just joined ebay so I'm a bit of a virgin (if that's possible)but am I being naive in thinking I can pick up a 10 year old luxury car for a couple of grand or are they just money pits. A BMW 740 with 100K on the clock for a £2k is surely worth a punt isn't it?
in my opinion:
buy the car taking all the precautions necessary, just like you would with any other car.
10 years and 100k miles is a very safe mileage.
a certain lord, novelist, politician, and criminal (jailed for perjury) has been driving, or more accurately has been chauffeur driven, in his bme 740 series for over 10 years.
such cars have usually been given the full dealer treatment at noexpense spared, are unlikely to have been used as a mini-cab, and unlikely to have been "thrashed".
sure, the maintenance and insurance and petrol costs will likely be higher than a mondeo, but you are getting luxury motoring at a huge discount.
why do they sell for such low prices? - simply because most people have an irational fear about buying them for the reasons outlined by others above, they are percieved to be money pits, unreliable, they are thought to be too big, too expensive to run, etc.
when new, there is a small demand for them from those who want a bmw7 rather than a merc s class, after 3 or 5 years usually, the chief exec gets a brand new car and the used one usually finds another bmw enthusiast private buyer who keeps it for another 3 to 5 years, and then the market for these cars disappears. so they either sell very cheaply to the few discerning buyers still in the market at the low end, or they end up in scrap yards.
to sum up, at the price and age you are talking about, you are more likely than not to get a decent car for a bargain price.
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I browse Ebay quite a lot and I notice how many dealers are now on there, presumably delighted to be selling motors cash in hand and with no inconveniences like having to provide six-month guarantees to comply with normal consumer laws. A lot of presumed private sellers certainly look to me like dealers as well. Is the Inland Revenue browsing Ebay too?
As far as I can see, these dealers are also happy to punt through cars just as they are when they come in, because loads of them are described as having the sort of minor faults that an hour in the workshop (if there was one) and a pre-delivery check would sort out at minimal cost and attract more potential buyers.
In my experience, the sort of entries to avoid are those with blurbs that start with 'here we have a...' or headline something as mint or exceptional, then list a string of faults with the words 'as you would expect'.
Without wishing to sound elitist, I also click away from any offer where the description is, at best, semi-literate.
Having said all that, I am still looking for that special bargain...
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>>I notice how many dealers are now on there, presumably delighted to be selling motors cash in hand and with no inconveniences like having to provide six-month guarantees to comply with normal consumer laws.
I disagree. eBay is an advertising medium. A dealer selling a car on eBay has the same legal requirements as a dealer selling a car in Autotrader. Your contract is with the dealer, not with eBay.
The dealer may get cash in hand, but he gets a lot less for his car than he would get if he put it on the forecourt.
>>Is the Inland Revenue browsing Ebay too?
Yup, I believe so.
And now, for my opportunity to promote the science of Bangernomics. An old luxobarge is the ultimate in bargain motoring. But I would suggest that you should be spending under #1,000, so as to limit your risk sshould 'something expensive' fail. It probably won't, but in case it does...
My 13 year old Audi 100 Avant would be worth almost #500 on eBay with a bust engine, were the worst to happen. It cost me #750 nearly a year ago, and has done me 16k miles. That's cheap motoring - and the only way I can afford a walnut dash, a big Auto estate, and a stereo that would cost more than I paid for the car. The only non-servicing item has been a new alternator.
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In reply to Dalglish:-
People have a perfectly rational fear of these cars. I know of a trader with a less than 10 year old 740 that runs OK, apart from a leaking heater matrix. Fancy fixing that? No, I thought not.
I suspect a bit of Radweld will go in, and it might well turn up on Ebay.....
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I've mentioned the ex-colleague of mine who bought a 9 year old 735i for £7k - full FSH, one happy owner, a mate of his? It was to have been traded in against a new one, so there had been no shortage of cash to spend on maintenance either.
He spent £5k in his first twelve months of ownership. No single bill was over £1k, so the car would never have been written off by a single incident, but there was also no
I don't know if he still has it - we no longer work together - but I would disagree that worst case scenario is a £2k loss. It's probably no more than £1k in any one hit, but there can easily be several hits.
Also, there don't appear to be many 10 year old 7 Series (i.e., previous shape) ones for less than £4k; a £2k one is likely to be 12 years old.
I won't disagree with the people who say that a 10 year old 7 could give another 100k of trouble free motoring - but it's still a gamble.
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People have a perfectly rational fear of these cars. I know of a trader with a less than 10 year old 740 that runs OK, apart from a leaking heater matrix. Fancy fixing that?
statistical stuff and nonsense, of course.
i know a man whose brand new nissan has an engine blow within 1000 miles. now he has a perfectly rational (in his mind) fear of all japanese cars.
one swallow does not make a summer and all that statistics carp.
its a free world. pays your money and take your choice.
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>> People have a perfectly rational fear of these cars. I >> know of a trader with a less than 10 year old >> 740 that runs OK, apart from a leaking heater matrix. >> Fancy fixing that? >> statistical stuff and nonsense, of course. i know a man whose brand new nissan has an engine blow within 1000 miles. now he has a perfectly rational (in his mind) fear of all japanese cars. one swallow does not make a summer and all that statistics carp. its a free world. pays your money and take your choice.
Well, I guess that Nissan was under warranty. Buying an old prestige car off eBay is a tremendous risk. I have been working on Mercs, young and old, for well over 20 years but there is still no way I would buy one off eBay. Could be throwing money away. If it is something that is not totally unique then you are likely to find one withing 40 miles via traditional channels (Autotrader, local paper etc) which you can inspect.
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Well, I guess that Nissan was under warranty. Buying an old prestige car off eBay is a tremendous risk. I have been working on Mercs, young and old, for well over 20 years but there is still no way I would buy one off eBay. Could be throwing money away. If it is something that is not totally unique then you are likely to find one withing 40 miles via traditional channels (Autotrader, local paper etc) which you can inspect.
agred. that is a perfectly sound argument. can't fault you on that at all.
as for the nissan, this was a few years ago before the consumer laws got a lot tougher. the man wanted to reject the car, refused a repair, wanted to go to court to claim all his money back. the solicitor convinced him that there was case law about a datsun which had suffered similarly a few years prior to this one, when the judge decided in favour of datsun. my aquaintance decided to take a compromise settlement and has never gone back to japanese cars.
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Well, I guess that Nissan was under warranty. Buying an old prestige car off eBay is a tremendous risk. I have been working on Mercs, young and old, for well over 20 years but there is still no way I would buy one off eBay. Could be throwing money away. If it is something that is not totally unique then you are likely to find one withing 40 miles via traditional channels (Autotrader, local paper etc) which you can inspect.
How many times have you phoned up about an add in the paper, had the car described to you as excellent, then turned up and its a complete wreck, totally different.
The local paper charges by the word, hence descriptions are always positive only to get you to call, and the price is way high to allow for haggling.
On Ebay you get photos, a long description, and know what you're going to pay before you leave your armchair. You can also see the sellers previous transactions (so can see if they are inherently honest or not ... how do you tell from a phone number in the autotrader.
If they won't take cash on collection on Ebay, then don;t deal with them.
I have no qualms with Ebay, but major reluctance with using the autotrader.
James
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>>to find one withing 40 miles via traditional channels (Autotrader, local paper etc) which you can inspect.
And that applies to eBay as well - you can inspect prior to bidding.
eBay is the only place that the man in the street can get hold of a car at prices approaching trade-in. If you're buying at the bottom end of the market, then that car in the dealer's showroom at #1500 (and that has been sitting in Autotrader for #2200, private sale, for 3 months) can be bought for the #500 that the dealer would give you for it. It is a friendlier venue for many than is a local car auction.
Buying any car unseen off eBay is a tremendous risk. Better for it to be a #400 Merc W123 than a #10000 Vectra! But buying a car seen off eBay is likely to be a money saving venture.
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On the point of moving it on via e bay if it didn't work out...
Yesterday I met the chap I sold the old van to!
He seemed to be smiling at me, so I thought it safe to approach. He told me that he tried to find a replacement diff for it but couldn't so he went for something else. He sold it and got his money back, so he was not unhappy.
Hugo
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Ebay has to be one of the most cost effective mediums for selling anything. You can write endless flowing text, post numerous pics and do a really fantastic job of selling an item. Cars are no different. If you buy off a car trader on Ebay and they have loads of positive feedback, you'd be really unlucky to end up with a duff one surely. Another point is that alot of ebay cars are high mileage, not especially a problem in itself as the price reflects. We're looking for something at the moment. If its a trader with numerous sales and good feedback, his ads read well, I can view the vehicle beforehand, if the spec and the price was right, I'd take the risk. You get much much more info. on a potential purchase on Ebay than with any other seller.
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>>If I can view the vehicle beforehand, ...I'd take the risk
Please let me know why the risk is greater from eBay than from Autotrader if the car has been viewed beforehand.
In the absence of any view to the contrary, that's why eBay can be a good value place for a car... some people think that the car is bound to be dodgy!
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>>If I can view the vehicle beforehand, ...I'd take the risk Please let me know why the risk is greater from eBay than from Autotrader if the car has been viewed beforehand. In the absence of any view to the contrary, that's why eBay can be a good value place for a car... some people think that the car is bound to be dodgy!
If you view the car behand then I agree Ebay is fine and no different from any other sort of sale. But I would never buy a car unseen.
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