any helpful advice? bought a dangerous car

[Welly]

Hopefully, if the car's not too bad and can be fixed then you should be ok. If your mechanic is a good guy and you can trust what he says then a couple of hundred in repairs might buy you a decent car for a couple of years.

Beware in future though because anything with 'Spares of Repairs' in the advert means you take it away and fix it up or break it up for spares

Hope it goes ok for you.....

[turbolag]

There's no grey area at all - ignoring the "spares or repair" tag for a moment, you are buggered when a private sale backfires. The only exception IF the car has been seriously misrepresented in the advertisement AND you can prove this to a civil court on the "balance of probabilities", AND that the vendor was awae of this - that's 3 distinct points you need to prove which is virtually unprecedented in consumer case law for private sales of any type, ans even then if you win you could still get shafted with costs.

The only protection is to insist on a written contract between vendor and purchaser, witnessed by an independant 3rd party, which specifically details the known condition of the car, and how many sellers would do that? None - they'd just tell you to bugger off and sell it to someone else instead.

There's a difference between cheap and good value and failing to enlist the advice of a professional to save a few notes has proven to be an expensive mistake.

[steve_earwig]

I reckon caveat emptor has never applied more than it does to ebay

[Welly]

I reckon caveat emptor has never applied more than it does to ebay

I am still proud NOT to have an ebay account and to have never bought ANYTHING from ebay, at all.

Ebay seems to have given the scum bags a 'legitimate' little market place for their wares, or rather re-badges stuff as being 'ok'

[steve_earwig]

I got burned when ebay first started so I'm very cautious. I think it's ok for small stuff from bods with a lot of activity but does seem to lend itself to shifting dodgy gear.

[turbolag]

I reckon caveat emptor has never applied more than it does to ebay

Yes, their Indian food is ver y nice indeed.

[teamster1975]

I reckon caveat emptor has never applied more than it does to ebay

I am still proud NOT to have an ebay account and to have never bought ANYTHING from ebay, at all.

Ebay seems to have given the scum bags a 'legitimate' little market place for their wares, or rather re-badges stuff as being 'ok'

It's a goldmine for car & bike parts, I've saved one hell of a lot of money!
I admit I took a risk buying the tubby on ebay but it's turned out to be a cracking car!