I thought I overpaid! It was on Ebay and the seller was fed up because it had already been sold once but the buyer never made contact, a common problem. It was £775 or best offer.
The pictures all looked good, went onto DVLA's MOT history and the last MOT had no advisories and all the previous MOT's had been failed or had advisories for very minor items, so I was pretty sure it wasn't a rust bucket. It was listed with no MOT and although it started and ticked over perfectly it wouldn't rev over 2k. He couldn't get it to the MOT test because it wasn't running properly.
I then checked the sellers feedback, 100% and all very good, I had asked for the address so I knew how far away he was, using the address I use google maps, drop the little man in front of the buyers house and have a look around. Are there piles of rusty cars on the drive, does the road look like something you would expect to see in Syria. This all looked good except the car was 140 mile away.
I was going to offer him £675 cash transferred into his bank account straight away, but he was driving home and wouldn't be back for 2 hours and would phone me as soon as he was back.
The advert was a buy it now so if I waited for 2 hours someone else may well hit the buy it now so for the sake of £100 I hit the buy it now button.
I then had the car collected £160, 140 miles away, There are lots of car delivery services on Ebay, just don't take the first price, this much cheaper than the train fare, days insurance, petrol, and a day to do it.
Buying a car like this is a risk, it is doing everything that you shouldn't. Always speak to the buyer, this will tell you a lot, if you feel unsure walk away, there will be another.
I'm hoping to get back about £500 in the parts, don't be greedy, list them at a reasonable buy it now price and they will sell, be greedy and you'l have bits of scrap around your garden this time next year.
When buying a car Ebay is always best, be prepared to take a risk and be prepared to travel. Don't wait and think about it, hit the buy it now button or call the seller and make a decent offer. Most buyers are lazy, it needs to be the right price, distance and need nothing doing. Keep searching Ebay every hour or so, my car had only been up for 40 minutes, it wouldn't be there in a couple of hours.
Condition is always important but so is mileage, this one has a full service history and 120K on the clock. I wouldn't be happy about buying one with much more mileage, especially an auto box, with an auto I wouldn't buy one with more than 80k on the clock. I had to get a recon auto box fitted to a 525 that I used to own, cost £3500 to replace and that was cheap and 15 years ago Manual gearboxes tend to go on for ever and clutches aren't too expensive.
I've fixed the revving problem, it failed the MOT on the handbrake, have fitted two new handbrake cables £35, pig of a job but now Mot'd and I can start stripping it in preparation of my kit in 2 weeks time.
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