Hi all,
has anyone got buying a vehicle from Ebay and aware of the Ebay Vehicle Purchase Protection plan? if so, i would like to benefit from your experience. can you please send me an email to my id stalloo@hotmail.com. Thanks
I haven’t any experience using Ebay to buy a vehicle. No matter what the protection plan offers I’d still say buying a car on that site isn’t a great idea. The only exception being is if you live within driving distance and can check the car out yourself prior to purchase.
There is a program with that name, but it is often abused. Many times scam artists will post a car at a ridiculously low price and pretend to be the Ebay Vehicle Protection program. If they ask you for money via Western Union or Money Gram, cease contact immediately. After they pick up your money, it is gone.
I would never buy a car that I couldn’t test drive. There is no protection plan that can replace checking the car out yourself…on a lift and on the road.
Protection plans (a.k.a. extended warranties) are usually a waste of money. There is no substitute for taking a prospective used vehicle purchase to YOUR mechanic for a full inspection before you buy. No protection plan is a substitute for due diligence.
Ditto to what mountainbike stated.
Used cars can be a virtual minefield of poor maintenance and skipped repairs.
Anyone who buys a used car without personally driving it for an extended test drive, and also taking it to his/her own mechanic for pre-purchase inspection, is very likely to wind up with a different deal than they envisioned.
I found one car on eBay, but I just sent the seller an E-mail saying to give me a call if it didn’t sell in the auction. It didn’t, he called me and we did it just like any other private party used car transaction.
This was about 9 years ago, though. Now I’m not sure I’d even do that-- back then the eBay car section was just sort of like a more expansive newspaper classified section. These days, thought, it seems like almost every car is way overpriced or seems very fishy. I think most of the legit private party sellers have moved over to craigslist (not that there’s no funny buisness there, but I’ve had better luck).
I know three people who have bought vehicles off ebay. One guy bought an F-150, it turned out great, everything went smoothly and the truck was exactly what he was expecting. Another guy bought a Silverado off Ebay, it was pretty much what the ad claimed it was, a non-running “mechanic’s special”. A third guy bought a Camaro SS off of ebay, and again everything went smoothly.
With that said, personally I wouldn’t do it. I like to look over the cars I buy in person, and have my mechanic give them a once over.
I have purchased 4 cars on eBay but I knew what I was buying and in all cases I looked at the cars before I bid on them…Some sellers with flawless feedback records will give you money back guarantee if the vehicle is not correctly described…Some give a 10 day no questions asked guarantee…This takes a lot of the uncertainty and risk out of an ebay purchase…
well…i asked the person to send me the VIN number. I haven’t heard from the person since. By the silence, i tend to believe it was a scam ad.
Thanks everyone for the advice. It certainly helped me.
Look for sellers with unblemished feedback scores over 100…Check to be sure the feedback was for SELLING, not buying nickle and dime stuff just to pump up their feedback score. “POWER SELLERS” work hard to protect their feedback scores…With cars, many sellers have a dealers license to protect also…Do your homework and you won’t get burned…