Buying a car from Ebay, am I stupid? Options

[thomasotten]

Going against my gut instincts, I am actually considering buying a car off of Ebay. Particularly, I am looking at Audi Avants - they are not that common in the local paper. Is this a bad idea? Has anyone ever bought a car, say between 12k-20k over ebay, and having it shipped?

It's funny, I would feel more confident buying a teener than a modern car.

Any advice? Are there any safeguards that help one not to get screwed? Don't do it? Am I (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/screwy.gif) ?

[jasons]

Well, let me tell you my experience. I bought a 76 912E on ebay a few years ago. I asked the guy tons of questions and talked to him on the phone at least twice before bidding.
He tells me, "Me and my wife are selling it to get a Boxster." Cool, he's a Porsche guy. Then he tells me he put about 20000 miles on it in 3.5 years. Cool again, the car is a driver. I'm feeling OK at this point.

Finally, I won the car. Its in San Diego, me in Phoenix thats a cheap flight and a short drive. Night before I'm s'pose to leave, he calls me to confirm and tells me, "Oh I just realized today, Porsche odometers have 6 digits not 5 this one reads 250,000 not 125,000(rolled over)." It was my first red-flag, but I didn't care I had a new engine ready for it. He follows that little nugget by informing me "Me and my wife are selling this car so we can get a van for our business." Ok, What happened to the Boxster? I'm on guard now.

I arrived and he picked me up in it. It looks about what I expected. Next we are leaving the airport, he shows me the handle of the turn signal stalk and tells me, "Oh this just broke this morning." Whatever.... We pull into a fast food joint and I start really looking at the car. What do I find? The thing hadn't been registered for 3 fucking years! He told me it had been a daily driver for 3 years. Dudes a bullshitter big time. I say let me see the title. Its not even in his name. It was signed over to someone else like 3 years ago, but not him. He says "Heres a bill of sale thats all you need to title it" I tell him, I can't buy your car your title is BS, take me to the airport I'm flying home.

Incidentally, the guy sold the car the next week on ebay. Another week later, he got hammered with a negative by the buyer that said something like "not to be trusted, I broke down" Blah Blah Blah. Another week after that, the guy was kicked off ebay.

End of story. Sorry its long winded. As with any car purchase Caveat Emptor. With ebay, Caveat Emptor x 10. jmho