Am I overthinking it (re the seller)
Discussion
Hi all,
Bit random but looking for some reassurance on something. I'm looking at a car (its 35k so not a cheap runabout). I found an example which sounds v good, 1 owner, full dealer history, 4 top brand match tyres etc.
The only thing that concerns me is the seller is ebay based, and usually sells 5-20k cars - pics look from a public (not residential) road/carpark (but all his cars pictured from the same spot). No website or info about the seller but they usually have 10 or so cars for sale, have been on ebay 10 years and such.
Naturally there are no reviews for actual car purchases I can see as I'd assume the buyers go see them and do direct deals to avoid ebay fee's.
I just question why they don't use autotrader, PH or other selling places, have a little website or such.
I should just select based on the car itself and not the the seller right? I'm one of those people who usually prefers to buy private as you can get a feel for the owner, of course every option has pro's and cons.
Bit random but looking for some reassurance on something. I'm looking at a car (its 35k so not a cheap runabout). I found an example which sounds v good, 1 owner, full dealer history, 4 top brand match tyres etc.
The only thing that concerns me is the seller is ebay based, and usually sells 5-20k cars - pics look from a public (not residential) road/carpark (but all his cars pictured from the same spot). No website or info about the seller but they usually have 10 or so cars for sale, have been on ebay 10 years and such.
Naturally there are no reviews for actual car purchases I can see as I'd assume the buyers go see them and do direct deals to avoid ebay fee's.
I just question why they don't use autotrader, PH or other selling places, have a little website or such.
I should just select based on the car itself and not the the seller right? I'm one of those people who usually prefers to buy private as you can get a feel for the owner, of course every option has pro's and cons.
Have you got or would you be willing to post a link to the car?
A quick ebay search at £34,999 to £35,000 ONLY shows up 8 vehicles but can't be sure which one you are referring too. Or if its actually one of those.
Of all the 8 vehicles i've seen they are all dealers with 0 feedback but links to their actual website. They are just using ebay as a cheap method to advertise the vehicle - which it can be if you are clever/quick enough to avoid fees by not selling through the site.
If you look at the advert, scroll past the description to the bottom the company is often listed there. And each of those 8 are part of larger franchised groups. If you then google that name you should be taken to their actual website and be able to cross reference the vehicle on the website.
It's actually how i found my last car and had similar questions, but about 30 mins of research i found they were a well known, reputable and quite large dealership and they were just using ebay to get footfall to their cars as a way of cheap advertising.
BUT the above post is right, trusting the seller is as important as the car. But do your research and due diligence. Look up the MOT history, do a HPI check etc. Before you even go and see the car etc.
A quick ebay search at £34,999 to £35,000 ONLY shows up 8 vehicles but can't be sure which one you are referring too. Or if its actually one of those.
Of all the 8 vehicles i've seen they are all dealers with 0 feedback but links to their actual website. They are just using ebay as a cheap method to advertise the vehicle - which it can be if you are clever/quick enough to avoid fees by not selling through the site.
If you look at the advert, scroll past the description to the bottom the company is often listed there. And each of those 8 are part of larger franchised groups. If you then google that name you should be taken to their actual website and be able to cross reference the vehicle on the website.
It's actually how i found my last car and had similar questions, but about 30 mins of research i found they were a well known, reputable and quite large dealership and they were just using ebay to get footfall to their cars as a way of cheap advertising.
BUT the above post is right, trusting the seller is as important as the car. But do your research and due diligence. Look up the MOT history, do a HPI check etc. Before you even go and see the car etc.
Hi, thanks for the responses.
Here is the car, it sounds v good in terms of history etc.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/255319423648?_trkparms=...
Here is the car, it sounds v good in terms of history etc.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/255319423648?_trkparms=...
Do they offer any warranty?
Not sure if it is the light but the front bumper looks a different shade to the wings and the gap over the nearside headlight looks a bit bigger than the offside, but it could be my eyesight.
There was another C63 advertised on here recently, same colour I think which had obviously had a not too good front end repair, maybe not the same car, but that one was from Birmingham as well.
Not sure if it is the light but the front bumper looks a different shade to the wings and the gap over the nearside headlight looks a bit bigger than the offside, but it could be my eyesight.
There was another C63 advertised on here recently, same colour I think which had obviously had a not too good front end repair, maybe not the same car, but that one was from Birmingham as well.
mrdanbartlett said:
Hi all,
Bit random but looking for some reassurance on something. I'm looking at a car (its 35k so not a cheap runabout). I found an example which sounds v good, 1 owner, full dealer history, 4 top brand match tyres etc.
The only thing that concerns me is the seller is ebay based, and usually sells 5-20k cars - pics look from a public (not residential) road/carpark (but all his cars pictured from the same spot). No website or info about the seller but they usually have 10 or so cars for sale, have been on ebay 10 years and such.
Naturally there are no reviews for actual car purchases I can see as I'd assume the buyers go see them and do direct deals to avoid ebay fee's.
I just question why they don't use autotrader, PH or other selling places, have a little website or such.
I should just select based on the car itself and not the the seller right? I'm one of those people who usually prefers to buy private as you can get a feel for the owner, of course every option has pro's and cons.
It's not 1 owner, it's one previous ownerBit random but looking for some reassurance on something. I'm looking at a car (its 35k so not a cheap runabout). I found an example which sounds v good, 1 owner, full dealer history, 4 top brand match tyres etc.
The only thing that concerns me is the seller is ebay based, and usually sells 5-20k cars - pics look from a public (not residential) road/carpark (but all his cars pictured from the same spot). No website or info about the seller but they usually have 10 or so cars for sale, have been on ebay 10 years and such.
Naturally there are no reviews for actual car purchases I can see as I'd assume the buyers go see them and do direct deals to avoid ebay fee's.
I just question why they don't use autotrader, PH or other selling places, have a little website or such.
I should just select based on the car itself and not the the seller right? I'm one of those people who usually prefers to buy private as you can get a feel for the owner, of course every option has pro's and cons.
V8covin said:
mrdanbartlett said:
Hi all,
Bit random but looking for some reassurance on something. I'm looking at a car (its 35k so not a cheap runabout). I found an example which sounds v good, 1 owner, full dealer history, 4 top brand match tyres etc.
The only thing that concerns me is the seller is ebay based, and usually sells 5-20k cars - pics look from a public (not residential) road/carpark (but all his cars pictured from the same spot). No website or info about the seller but they usually have 10 or so cars for sale, have been on ebay 10 years and such.
Naturally there are no reviews for actual car purchases I can see as I'd assume the buyers go see them and do direct deals to avoid ebay fee's.
I just question why they don't use autotrader, PH or other selling places, have a little website or such.
I should just select based on the car itself and not the the seller right? I'm one of those people who usually prefers to buy private as you can get a feel for the owner, of course every option has pro's and cons.
It's not 1 owner, it's one previous ownerBit random but looking for some reassurance on something. I'm looking at a car (its 35k so not a cheap runabout). I found an example which sounds v good, 1 owner, full dealer history, 4 top brand match tyres etc.
The only thing that concerns me is the seller is ebay based, and usually sells 5-20k cars - pics look from a public (not residential) road/carpark (but all his cars pictured from the same spot). No website or info about the seller but they usually have 10 or so cars for sale, have been on ebay 10 years and such.
Naturally there are no reviews for actual car purchases I can see as I'd assume the buyers go see them and do direct deals to avoid ebay fee's.
I just question why they don't use autotrader, PH or other selling places, have a little website or such.
I should just select based on the car itself and not the the seller right? I'm one of those people who usually prefers to buy private as you can get a feel for the owner, of course every option has pro's and cons.
Thanks all, 1 previous and this is a trader so 1 in the book I imagine?
The grey is an odd one as they do often look different shades in the pics in terms of panels, I especially noticed this on the boot/wing area.
Agree Brum and mobile is what puts me off but I wasn't sure if that is me over-thinking it.
I'd rather buy private but finding one with the spec I want is really challenging - especially at a sensible price (although even this one hasn't sold for 6 weeks). (I'm also generally concerned about prices but there is another topic for that in general chat). Typically once I'd saved up and was ready to make a move it was just as the prices started taking off, so I mentally committed to it about 7 months ago but haven't been able to action on it. I'm loathed to commit more than 35k or so to a car too as got other things to spend out on coming up.
I really appreciate the responses, such a great forum with helpful people. I haven't changed car for almost 6 years now and as this one is a much more expensive purchase I'm more cautions.
The grey is an odd one as they do often look different shades in the pics in terms of panels, I especially noticed this on the boot/wing area.
Agree Brum and mobile is what puts me off but I wasn't sure if that is me over-thinking it.
I'd rather buy private but finding one with the spec I want is really challenging - especially at a sensible price (although even this one hasn't sold for 6 weeks). (I'm also generally concerned about prices but there is another topic for that in general chat). Typically once I'd saved up and was ready to make a move it was just as the prices started taking off, so I mentally committed to it about 7 months ago but haven't been able to action on it. I'm loathed to commit more than 35k or so to a car too as got other things to spend out on coming up.
I really appreciate the responses, such a great forum with helpful people. I haven't changed car for almost 6 years now and as this one is a much more expensive purchase I'm more cautions.
If you click on his feedback, he doesn't have enough sales for sales feedback:
"This information will be available when this member receives at least 10 detailed seller ratings."
He has plenty of feedback as a buyer and most of these seem to be for motor parts. My gut feeling is that you turn up and he doesn't tell you, or he doesn't tell you until late in the transaction that the car is Cat S or something.
"This information will be available when this member receives at least 10 detailed seller ratings."
He has plenty of feedback as a buyer and most of these seem to be for motor parts. My gut feeling is that you turn up and he doesn't tell you, or he doesn't tell you until late in the transaction that the car is Cat S or something.
I dunno what this price is like, if it's low or high. But if it's low and turns out to be a write-off of some description then it'll always be a cheap car if it is cheap now. That can work in your favour if it generally checks out upon inspection. If you aren't sure how to satisfactorily inspect a car you can get the AA / RAC to come and look at it. If it is somehow compromised when you sell it you'll have to sell it cheaply, but that only works if it's cheap to buy in the first place. You can tell any future buyer you had it AA inspected when you bought it.
Thing to do in these situations is not to worry about the seller and just to concentrate on the condition of the car itself. There are so many checks which can be done these days that the bad old days of cut-n-shut Escorts splitting in half on a roundabout are really long in the past.
Thing to do in these situations is not to worry about the seller and just to concentrate on the condition of the car itself. There are so many checks which can be done these days that the bad old days of cut-n-shut Escorts splitting in half on a roundabout are really long in the past.
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