What's up with people buying used cars online?

[Widescreen]

Lots of people buying cars off ebay. I don't think I could do that unless it happened to be a local auction so I could go inspect it personally and take it to a mechanic. I know there's a service called Carchex where you can pay them $100 to go check out the vehicle on your behalf but I read that they only pay the person doing the inspection half of the money so how good of a job could he/she actually care to do?

[Frozen Sooner]

I'd sure as heck never do it. I'm sure someone here has had a great experience doing this, but man-from the financing side of things there's just WAY too many things that could go wrong.

[critical_phil]

i bought a car online about three years ago.

it was through a dealership on autotrader though, not eBay. it was in cincinnatti. i called the salesman and negotiated the price over the phone. i had him take about 50 photos of the car. i told him i'd be buying a round-trip ticket and i'd just fly home if there were any undisclosed imperfections. the car was still under warranty, so i wasn't too worried about mechanical issues.

he picked me up from the airport. we went across the the street to sign the paperwork. i jumped on the highway and drove it home.

it was a great price on a car that i couldn't find around here, so i thought it was worth it.

[Jimminy Crimson]

I've thought about it because the car I'm looking to buy (4Runner a year or two old) is hard to get locally. I'd be much more willing to jump if a dealership had it listed -- at least there'd be a little more accountability than with just an individual seller.

Had 'friends of friends' go the ebay route with good luck. Just a sign of the times, I guess...

[Shamrock]

I shopped for damn near 6 months online, looking for the "right" used F350. Went and looked at only about 10 of the ones I found online. Finally, last month, I found the one I wanted and bought it. It wasn't through eBay, but rather through a dealer. I did find that using the "sold" prices through eBay helped me in basing an offer for the truck (also compared the price to Blue Book).

[Widescreen]

the car was still under warranty, so i wasn't too worried about mechanical issues.
I can see how it would help if it was still under the bumper-to-bumper (or at least drivetrain) warranty. Buying out of warranty seems crazy but lots of people are doing it.

[critical_phil]

Buying out of warranty seems crazy but lots of people are doing it.


well, in that regard, buying one online w/o a warranty is kind of like buying one anywhere w/o a warranty.

[TheUnnamedSooner]

I bought my current car and sold my former truck on ebay last summer. Pretty good experience. I made sure I bought from someone locally, and once I won I was able to see the car and everything before I paid up. The $20,000 guarantee is a joke though....

[Widescreen]

http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/1159/carob7.jpg

Probably one of ebay's finest merchants.