TIP: Buying a car from a dealer on Ebay

Well, the third times the charm...

My son lives in LA and drives a nice leased car but he wanted a 'roughing it' vehicle to use when he visited development sites and for occasional 'hauling purposes' He always liked the older Jeeps and set out to buy a late 60, early 70 Commando. He bid on two.. one from a private seller the other from a dealer, who supposedly was 'selling on consignment'.

He won them both, eventually.. the bid on the dealer jeep was one buck below reserve but the 'high bidder' backed out for some reason, and seller came back and offered it to my son.

Perhaps 'high bidder' backed out because the thing was listed as having aftermarket air but the only evidence was a fascia bolted to the dash... no compressor or hoses under the hood.

Perhaps it was the body condition listed as 'good'.. despite photos showing an obvious crease where the hood had flown up over the windshield frame.. or maybe because it had a 2.9 liter V6 in it.. where I couldnt find evidence of Jeep offering that.

Anyway that was the THIRD case of my sons buying or attempting to buy from a dealer on EBAY... first two we took and they turned out OKAY, but nothing we couldnt have found in a local lot as cheap or cheaper for the condition and price.

OTOH, I've bought three cars off Ebay from private sellers and they all turned out to be good value... .. as was the Jeep the kid just bought from the private seller.

And the bids to dealers... THREE STRIKES, IMO!

The hook is if you win, then you go to all the trouble to travel and pick up the car, you're likely to just go ahead and take it, despite being disappointed. And there's always the excitement of the auction, itself...

My advice: Never buy a car from dealer on Ebay... unless you have a local agent who can look at the car and knows what he's looking at.

Reply to
Backyard Mechanic
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Agreed. Prices often exceed what you can pay new at store. The whole "Reserve not met" with unlisted reserve is sucky. In a regular store, the reserve price is listed, but you can offer more.

Reply to
Kent_Diego

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