Other than "don't", anything I should be aware of when buying in person?
Whats so unique about Ebay though ? I dont Trust any car sales person no matter where a car is being sold
Edit: Ah answered below !
Don't pay a deposit
Don't turn up with a huge wad of cash
I'm seeing more and more car selling scams on Facebook and I'd assume they're on ebay too. Basically the car doesn't exist, or at least they don't have it. I've seen 2 ads on Facebook marketplace in the past couple of weeks for cars and campervans that are way too cheap. When you click through to the sellers profile, they're selling dozens of vehicles, all at bargain prices. None of the vehicles they're selling have the pictures taken in the same location, which legit car dealers do. Basically they've lifted pictures of the vehicles from probably legit sales, and they're passing them off as their own. Any interested buyers will be asked to pay a deposit. Once that's done they get given an address to collect the car, they turn up to find there's no car there and they've been scammed. Several people have fallen for this on some of the campervan pages I follow on Facebook.
^^^ loads of those facebook, they like to hi-jack profiles, so don't assume it will be a new accout. I replied to one just to see what the crack was and simply if it's too good to be true, it's not.. (as above, pay REFUNDABLE deposit to have it shipped to me, as they were out of the country)
Assumes your doing this but will post it to make sure.. You've gone though the MOT history (all available online for free) and done a "vehicle check".
Friend was telling me of a car he looked at, registered cat S, that was brought back by the owner, crashed again (enough to be another Cat S) and was now being sold with no mention of either crash... always worth checking.
Assuming you've used your common sense to filter for the scams mentioned above, it's just another advertising medium and quite a good one for finding older, privately sold vehicles at a reasonable price.
Once I've found a vehicle I like, I always speak on the phone to sus the seller out.
If you want more specific advice, you might need to give more details of what kind of vehicle you're looking at, and what kind of seller.
Don’t pay a deposit
That would be covered by eBay money back guarantee wouldn't it?
I would have thought it'd be reasonably obvious by just asking the seller a couple of questions or arranging a viewing prior to the end of the auction whether the seller is a fake/numpty.
Are you buying blind or planning to view first?
I was wondering about posting a thread asking about all these cheap cars on Ebay myself - the above explains it!
I have bought 2 cars off eBay, years ago.
The first was written off in a non-fault crash and the second was stolen, so I wouldn't recommend it.
*bookmarks the thread ready for the inevitable 20 pages when Molls buys another pup and spends the next 12 months 'fixing' the inevitable faults*
😀
Are you buying blind or planning to view first?
I'm going up there today with phone in hand to view car and buy. Seller is a commercial vehicle dealer and appears to be a VAT registered business, but they are pretty small time by the look of it. Not sure if I should click 'buy it now' on eBay or just do the transaction directly. Seller fees for a car are max £45 from what I can tell. I wonder if it's worth doing that and offering to pay the £45?
*bookmarks the thread ready for the inevitable 20 pages when Molls buys another pup and spends the next 12 months ‘fixing’ the inevitable faults*
Bastard.
Confirm sunglasses holder before making the journey to avoid disappointment.
*fires up Photoshop in anticipation*
[img] 
[/img]
Confirm sunglasses holder before making the journey to avoid disappointment.
I will go with sunglasses to check.
4 year old ex-taxi, claims to have 60k miles.. that's quite low.
4 year old ex-taxi, claims to have 60k miles.. that’s quite low.
60k in 4 years? On an ex-taxi? Come on now. I mean, I know very little about cars but that is a huge red flag.
ex-taxi
Have you got an insurance quote? I know it's a question I've been asked in the past when getting quotes, although as I've never had one, I don't know what happens if it is.
Well the MOT history looks plausble EXCEPT for one pretty weird bit.
It's a 2019 car registered in November 2019.
It has a test in Nov 2020 at 18k miles - guessing that commercial vehicles have to be tested every year from new?
Then it passes again in May 2021 with an advisory on the tyres at 27k - 6 months later? It seems like some places require this e.g. London
Then it gets tested again in June 2021 (no idea why??), and fails on the tyres. The mileage is listed at 8k? But it looks like someone has typoed the mileage and it should be 28k - that happened to me. It gets re-tested on the same day, so new tyres have been fitted.
Next test in September 2021 at 30k
March 2022 39k
Sept 2022 51k
Feb 2023 60k and advisory on the tyres again.
So the tyre advisories check out - two sets in 30k - but someone is not bothering to check them and only changing when they fail MOTs...
Have bought a number of vehicles on eBay. Principle is to assume that the vehicle doesnt exist until proven otherwise, seller is a crook until proven otherwise (or dealer pretending to be private seller) and the car has hidden/disguised faults until proven otherwise/ Lots of clues above (use google reverse search to check whether the photos have 'borrowed' from another car, HPI or similar before you view then check the VIN & engines nos versus V5C etc etc.
Would never sell through eBay again, I use Autotrader for the past 3 cars and motorhome and moped. Seems attract less tyre kickers and would take (-£1000) less than you have advertised types.
There are great cars out there, but it really is buyer beware!
Back seats - grubby, but not massively worn out.
The only picture of the front - passenger seat looks fine but some wear on the steering wheel. To be fair I have seen rings etc do that fairly quickly to cars.
Image search says that dashboard is a Nissan Leaf - is that what you are buying!!?
Yes.
That kind of mileage isn't implausible for a taxi either
https://www.insuretaxi.com/2019/05/21/2019-taxi-driver-survey-results/
I mean it's registered late 2019 and 2023 is only just over half done so it's only just over 3.5 years old. And according to that link half of taxis do under 20-25k a year.
Yes.
So 60k miles electric taxi?? - sorry not even with a stunt-cock!!!
...and those 'stains' aren't a bit of food a toddler has dropped! 🤢
It’s not like there is a shortage of Nissan leafs, why buy a taxi which clearly didn’t have a preventative approach to maintenance applied?
You’ve either lost control of your senses, or you thrive off the drama!
Because it's cheap, obviously.
What preventative maintenance are you expecting on an EV? Do any of you have actual information or just a 'gut response'?
Err I dunno, perhaps looking at your tyres once in a while (quite easy as you don’t need to lift the bonnet/look under the car), especially prior to an MOT?
But if you really think that buying a used taxi is a good idea, you crack on.
I’m betting it’s had a mileage blocker fitted for half the week every week.
If it was that low it’d still be a taxi, but if you do own it and it’s been to the moon and back you’d punt it as the bills start or you reckon they’re about to start.
‘gut response’ is the best response.
No, it's not.
Seller has made no attempt to hide the fact it's been a taxi.
Well I hope the drive home isn't too far - they're not known for their long range even when new.
Crack on - and good luck!
Maybe keep the number of a local taxi firm to hand in case you have problems on the way home
Hmm, the mileage disrepancy looks like a recording error:
For that drop to be a simple clocking, they would have to have done an abnormally high mileage in the 6 months following it. Does not rule out the use of a mileage blocker though.
Well I hope the drive home isn’t too far – they’re not known for their long range even when new.
I've heard that you can charge your car up at public locations along the route! Amazing what you can do nowadays.
Sometimes it's best to walk away.
Not this time, RUN!
Based on anything specific?
4 year old ex-taxi, claims to have 60k miles..
The photo of the dash makes the steering wheel look like more than 60k miles of wear on it
molgrips
Full Member
Based on anything specific?Posted 3 minutes ago
REPLY | REPORT
The spoog on the back seat! Based on that!! 😀
I don't know, if it's really cheap I might still be interested. Borrow Dr P's plug in tool - I guess the state of the battery is the most important thing on a Leaf so check that and don't accept what it says on the screen.
Assume the mileage is made up, assume it's never been serviced, assume that it's shagged and rattly, assume the battery's about as much use as that old Samsung in your draw. Then if you're happy with all of that then buy it :-).
The photo of the dash makes the steering wheel look like more than 60k miles of wear on it
Yes it does.
The seller has 4 identical cars available all with 60k miles on. Suspicious? Well, they come with a 60k mile warranty. So plausible that that's when they want to move them on. And if they are moving them on it makes sense for the mileage to be plausible otherwise why not just continue to clock it for another 2 years?
Yep, that doesn't sound suspicious at all. If it's cheaper than it should be from a commercial dealer, fair to assume there's a reason for that. And whatever answer you get, remember that it's come from a used car salesman.
FWIW mols, I sold my i3s for about £1.5k under dealer book value. Can you find anything private on AT?
I'm not sure how the battery health display could be fudged. It is continually monitored by the car, and that's reflected in the estimated range calculation.
I'll go by the condition of the car. And yeah, the gunge on the back seat - but I've had my cars look worse than that due to kids! Seller has clearly not tried to get it to look great so there's probably more to do. And it is really cheap.
Only issue I can see is that the tracking looks like it's out on the car in the photo, the outside edge of the tyres is scrubbed. But there are three others to choose from.
Re the stained rear seat. Is it a fake taxi?
Loving the reg number!! 🤣🤣
Because it’s cheap, obviously.
How cheap? Genuinely interested
The seller has 4 identical cars available all with 60k miles on. Suspicious? Well, they come with a 60k mile warranty. So plausible that that’s when they want to move them on. And if they are moving them on it makes sense for the mileage to be plausible otherwise why not just continue to clock it for another 2 years?
because they haven’t been clocking it in the traditional sense, it’ll be a mileage blocker. If it was a taxi (and no reason to doubt that) they can shave ‘some mileage off’ with a mileage blocker by fitting it for a set period each week like mornings or monday - Thursday etc. but they have to show some mileage, can’t show 10k per annum and expect HMRC to buy it. There’s only so much that can be lost before it would look odd elsewhere. Can’t put 4 sets of tyres through the books when you’ve only done 30k for example. It’ll be a balancing act.
All that said, if the price is right and you go in eyes open then crack on.
An eBay car is no different to any other car purchase really. There’ll be great cars, great sellers, great deals and also shite cars, shite sellers and shite deals. There are scammers on every platform, it’s just a case of being aware.
The place I bought it from is a dealer that sells commercial vehicles on behalf of finance companies who repossess them. So I got a 6 month "warranty" and 24hr drive away insurance and tax and the dealer statory rights. Two very pleasant people.
The cars were taxis in London hence the 6 monthly MOT, and leased by a company rather than individual. The one advertised is pretty tidy, clean and tight. No rattles, no crashy suspension, I'm pleased. Currently in Hopwood Services charging up.
Judging by the look of the seats and the low millage for a taxi, it might ligitimate taxi.
Turn safe search off and search for 'pull out couch' and 'fake taxi' 🤣
**** me, what the **** is going on with the motorway network?
M42 closed, M5 closed, M50 closed, M48 bridge closed. The usual traffic + accident on the way there, massive road closures on the way back with diversions everywhere. Mrs went down the M50 which was closed, I went down the M5 instead - also closed. I just got in 12.5h after leaving...
Have bought many cars from Ebay. Golden rule for me is judge the person selling as much as the car. Ideal for me is a private sale from someone who just wants a slightly better price than trade in offered to them.
How cheap? Genuinely interested
£9k, about £2.5k less than market. Also a couple of k less than an equivalent ICE car.
It's also still a taxi til the end of the month! I wonder if I can use bus lanes 🙂