Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

I am really really starting to get miffed at 'many' people who sell cars.

Having returned from my trip as posted to ' Aventure Autos ' , I carried out my daily check for 944's and 968's and lo and behold what has just come up on e-bay for 6,000 but the 968 which I missed last week on e-bay that went for a mere 5,000 pounds
(due to high mileage but fulll history !) sold by a declared dealer.

Not being one to cut off my nose to spite my face , I think I'll call him if hes bought it to turn a profit of say 500 I'll get it properly examined and give him his profit why not.

Ring , Ring " have you got a 968 for sale " , yes m8 " are you a trader or is it yours "
" I's mine I took it in part ex against a 911 the other week im not a trader " " oh so you sold a guy a 911 and he brought you the 968 " " yeah thats right " , " Oh so you didnt buy it on e-bay the other week for cash then like the dealer who sold it to you said "

( huge pause ) , " er O.K so right so you know how I got the car , well you have to say these things dont you " NO YOU DONT YOU CAN TELL THE TRUTH ! ! !

" Well to be honest if you'd said I bought it cheep to turn a profit m8 I'd have given you a profit on it but now you've lied to me its hard to do business on trust I have to say "

" fair enough " ( followed by general conversation re the car )

Am I expecting too much of people ? , does anyone share my scruples out there or not.

It doesn't end there , the Zermatt Silver 944 Turbo that I sold as a potential track project is back on e-bay today having miraculously lost one or two of its faults INCLUDING THE OIL LEAKS I declared on selling and a few thousand miles too since I see no mention of the broken odometer and extra several thousand miles that I declared to the purchaser.

I'm seriously thinking of jacking the whole car thing in which s a shame but I seriously am considering it.

Regards Mas

Unfortunately there are alot of fibbers out there.It may be worth biding your time for a car to come up for sale on the Porsche owners club sites because you will be able to trace previous posts on cars to see that they are up to scratch.
Additionally we are more honest here

Oh silly me so many 'inaccuracies' I even forgot this one as you can see I'm having a great time here , maybe I should get a job in trading standerds

AUTOTRADER
Features and full description
1990 (H reg)
Coupe
130,000 miles
Manual
3.0L, Petrol
Rare metallic Turquoise in very good condition, Linen Leather interior. Ive owned for the last 6 years. FSH with a combination of main dealers and specialist independant. All previous MOT's and documented history. Belts and tensioners replaced in the last 12months, discs and pads replaced all round inc handbrake. Used as a weekend car and garaged. £3,895 ONO.

Looks an attractive ad ? , Guess what its done 154,000 miles ! , called and when I received an e-mail of the history noticed the mileage was 154,000 and was told it was a mistake and would be changed , this was several days ago but its still on at 130,000 miles tonight !

I'm with you on this one Mas - you just can't believe what most people say anymore - especially people selling stuff as complicated as cars - of which the vast majority of us know so little. It's ripe for abuse. It used to be that you could take people at face value but now they'll lie unflinchingly to your face and only 'reveal' things if you spot them. Very sad indictment indeed.

I had a very poor experience buying my wife's car a few months ago from a very big dealership chain here down south - suffice it to say that things only got sorted out after I chased down the FD and revealed to him the tactics his staff were employing at one of his branches was tantamount to fraud & misrepresentation. I can't help but wonder how many people get caught out by these crooks and feel there's nothing they can do to remedy the situation - when there is if you're courageous enough and can dial consumer advice's number or your legal advice line. Buying something isn't simple and enjoyable anymore.

I looked for around a year before finding the right car, I rang about loads of cars but just talking to the sellers was enough to put me off even looking at most of them, of the ones I did look at nearly all of them were either dogs or money pits.

You can't be in a hurry mas. If you want somthing for now then get an 8v. (like that track one that will be quicker than you think with the weight striped out.) Good turbos & S2s are thin on the ground. The service costs of these cars are now very high in relation to there value so only a few owners look after them. Before spring somthing good will turn up. But you do have to wait & spend lots of money & time travelling to look at another dog A club member will sell one in a bit. Always a good bet.

J.J I think you almost read my mind and are spot on , I thought of getting an S and driving that around for a while or just waiting, i do have 2 cars afterall even though they are sweedish. I have seen one or two 968's (shh secret) at the mo and am asking around if anyone knows the cars ( believe club member owned).

Cheers

Mas

You're dealing with ebayer's what do you expect?

I sold the car via e-bay and I told the truth. I also have carried out over 330 transactions on E-Bay and have never had anyone over. Adventure Autos don't to my knowledge advertise on E-Bay either and well nuff said. Personally I think good honourable folk are just getting thinner on the ground wherever you go but thats just how I see it.

I totally understand E-bay can be abused by scuzzers and divers but usually you can weed them out with sensible questions etc , as soon as the lies start flying alarms go ding ding.

The trouble is E-Bay can just be so damn usefull can't it ? it's hard to avoid it altogether , you know when you want that odd item hard to find locally etc.

Mind you if you're saying avoid it for cars I'd find that one VERY hard to argue

Just my tuppence worth, I agree with you Mas on the whole.....BUT I got my 911 from a very decent guy on e-bay. He told me everything that was wrong with it, and even when the calipers siezed on the nearside after the handshake, offered to refund me in full until the work was fixed.
Hell (and EricF can testify to this), he knocked me down by £100. I offered the asking price, and he said he'd be happy to take £x, £100 less that asking!
He bundled a complete interior, 3 workshop manuals, the service manual, plus other sundry items.
He also even offered a full refund if "you don't get on with it, after all they're not everyone's cuppa".

Very honest guy, genuine sale, and (so far), no headaches that I wasn't told about. In fact, many people (who know their cars) have said it's worth 30% more than I paid, and is in very very good condition.

Having said all that, I really do hear where you're coming from. Maybe I was lucky?? Maybe you'll find one soon.

All the very best in your search,

I think you take your risks where ever you buy from to be honest. I worked for Autotrader (and Top Marques) for a few years and heard quite a few horror stories including dealers.
Personally I like ebay.... there is much more chance you will get a good deal and the feedback means as long as a dealer has a lot of positive feedback (always worth reading the actual feedback as well for 'extra special' positive feedback) you can't go too far wrong.
There are a number of dealers who have high levels of negative feedback, and yet still seem to sell cars! - That I don't understand. Remember Ebay really does look after buyers rather than sellers. Always worth paying a deposit by Paypal if possible. If you get shafted you can make a claim.
Of course in all cases you have the protection of the trading law in this country anyway.

Never had a problem buying cars off of E Bay, been buggered around by various buyers with none collection & payment etc.
No differnt to buying or selling anything else on fleabay really!

Im trying to sell my Jeep and im having nothing but trouble with ebayer's.

Phoning me up to tell me they want to come and have a look then dont turn up.

Had to relist twice because of none payers.Never again.

The guy I bought my 911 said the same. Carol fell over in Brum on the way there and broke her collar bone, but he rang me while I was in the ambulance to check if I was still going round, he'd had that many non-shows.

Needless to say, he accepted my excuse and I went about an hour later than I'd said. Still bought the car though

No regrets

E-bay is great for advertising to a huge audience. Some of those may not be serious buyers though. I reckon the best way is to advertise with a Classified Ad. If you want it, come and look at it. I wouldn't consider it sold unless someone came to see it.

I've been looking for a while and found most people selling 944's to be really nice people with a genuine fondness for their cars. But I have filtered out the obvious wrecks and the bad write-ups. My non-favourite is where they list all the car's features, all the electric gizmos (electric sunroof, air conditioning, power steering, electric windows etc) but fail to actually say whether any of it works!