Jump to content

Ebay car sellers


Nick Jones

Recommended Posts

Bit random but I'm thinking about buying an Audi A2.  The 1.4TDi flavour that runs on air and has almost no road tax.  Prices are very variable, as are conditions.

I've had an eye on one for sale near Bristol as a classified ad.  It's been up for a while.  Wasn't far from there today so I rang them.  "Oh yes, it's not our usual thing, we sell camper vans and we took it as a part ex.  We don't normally do part ex, but such a nice car... really clean, full service history, been driving it round myself....."

I'll be there in an hour.  And I was.  They'd washed it.  It probably needed it, the (bomb)site is next to a wood yard and dusty.  They hadn't checked it would start though.

Interesting outfit that import Japanese vans, mainly Bongos, and turn them into campers, if they aren't already.  Never seen so many bloody Bongos in one place.  All sold, he told me proudly, business is booming, because staycations......  can't get them in quick enough.  A good news story - how nice - Every cloud!

So what about the car......

Really "clean".  Well, they'd washed it and the n/s was nice and straight.  O/s though, something bad had happened to that, every panel dinged, the drivers door quite badly.  Interior was ok, but not really clean.  It would probably have cleaned up though.... given a wet vac and half a day.

Full service history..... well, maybe.  I didn't get as far as looking. Four squashy, balding tyres of 4 different ditch-finder makes tells me it's not going to be a quality history.  As did the empty coolant header tank and rusty stains all over the engine bay.

Didn't hear it run.  The battery was flat.  Really dead flat.  This presented an interesting problem as the battery is under the boot floor and to open the boot needs power, and did I mention the battery is in the boot......  Lucky the rear seats fold forward.  Jump leads and one extra battery couldn't muster more than the odd, slow half turn.  A second battery and jump leads (in parallel) no better.  I'd seen enough......

No, no don't go we'll have it running in a moment........ (I don't think so, there's something more afoot than lack of juice, maybe connected with the lack of coolant), anyway, I was looking for a tidy, immediately usable, running car, which this isn't......  But sir, it has a full service history......

£ 1295 they wanted.  About £1k too much.....

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No one who has seen it will pay that price. Even if it starts on the button. There is £1500 (at least) in body repair alone unless you got really lucky with a donor.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Audi-A2-1-4TDI-FSH-Part-Exchange-to-Clear/124159816919?hash=item1ce88074d7:g:5IMAAOSw2T9enMJ8

Good bodywork for year....... no known faults. As for the pic of the o/s..... the camera lies too!

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nick

ebay isn't big here - we have a couple of locally-grown competitive sites and, for cars, it is otomoto.pl.  Well laid out, no limit on the number of pics, etc.  And the vendor can declare whether it is (i) damaged and (ii) accident-free.

So, we've been on the hunt for a barge for cadet no.2 and have discovered that that most vendors regard the declaration that the car is accident free to mean 'it has never been written off... as far as we know'.  As you can imagine, there is a cottage industry here hauling write-offs from Germany across the border, tarting them up and selling them as one owner (in Poland), accident-free (in Poland) gems.  Our neighbour was understandably apopleptic when he discovered that his pristine classic 911 was the front of a '93 car and the rear of a '91 car.  But I digress...

I found a suitable barge - a 1990 Benz W124 TE, ostensibly untouched with a quarter of a million clicks on the clock.  I was lucky - paintwork is original, consistent thickness, 2.3l motor sound and just brakes, discs and springs needed to be replaced.  4-speed 'box and only the rear door speaker covers are missing.  £2,000, so I bought and collected it without a tech inspection, but then faced a 150 mile return journey home.  I have to confess that, by the end of the journey I was smitten and very reluctant to give Junior the keys - what a great cruiser.  I expected the lack of 5th to be wearying on the m'way, but 4th is tall and it was a very relaxed run.

Paul

DSC_5183.thumb.JPG.0c7676e75eef2e8d8c3bf0cc474fd66f.JPG

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Without doubt, it is simpler to run a car here.  I currently pay about 85p/litre for 95oct here in the smoke and closer to 80p near the Baltic ports.  I can only get 3rd party insurance for a car of this age and with Junior as a named driver, the civil liability premium is about £200/year.  There is no road tax as such.

He knows he's on probation.  There is a 'two strikes' rule for new drivers:  two violations, two accidents or one of each in the first two years and the driving licence is withdrawn.  After a cooling off period, the whole mandatory learning period and two-part exam has to be re-done to regain the licence.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...