10 years, 6 months, and 1 lifetime ago, I bought my first car at auction. It was a base 1986 Honda Civic hatchback. One owner. 166k miles and power nothing. Not even close. It did have A/C and a radio (thank God!). But it was little more than basic A to B, which was fine because I was in school at the time. I bought it for $525 at a public auction, which came to $630 including taxes and auction fees. It was a beautiful buy at a point in my life when I literally needed to save every nickel in my pocket. So what did I end up doing?
I sold it on eBay of course . . . to another student . . . from the same school. Incredible! I pocketed about $950 which took care of gas and groceries until graduation. But I’ve always thought to myself, “What would have happened if I had kept it and sold my then 5 year old Camry?” An extra $9000 in my pocket. Minimal ownership cost for perhaps the next 10 years? I’ve crunched the numbers and my annual costs would have run right around $1000 per annum for the next 10 years. Ahhh . . . the simple life. I can’t say that I miss it.
That’s exactly what I did with the first car I ever bought, a ’77 Toyota Corolla, except that I bought it (in ’85) from a guy who became one of the Iraq weapons inspectors. Got it for $450, drove it 90,000 miles over 8 years, and spent a total of about 10k on it during that time. The 10k included purchase – sale (ultimately my capital cost was two and a quarter, I think), and everything down to gas and parking tickets. I did save on tuneups by doing them myself.
Steven,
I just picked up a 2002 Mazda Millenia from an eBay no resere auction last week. 65k miles, clean. I asked the seller specifically how the transmission shifted and if it ever needed maintenance, and he said it shifts nice with no problems and no maintenance. He also said there are no check engine, etc. lights on the dashboard. I ran a carfax (clean), bid on the no reserve auction and got the car for $4,050…what I think is a hell of a deal.
After driving the car home (250 miles), I noticed the check engine light came on. I took it to Advance, read the codes, and it’s an egr valve (typical of Millenia’s). considering the price i paid, I’m not upset about that. However, I then noticed transmission fluid puddles in my driveway, and fairly hard 1-2 shift. I searched through the car & found a receipt…dated for the very morning i bought the car (prior to picking it up), for Lucas transmission stop slip liquid.
Clearly, although this eBay seller had 400+ sales and a 98% rating, he lied. I paid very little for this car, but if I need a new tranny, then it’s not such a good deal after all. I am sure you have some experience with these types of issues. If at all possible, I’d like to hear your opinion on the best manner in proceeding. Any advice from the rest of the B&B is welcome, of course.
craigslist is your best bet nowadays, just make sure they’ve got a carfax in hand
1) See if you get any response first. Call them. Leave the appropriate Ebay feedback. Contact them until you’re finally able to have a substantive conversation about your issue. Offer them the opportunity to fix the tranny at a shop of your own choosing given your recent find.
2) Hire a lawyer. Explain to them your situation. Let them handle it from there.
Hell of a deal’s are always hell of a deals.
I think issues like NN’s are why people don’t like buying used.
Of my 3 vehicles, I’ve bought 2 new, 1 used. The used was 70% off kbb because my friend told me “I don’t have any problems with it, but it’s an older car and I don’t want to lose our friendship if something happens. the 70% you save should pay for any problems.”
It had no major problems and hasn’t had any in the past 3 years I’ve owned it.
I’d be surprised if I couldn’t sell it for the same $ I bought it for.