Buying a Car on eBay

By Marsha Collier from eBay Business All-in-One For Dummies, 2nd Edition

eBay Motors is the largest auto mall in the universe and is consistently ranked the No. 1 automotive site on the Web by Nielsen//NetRatings. Interestingly enough, the reason it’s so popular is that buying a car is one purchase that most people don’t enjoy making.

The eBay Motors home page.

Even if you love cars and have a personal attachment to every car you’ve owned, each time you’re approached by a car salesperson, it can be an intimidating experience. And when you’ve finally decided on the car model you want, you still have to face the deal, when the finance manager tries to sell you warranties, alarms, and extras that you never wanted or needed. It’s at this point that many people want to run out of the dealership.

If this feeling is familiar to you, then eBay Motors may seem like a magnificent fantasy site. From Volkswagen buses to Ferraris and Lamborghinis, you can find pretty much any make and model, and peruse the listing details at your leisure, with no sales pressure!

Many of the cars on eBay Motors are private-party sales, bank cars (repossessions), and cars that have been cherry-picked by wholesalers and dealer overstocks. In addition, professional car dealers sell rare, hard-to-find cars to a marketplace that draws between 4 and 5 million visitors per month. You can’t get that many people through the door at a local dealership! Dealers put up the rare colors and limited-edition vehicles because this is an auction site — the rarer an item, the more likely bidders are to get excited. The more excited bidders are, the more they lose their heads — and the higher the price goes.

With an average of seven to eight bids per sale, eBay Motors is a competitive environment for the most desirable cars. Dealers can sell cars for less on eBay because it costs them less to sell. (They don’t have to pay the finance manager to twist your arm to buy the extras.)

You can enter the eBay Motors site by clicking the eBay Motors link at the top left of any eBay page.