How does anyone buy or sell cars on eBay?

[*wheels*]

I've just had a quick look through the car sales section on eBay and what a disaster it is!

The filter options are very limited and I don't know how anyone would ever find a car to buy unless they have very specific search terms.

Back to searching on carsales.com.au

[tommy.irene]

Snipe 1 ..i dont buy cars on ebay ..so i cant help you..

[*CountessA*]

Wheels, like you I cannot imagine anyone being able to find what they want on eBay Motors.

Have you tried the Trading Post? I know the website was awfully clunky the last time I tried it, but - hang on, I'll just try it now.

*goes to check www.tradingpost.com.au*

Well, someone's been doing some work on the architecture of the site - MUCH better. It no longer loads like a geriatric snail. Much better, and the automotive section has some sensible search filters.

[tellomon]

Suicide is an option.

[*Brum6y*]

A few years ago I had a look out of curiosity and found an old station wagon with LPG that was only 2km away.  So I called and arranged to have a look.

OMG!

The photos in the listing were very kind - being of moderate quality - but the vehicle was a real headache.  Rust, dodgy repairs and a presentation that would be unacceptable at a demolition derby.

Not only that, but I was interested to check out the LPG system.  Since I was working with new LPG systems at the time, I was aware of the requirements and familiar with a moderate range of equipment.  This thing was ugly. It was patched together with odd bits and pieces, things weren't properly fitted and it was definitely not compliant with standards. I could not get away from it quick enough.

Anyone who bid on this 'item' without inspecting it would have been thinking they were getting a bargain.

It was overpriced scrap metal.


.... aside from being dangerous.

[*Yibida*]

I've found I needed to modify the search filter many times to find what I'm looking for....

[*CountessA*]

There's no substitute for actually looking at the car in person, I agree.

Yibs, what search terms do you use to filter your results?

[*wheels*]

The problem with the eBay search is if you don't know what kind of car you're looking for there is no way to search by years, say 2005-2011, and kms, under 100,000. He is looking for either a small SUV, a wagon or a ute but does not yet have a preferred particular brand or model. It is almost impossible to do a suitable search on eBay compared to carsales.

Does anyone have any recommendations?

[*smee*]

well for starters you could go into advanced search and search within a certain doistance from your postcode ...say 25 or 50 km as you wouldnt want to travel much futher than that to inspect  it would you ? and then maybe narrow it down more by putting a $$$ value in , Im not sure how much that would help but its a start , then perhaps put exclusions in such as -4wd and so on until you reduce the field ?    

[*Yibida*]

There's no substitute for actually looking at the car in person, I agree.

Yibs, what search terms do you use to filter your results?

Its very frustrating Tess ... usually the options menu for the particular model and also just the make as some people don't know or forget to state the model they have, this last method takes a long time but will show cars that were missed in other searches..

[Liisa-Sx]

Smee, unfortunately the 'distance from' search is inaccurate for the most part.

I often search for items within 25km of my post code and constantly get presented listings that are 50+ km away if not more.

Ebay's search by distance operates as the crow flies not by actual road distance, having said that even with linear distance coinciding with parallel roads eBay's search will still try to tell me at times that the hawksbury region is 40km closer than it actually is.

According to Ebay crows nest in Sydney is 25km from the lower blue mountains.....uh huh.. and a 1 hour 30 minute drive and counting.

Unless your searching 10km it's a farce.

[*smee*]

Lisa , I know what you are saying but a lot of that is cos members dont keep their info up to date search engines are only as good as the info thats in putted ... the distance calculator works on postcodes , for example the postcode I have in ebay is for my postal address ...which is approx 28 km from my actual address , so I myself throw their calculations out unless I manually change the postcode adress as the location on one id and approx 3500km difference on the other ...it will auto matically take my registered address .... a lot of people dont update the full information when they move , ebay do not use there own distance calculator program they use Australia posts I think it is, but nevertheless whatever program it is , its only as good as the info its fed , and either way as I said in the above post its only a starting filter point not the bea all end all