington it was in florida it ended up being like 3200$ after shipping and i got it half way thru a 3s-gte swap, nice perfect rims, brand new brake rotors, and a bodykit... not bad for 3000$ when a GT with 160k miles around here would sell for 5k plus! anyways it worked out alright, im going to be turning my current celi into a parts car once I find a GT hatch that i like >>

I bought mine from 6gc, and when I received it, I was extremely disappointed, and had a lot of work to make it right.

I bought it in march, and I'm still trying to get everything taken care of and working correctly.

Drive it or check it out in person first. $300 to fly basically anywhere, or $3-5000 and youre stuck with it. I know I spent ~1500 fixing the car to what it needed to be after I got it

I had a good experience buying my 94 GT off ebay. It was at a Toyota dealer about 200 miles from my home. I did a carfax check and it was a two owner car. Then I contacted the dealer to get as much information as possible prior to bidding. After winning the car, I did a test drive and inspection. I found a lot of cosmetic items but nothing major. Also, I requested the inspection report and list of items that the dealer had done. If you buy from ebay, I would look for cars near home, do a carfax, and quiz the owner about the service performed. Ask the owner the name of the shop where the car was serviced and give them a call too.

Plan to spend a few $ for cosmetic items and $$$ for service and maintenance when you get it.

So far so good with mine.

I got my 99 GT from Ebay. I happened to see it listed the day it went up for sale, and emailed the guy who promptly called me back. Old guy, third owner, high mileage vehicle, but in really good shape. The guy was blatantly honest with me about the condition and left me with a really good feeling. So I bought it and a week later took the 2 1/2 hour drive to pick it up and I've been totally pleased with it ever since.