Ever bought a car off Ebay?

[irish80ca]

So from the "hot deals" forum I see new cars are on average 20% less if purchased in the USA. With the Canadian dollar at par I'm thinking this is a great time to buy from the states.

Now I was searching ebay and see that most cars on there compared to the same car with similar miles on autotrader.ca are MUCH cheaper.

It seems like a car selling on autotrader for maybe $25K can be bought for maybe $14K, $15K, $16K on ebay. Some even cheaper.

I realize one Con to purchasing off ebay is that you can't test drive the car but I figure if purchasing from one of the dealerships that have the ebay "power seller" certificate with excellent feedback and they seem to list a tone of info. about the car they're not trying to scam me by selling a lemon.

[3weddings]

Not ebay for us, but cars.com.

I suppose that the one precaution before committing to buy is to have the carfax AND a pre delivery inspection done at YOUR cost. DH's 911 went to a local Porsche dealer, was inspected and then we bought it. Got my carfax here at RFD.

Also, being a powerseller means nothing to me on a large purchase because it takes only ONE bad transation.

PowerSellers are eBay top sellers who sustain a consistent high volume of monthly sales and a high level of total Feedback --with 98% or better positive rating by other eBay users.

[fireguy9]

Friends have bought vehicles off ebay,,, no problem and I have ,, again no problem,,,

[mlc2000]

I once bought a car brand new from autodepot.ca

[michelb]

I bought a car (actually motorhome) from eBay and although I was very happy with the price and overall the vehicle was ok, there were several problems that the vendor (I believe he was a power seller) did not disclose (actually I think he didn't know about them even though he claimed to have performed a 'complete inspection' of the vehicle (some of the stuff was too obvious - I think he just did a test drive and claimed 'everything works great') so buyer beware. If you are buying a relatively new or recent car, I wouldn't be too concerned but if it's an older vehicle I'd take more precautions.

[irish80ca]

I'm looking at a vehicle from 2005 or newer. I seen a thread in the "hot deals" forum for purchasing from the USA and saving big $$$ so that's another option I might look into.

[MVP1]

How does shipping to Canada work with ebay motors?

[boyoflondon]

How does shipping to Canada work with ebay motors?

You go down there, sit your butt in the car and drive it back

[johnsa]

I bought my new Nissan maxima on Ebay from a Nissan dealer. I personally would not do a private deal on Ebay in the US...more risk and steps to cover your ass..it is doable though.

[PrinceMS]

You go down there, sit your butt in the car and drive it back

lol you can't. You don't have american plates to drive there (and no insurance). Plus when cross border - u have same issue again

there are trucks that delvier cars. ~$500 i think is what you should expect to pay (minimum)

[Kaldonis]

lol you can't. You don't have american plates to drive there (and no insurance). Plus when cross border - u have same issue again

there are trucks that delvier cars. ~$500 i think is what you should expect to pay (minimum)

You are mistaken... the majority of people doing this are flying down there and driving the vehicles back. If buying from a dealer they usually provide you with a temporary plate to get you to the border and you just arrange for Canadian coverage before you leave. Check out the thread in this forum "Detailed Guide to Importing Cars From the US" or similar.

[3weddings]

lol you can't. You don't have american plates to drive there (and no insurance). Plus when cross border - u have same issue again

there are trucks that delvier cars. ~$500 i think is what you should expect to pay (minimum)

We just paid $1600 cdn to have dh's car delivered to us in Toronto from Minnesota and it took over two weeks.

[brendonp]

So from the "hot deals" forum I see new cars are on average 20% less if purchased in the USA. With the Canadian dollar at par I'm thinking this is a great time to buy from the states.

I won two private auctions, but each time the seller refused to sell to me because the price was too low (no reserve auctions, and I have a long eBay history with 100% rating, and I was already willing to pay mid teens for the vehicles, so the "price too low" was ungrounded IMO). There's not really any way to force a sale from some joker in the US, so I didn't follow this up. You may have better luck with dealers - or maybe I was just unlucky....

Not ebay for us, but cars.com.

This is where I ended up finding my wife's Mini!

lol you can't. You don't have american plates to drive there (and no insurance). Plus when cross border - u have same issue again

Nope. I flew down to Virginia and drove the car back...

We just paid $1600 cdn to have dh's car delivered to us in Toronto from Minnesota and it took over two weeks.

I swung a deal with the seller - I flew down to the US on points and he picked me up at the airport (he worked 10 mins from the airport, so this wasn't a big deal). I was only out-of-pocket the gas money to get back and 1 day off of work. Border issues, paperwork, etc, etc I handled by fax a few days before heading out.


I think it's a great way to buy a car - but remember to do your research. Get a Carfax/Carproof/etc account to eliminate vehicles quickly. I believe Carproof also offers a remote "inspection" service were an inspector will inspect a vehicle before you arrive - I didn't do this (2 year old vehicle under warranty and a few conversations with the owner left me comfortable enough) but it's an interesting option....

Good luck,

Brendon

[ES_Revenge]

Personally I would never buy a car on eBay that I couldn't physically take a look at before deciding to fork over $$$. I'm sure it might work out well for some people but something like a car, I wouldn't buy from anywhere/anyone where I was comitting to buy just from pictures and text.

[Spray]

Kind of...
My car was listed on ebay by a Subaru dealership. The bid was up to 26,900 I think it was.

I called the dealership directly and offered 24.9k :P
They accepted and the rest is history.

They picked me up from the airport (Knoxville, TN), had already put the proper temporary TN plates on it and I just drove it back.
Great way to get to know your car, although hitting the snowstorm in NY on performance summer tires (Spec B comes stock with STI Tires) kinda sucked ass.