Have you heard of buying a used car through eBay?

[Lauren]

I'm so frustrated. We've been searching Craig's List for a used car for DS#1. We would like to get a Camry, Corolla, Civic or Altima, etc.

This is the 2nd time I've gotten one of these weird, what I think is a scam, email replies. Have you seen or heard of this? Obviously I'm not sending any money anywhere.

Hello,

I have received your email regarding my 2001 Toyota Camry XLE V6 with only 75,104 miles, one owner. The car is in perfect condition without any mechanical problems, with no damages, shifts out great and is remarkably quiet, clear title. There are no problems with the engine. All power equipment are in working order. Interior, well kept and has been professionally cleaned and looks like new. Exterior, no dents, no scratches.
The last price for the car is $3000.

Unfortunately, my life got complicated and I have to let this beauty go...The car was my husband`s as he loved it very much, but he did not enjoy it as he died in a IRAQ 9 month ago. It brings very bad memories to me, I want to get rid of it. The buyer will receive the car with all papers and receipts that he needs to register it to his name. Shipping will be done whit D.A.S. shipping Company and it will take no more then 2-3 days. I have a friend there who will manage me a low price shipping. It will be delivered directly to your address. The car is already in D.A.S. custody in Houston, Texas. Anyway, I have to let you know that I want a fast deal so if you are really interested in test driving and inspecting the car, please reply with the following informations:
-Your full name;
-Your shipping address.
The transaction will close only through eBay so we both will be protected. I want eBay because they are the biggest Company on the Internet and we can close this deal fast and safe for both of us. Also I am not very familiar with the Internet transactions and eBay is the only one I know. You will have 10 days so you can inspect the car and it's papers. Once you have inspected the car and decided to keep it, you will confirm your decision to eBay and they will re-route the money in to my account, but if by any reason, you won't be satisfied with the car you can return it back for a full refund of your money.

For more pictures here is a link to the car's photo gallery, click or copy and paste it in your browser:
http://s341.photobucket.com/albums/o...-Camry-XLE-V6/

I will look for your email, so that we can move forward with this deal!
Let me know.
Sincerely your,
Nicolle

[ChristyMarie]

Yes you can buy a used car on ebay. My DH did and it worked out great.

However, that email screams of scam from every single angle. Fast! Reroute money! Weird grammar! Sad personal story!

Run away but you could certainly look on ebay. We did it where it was close enough we could go inspect and get the car instead of having it shipped.

[Kristilyn1]

yes, the email sounds like a scam for sure. Like the previous poster, the trinity of "run fast, very fast" are there: sad personal story, bad grammar, weird money stuff.

However, while we didn't buy anything on ebay, I sold my father's Harley on there and we sold our camper on there with zero problems and no weird personal stories.......so it can be done!

Kristi

[Gracie]

Hi Lauren -

As you may or may not know, I am a very experienced seller and I also helped my neighbor sell his car on ebay.

Ignore the email. Check out listings on your own and pay attention to seller feedback specific comments, percentage of positive ratings (don't go with anyone lower than 99% positive), number of positive ratings, number and clarity of photos and your overall gut feeling based on the listing itself. Is it well written? Are there phone numbers to call (many ebay sellers are actual used-car or new-car dealerships)?

I have a couple of other suggestions, too. I just bought a used car from a tiny used-car place in Brookline. You have to know that I really hate the whole process of car-buying, notably from dealerships, as a result of 2 very bad, slimy experiences. So for me to say that I had a great experience with this very upstanding company is high praise indeed.

Also a young woman on my staff is leaving us to go to grad school full time. She is selling her car. If you are interested it's a very well maintained, well running 2003 Nissan Pathfinder in silver.

PM for more info on either of these if you are interested and good luck!

Loren

[Lauren]

Thanks all!

The weird thing is that the eBay car lsitings are on Craig's List. We'll take a look on eBay,too

Loren - Can you pass along the name of the dealer you were happy with? I wish the woman working with you had a different car to sell. I have a 2004 Pathfinder that I would like to get rid of!

[Gumbeaux]

I had a Carfax account at the time hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and flooded several hundred thousand new and used cars. I tracked the VIN numbers on some of these vehicles and noticed that a lot of them were being sold on eBay all across the country with no mention of them being flooded (you can do a internet search "eBay-Katrina-flooded vehicles" to see what I mean).

A lot of "problem" cars end up on eBay. There are both good and bad sellers on eBay; I would be careful.

[cocoa'smom]

A few years ago (in 2006), we were looking for a car my my DD, we wanted a Toyota, Honda or Nissan. I got out the Yellow Pages and called independent repair shops that specialized in those cars. I asked if they knew of any of their customers that might be wanting to sell a car (many times these places have bulletin boards where customers post cars for sale). I ended up with 3 leads and we bought a 1995 Honda Accord with only 79,000 miles on it in great condition for $4500. The repair shop owner had done all the repairs and maintenance on the car since it was new and they had all the records. I highly recommend giving this a try.

[pharmarepgirl]

We had some friends that bought a street legal golf cart from Ebay. The deal went thru fine w/ no hangs ups but the thing needed a new battery so by the time our friends got a new battery they had no cost savings vs buying local. They were slightly mislead or maybe they did not do enough research or as enough ?'s. At least they didn't really lose any money just didn't have the big costs savings they thought.

Other friends bought a Forerunner from ebay and had good results w/ the transaction, etc. I have no idea if they saved a lot of money, though. The only issue they had, developed much later after they had the car a while--they only received one key w/ the purchase and they lost it one day. The key had some special microchip or something and it was about $200-300 to get a new key and they couldn't use their vehicle for about 1 wk unitl they got the key! I think that issue was resolved w/ the dealer now though so that the keys are not so "special" that it is a major deal to get a new one.

We know a lot of people that have used the autotrader to buy and sell cars for their kids. We sold a boat w/ the sister pub boat trader. Here is the link in case you want to check it out:
http://www.autotrader.com/

Are there any car auctions near you? One of our neighbors buy cars, boats, ATV's etc all the time from auctions and "flips" them. That may be another option too.

Lastly, I am very cautious of Craigslist. The number of scams on their site has made me very leary. I think it has more abuse than ebay, I guess due to the way the site is set up and ran.

Best of luck on your search!

[kwormann]

Another vote for ebay - my DBF bought his "baby" - the Honda S5000 on Ebay last year and it has worked out great

[Vinca]

Sorry I don’t have any experience buyer a car on eBay but I know buying a used car can be a very frustrating experience. I feel your Pain!!!

After many months of looking, I was finally able to find a wonderful used car on Craig’s List earlier this year. After many, many awful experiences. I even almost got scammed by a seller posing as a nice guy and turned out to be a very slimy character. Before my test drive, he offered to let my mechanic look at the car before I made my decision. I am sure he never thought I would take him up on it and I am so glad that I did. My mechanic found numerous things wrong with the car. If I would have bought this car it would have been a VERY expensive mistake. After this experience I was SO discouraged I had to stop shopping for a while. Fortunately months later I was able to find a nice Honda Accord, low mileage, original owner and in fantastic shape. So it is possible.

I would strongly suggest joining CarFax for a month or so. Also before looking at a car have the seller send you the VIN#. If the seller won’t give it to you move on to the next seller. More than likely this person is trying to hide something. Another suggestion I have is to have a mechanic give it a really good inspection. You will be amazed at what can be seen when you put a car up on the lifts. I did however find a few sellers who didn’t necessarily have anything to hide but didn’t want to take the extra time required to have a mechanic check out the car for a buyer even if the buyer is paying the cost to have it inspected. I would even tell sellers I was not looking for a perfect car; I just didn’t want any unpleasant surprises. I was amazed at the number of people who would hand over thousands of dollars after a brief look and a short drive.

Hope your used car shopping experience is Smooth Sailing.

[mbrogier]

Rob and I found our car through Cars.com We searched local dealers lots for used cars with certain parameters like less that $15k and less than 50k miles. We were looking at one vehicle at Field's Volvo in Libertyville, and we had the nicest salesman ever.

We told him that we had totalled our honda accord and had a check from our insurance company for the down payment. He looked through his inventory list and pointed out a car that had just been put on their lot that morning. It was a 2004 Volvo S80 with 24,000 miles. When the cars are priced, the stats go immediately to the internet, so if the car is mispriced by law they can't change the price. Someone had accidentally priced the car at $14,599 instead of $24,599. Since we had our finances in order, we were the first potential buyers out of 8 who were able to close the deal.

We had a list of at least 10 cars that we went and looked at. I love cars.com.

Also, most car dealerships will pull a free CarFax report for you if you're truly interested in the vehicle. Fields Volvo did, and so did the Honda place we bought our Honda from. Fields also does free carwashes for life.