I see a lot of Jaguar's on Ebay I was wondering if you found the right car at the right price ?

 

I consulted with a friend who was looking at Jags after his own 99 VDP gave up again. We looked over many cars between craigslist, Autotrader, and Ebay. One car was in Virginia and looked to be a very good deal. We are in Delaware so he would have to take a few hours to trek down there to look at it. This car was on Autotrader. He talked to the owner and arranged a time to get down there. Once he was ready to go, called the owner again and found out it was sold. We kept looking and found a nice 05 VDP with 34k on Ebay. It was in the Willow Grove area northwest Philly. He was able to get that car and was very happy with the whole purchase. He even admitted that he didn't look over the car as thoroughly as he should have but still was very happy.
Each experience is different. I have not bought any cars from ebay but have sold some cars through craigslist and autotrader. If you like a car, make sure you get solid contact info, as there are many scammers out there. Just as important is to see the car yourself or finding a neutral party to check over the car for you. The two or three year old car at $4500 on craigslist is a scam and some auctions on ebay can be too. Buyer beware. Just do your homework on the car and if something seems amiss, it usually is.

 

The most important point is never buy sight unseen. eBay can be useful in finding a car, but it is very unwise to just buy it on-line. At the very minimum it needs an inspection by somebody if its a bit too far to travel.

 

Yes and yes Joe. Buying off eBay can have some advantages if you are going national in your search. eBay has some buyer protections in place.

You have to decide if you are going to inspect the car in person or have it done. These inspection services are available on eBay.

You have the advantage of feedback. I would never buy a vehicle from someone who has anything other than 100 positive feedback.

I would require all service records. All of them. If the seller doesn't have them, I would personally move with my search. To be fair, I would do this regardless of where the car was listed, in my local paper, at a dealer, eBay, Autotrader...

You have to decide if you're going to personally inspect the car. If yes, add airfare, hotel and meals to the vehicle cost.

Now I don't personally see an in person inspection a must have. I would however, require a high definition video to go along with those high resolution photos. I would include the undercarriage in that ask as well.

I would have the car inspected by a master mechanic at a certified dealership (in our case, a Jaguar dealership), without exception and would also pay him to test drive the car. I have done this in the past and received written feedback on all of the known trouble spots for a particular vehicle. I have also spoken with the master mechanic following their test drive. Basically the conversation is a follow up to a written report. I trust master mechanics personally. They don't give a rip f you buy the car, appreciate that you respect them enough to ask for their input, so in my experience, it tends to be honest and forthright. Expect to pay about $200 for this and it's money lost if you choose to walk away.

To this point, you have photos, video, all service records, master mechanic inspection, and a discussion with the mechanic. You also need to account for shipping. I have only shipped cars enclosed so that adds a little more than open air freight. Again, you need to consider this as part of the purchase price and again, not specific to eBay.

Those are my initial thoughts, hitting the high points. My current ride was bought that way. I had 0 surprises, negotiated a terrific deal, paid less than book including shipping.

I hope this is the info you were looking for.

 

a couple more caveats.

Using the XJ as an example, I would expand my search nationally for say a 2006/2007 low mileage XJR, Super V8 or Portfolio and include eBay. I wouldn't for a stock XJ of that year.

Realistically, I can find the more common vehicles locally and I wouldn't expect the seller of an 06 XJ for $8 - $12k to jump though too many hoops to sell.

Will the seller be willing to take high res video, drive the car to a dealer and leave it until it can be inspected, help you with shipping? Probably not.

 

Bought my lexus off eBay seven years ago seller wanted £12,000 for it I got it for £8000 and it has been a fantastic car. I was lucky seller was moving to the USA so he needed a quick sale as he left it to the last minute to sell it but I did all the checks first

 

I bought my XJR sight unseen from a different country altogether...

Talked to the seller (he was a car trader) and got the info I wanted from him before making the decision to fly over. If I had arrived and the car was a POS then I would have gone home empty handed & wasted a few hundred $'s on the travel.

The car was not perfect and needed a wheel alignment before I could make the 1000km drive home. But in the end I got it at a very good price and it was a good buy in hindsight. But I did check the car over myself before taking it.

This gave me confidence to buy another car sight unseen several years later, which turned out to be a big mistake, I did not check it out myself (just got it shipped over) and it was really bad, if I had checked it in person I would have not bought it unless the price came down considerably. Was a total **** up on my part.

I will never buy another car without checking it personally, that includes hooking up the IDS/SDD diagnostic system to check codes, as well as getting underneath the car for a closer look.

 

Excellent point! I've been considering getting a Range Rover down the road and now that I have an IDS/SDD system, it will be interesting to interrogate the vehicle when I undertake looking for one.

 

I bought my Jag XJ8-L, Range Rover Sport, & Chrysler 300 STR8 off eBay. All in different states; I did extensive checking on the vehicles, got tons of videos from the dealers & of course asked everything I could think of. I've been very satisfied with each purchase to say the least...

But to each his own of course...

 

I purchased my 2005 Jaguar XJ8L with 78,000 miles for $10,300 (sight unseen) last February on eBay from a dealer in Florida. Had I known about the faulty air suspension, I probably would have passed on the vehicle. I calculated that I had spent a total of $6400 in converting the suspension over to Arnott coil/springs, and including new Bridgestone "W" rated tires, new wiper blades, and new bonnet struts. Despite that, it's in excellent cosmetic and mechanical shape, and fun to drive on trips.

 

I agree I never buy a car sight unseen I would rather spend the extra $$$ money if I feel good about the car I buy it even if it is everything and more and even its there right in front of me and something doesn't seem right I pass , and no service records I look else where .

 

I've bought a 74 E-type and an 86 Daimler Double Six on eBay with good success, but had a few not so good experiences with a 67 Daimler Majestic Major and an 86 Sovereign (bought mainly for the pepperpots and euro parts).

Recently I bought an 06 Super V8 I saw on CarGurus from a car lot in Houston Tx, because it was a really good price that had been dropped by $1K just after I first saw it. I had been looking for a year and a half for an 05 to 07 VDP for my wife, but none had come up close to home. I put out a request and A kind gentlemen on Jag-Lovers who lives just a few miles from the lot checked it out for me or I would never have known that the spare tire and spare tire cover were missing or that a link on the front sway bar was broken. (no mention of these little details in the listing). He also found out from the mechanic that the front air shocks had been replaced and that a new gasket had been installed on the supercharger.

I negotiated adding a spare tire before sending a deposit and driving 600 miles to pick it up. On arrival it had a check engine light on, a HID headlamp out, and they had not added the spare they promised, but the kind gentlemen had his mechanic friend check the codes (lean running condition) and he had picked up a sway bar link at the local jaguar dealer where he had worked and had the lot mechanic install it, so even with an added $180 expense for the headlamp and no spare tire cover/boot floor I chose to go ahead with the deal.

When I sat down with the closer to give them the cash for the price we had agreed on, he told me there were added fees and charges amounting to another $400 to $500 that of course no one had bothered to mention before. I almost walked, but would have lost a $500 deposit plus gas, food, and lodging expenses for the trip; in the end I settled for an added $170 in "dealer fees" and depleted my secret stash of emergency cash to complete the purchase.

Since then I've discovered that the car is missing the engine cover (I was not familiar enough to know that at the time), several important under panels, and the grill growler that was there in the photos in their listing. And yesterday when I went to register the car I learned that the "Buyer's Order" document they said was all I needed for registration is not sufficient and I have to get a Texas title from them to complete an Arkansas registration. When the lady at the Arkansas revenue office called the lot to ask where they had sent the title she was told that they could send one but it would take 4 to 6 weeks, and when she responded that in Arkansas you have only 30 days to complete a new registration the girl at the car lot hung up on her. I called them this morning and have been waiting 5 hours now for "Maria" to call me back and tell me when they can mail the title.

OK, so much for car lots that flip cars they buy at auction and apparently don't give a darn about repeat business or customer satisfaction. It is still (or it will be) a great car at a reasonable price in $$$ (if not in frustration and if nothing else blows up), and my wife loves the color and all the bells and whistles that we are still learning about. But it exemplifies the "buyer beware" concept and even if you do have a friend on site to check it out, the seller can still cause you major headaches.

 

One has to be especially cautious these days in purchasing a used vehicle as few will part with it 'because it's working'. In fact, a 'trade-in' often amounts to laundering something that is either unsafe, or prohibitively expensive to repair.

 

My X358 XJR was both listed on eBay and Auto Trader. I actually took a leap of faith and bought the car sight unseen. Shipping was included in the deal. So far I'm happy with the car, but mind you, I've only had it for two weeks. Besides some cosmetic issues (sagging headliner and rear left fender edge towards wheel well sticking out a little, a few rock chips, polished wheels need polishing and sealing), everything works. The cars seems mechanically sound. It's a sweet looking car. Stupid fast and grin inducing.


Do I recommend buying sight unseen, NO. But in my case it was the only low miles (considering the age of the car) X358 XJR for sale in the nation as far as my searches went and I had been searching for a while. So I took a gamble.

 

I've found that small used car lots are more willing to negotiate and cooperate in getting the car checked out by an indie shop of your choice. I live in L.A. and bought my XJ8L sight unseen from a used car lot in San Diego. They towed the car to my designated mechanic nearby and it passed inspection with flying colors (another XJ8L with lower miles from a different dealer did not fare so well). Still happy with my purchase 3 years later.

Cheers,
Wolfy