Buying a car on eBay

Purchasing a car on eBay can be easy and hassle-free, with no hovering sales assistants, and hours of walking around a showroom. Instead, eBay offers a virtual showroom that users can browse from the comfort of their own homes. Let’s take a look at how to score a great deal.

Finding the perfect car on eBay (and for the right price) can take time, so we’d advise anyone looking, particularly for the first time, to exercise patience when they’re shopping and refrain from making a ‘panic bid’.

Using some of eBay’s insightful features, such as, seller feedback ratings and their ‘ask a question’ mailing system can help uncover a potentially hazardous sale. This can be particularly useful if the seller is falsely advertising the car for any reason.

Once you’ve decided on a make and model it is also recommended that you shop around. Put the reg into our online valuation tool to see how much the same vehicle at the same age is worth. You should also run an online car history check to ensure the vehicle details are all correct.

Being fully informed about the car’s history is crucial before any vehicle purchase. To find this out there are certain criteria a buyer needs to check to ensure the seller is trustworthy, and they aren’t making a mistake and being lured into a dodgy deal.

• Service your car with an approved garage
• Service your car during the time scale selected by the provider
• Do not modify your car
• Do not use parts that are not approved by the manufacturer – if any faults occur from unapproved parts, your warranty will be invalid
• Maintain your vehicle

Once all the information has been obtained, the next stage is to ask to see the car in person before making a final decision. By doing this the quality of the car can really be checked and the seller can be quizzed some more until the sale has deemed itself to be satisfactory and honest.