[der Geist]

Originally Posted by blue2000s

I've always wondered who'd be brave and/or dumb enough to buy a car on ebay. Have you had people looking at it locally before bidding? Do they ask questions and ask for an inspection? Who are these people?

Dumb??? That's kind of harsh. I have sold 2 cars on eBay and bought 3 in the past year. Comparative to local dealer pricing I saved appr $5,000 on my Boxster, $7,000 on my wife's Audi and about $7,000 on my AMG. As a matter of fact one of the local dealers has just listed a car exactly like my wife's Audi on "sale" for almost the same price we paid 9 months and 12,000 miles ago. Local dealers here will always ask near or above KBB and try and squeeze you for every last dollar. I have found it is much better to shop in larger markets where the cars are not considered to be so exotic. All my cars were bought withy plenty of factory warranty left so there is really no worries there. One was bought from a Porsche/Audi dealer and the other 2 were from dealers who deal strictly in high end sports cars. You can check somebody out pretty thouroughly if you want and having eBay behind you is not a bad thing. When you walk into a dealer you are flying solo and if you ever read those papers you sign you'll find that you have little or no recourse other than what is mandated by state law. In my case I wouldn't buy a car from someone with less than 99% positive feedbacks. A plane ticket and inspection is well worth the gamble in my opinion. In all three cases I didn't give the dealer a dime until I was satisfied that the cars were tip top. You have to have an inspection or really know what you are getting into. Most dealers on eBay know this and are willing to agree to one. If they don't you walk away. That simple.