Thinking of buying from ebay

[jez]

Hi
I've not owned a Spider before but have been tyre-kicking (tire-kicking for most people reading this) for some time. I'm considering buying this on ebay. It's not far from my parents house so I'm planning to view it before bidding.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1979-FIAT-124 ... _651wt_983

I'm from the UK but now live in Poland where car good car mechanics and body shops are cheap so I'm considering getting something relatively cheap like this then getting the bodywork/paint sorted. Am I asking for trouble? There are obvious rust bubbles on wheel arches and the rear. Anything else I need to be careful of on this one? It's been 'round the clock' so looks to have high mileage.

I really appreciate your advice. Thanks in advance!

Jeremy.

[RRoller123]

This will answer many of your questions! A really good buying guide:

http://www.mirafiori.com/faq/content/buyspid.html

Car is obviously missing its bumpers, not sue if you will need them in your district to pass road inspection. Rust is the killer with these cars; it needs a very thorough personal inspection! It looks from the pictures as though there was a rattle-can spray paint job done on the lower rear, could be covering a rust problem? There are no pictures of the engine compartment so no comment there. Good luck in your search.

[Exit98]

Look at picture #3. The trunk (boot) lid isn't sitting right. I think the car took a little hit in the rear.

Taking the seller at face value it would seem the car is well sorted mechanically and he says he has the documentation to back it up. The fact that he competed a recent distance rally is very positive.

He mentioned that he only has mats on the floor. That's good. You'll be able to inspect the floor closely for rust. Look in both footwells, all around the seat track supports and behind the seats where there are underbody reinforcements for the rear trailing arm brackets. Rust here is common.

Most important is to inspect all four shock towers, particularly the fronts, for rust. Those are the deal-breakers. If the rust is confinded to the wheel wells that's cosmetic and can be dealt with. I've heard before that you can get real good work done in central Europe at good prices which makes things more feasable.

Good luck and let us know how you do. I think its got potential.

Oh, also the undersides of the doors. They tend to rust from water running down from the windows, and check the door hinges too.

[supplyguy]

I don't know Fiats at all compared to the tremendously helpful and knowledgeable folks on this forum, but I have been tracking them on eBay (and Craigslist) for the past two years, and last week bought one myself sight unseen on eBay. Some observations from the last few years.....decent sellers will answer all your questions by phone and/or email, and will provide more photos than are published on eBay. They will also share deficiencies in the car, but probably not all. If they are not sharing info and photos and minimize dialogue, move on. Pricing can be funny....some starting wildly low and some ridiculously high. When there are no bids half way through the offering, either savvy Fiat watchers know something is not right with the car or the minimum opening bid is too high. Ignore the "buy it now" price.....the seller is usually rolling the dice with nothing to lose that someone will hate the bidding process, over value the car, and jump in. I bought mine last week for $3000 - $1200 less than the "buy it now"....and as the seller and I talked more on the phone before I bid, he shared with me his actual goal was easily a grand less than the buy it now. I have watched some cars generate 10-20 bids and sell for a fair price. Have seen some generate a handful of bids and never hit the reserve. When cars haven't hit the reserve and vanish from eBay it doesn't hurt to reach out to the seller and see if the car is still available. I also tracked cars where sales ended and noted their last unsuccessful bids (and number of bids) so that when they were relisted, I knew how much the price dropped. Some cars get listed three or four times with a nice drop in price. Most cars over the past two years sold for less than $5000...many for $3000 or less. A few have sold for $6000-7500. One for $9000 and one for $11000. There's a beauty out there that's been listed for $16k for the last two years. Dealers who list on eBay (just my experience) overprice their cars and are less interested in having a dialogue - they generally don't have the history on the car private sellers do. And as with the other responses, although it's no guarantee of reliability it meant a great deal to me when the seller not only had documentation on repairs, but could speak to what has been done and what needs to be done (I have a great detailed file on my Ford truck - I can hardly explain what those repairs mean!). Last, I bought four used cars in the last few years and none looked as good when I showed up as they did online. When I was looking for Fiats in the $6-8000 range I was nervous as hell doing this long distance. When I dropped my target to $3000, my expectations and anxiety went way down. I now have a $3000 reserve to fix the stuff I missed. I pick my car up next Saturday - we'll see if my tune changes then! Good luck - Chuck.

[narfire]

Hey Chuck... great write up. Although I'm not looking (have 5 of the things) your essay is great. Thanks
Chris

[jez]

Thanks for the replies gents - much appreciated. I'll let you know how I get on!

[supplyguy]

Update. The car arrived on a trailer as promised. We had considered having PO leave the car at the hotel where I would be staying and leave the keys at the desk for me to pick up when I flew in, but I wanted a live turnover. Turns out it didn't matter. I have looked at many cars on CL and eBay and was prepared for it to be less than I imagined from the photos, and it was. A little more tired and worn than I had hoped. And several items that I specifically asked whether they were working, turned out not to work - wipers, heat, lighter/power socket (needed for our 350 mile drive home the next day). The PO was as nice live as on phone, but claimed befuddlement on things not working. Since I already owned the car, titled and registered, there was no point in sticking around - he also was of little help explaining how things on the car worked. I was so down when I shopped for spares for the drive home, I deliberately avoided buying a fire extinguisher, half hoping my troubled little car would go up in flames. BUT - the car made it 325 of the 350 miles home trouble free, and limped the last 25. Cleaned the fuel tank sender filter and it's running much stronger. I was really stupid and really lucky to drive it home like I did. Trailering would have been smart. Bottom line is while smart Fiat guys say buy as much car as you can up front to lessen the subsequent investment, count on there being a subsequent investment. In a few days I will take my car to a DCFIATS guru and learn just what needs to be done. Since I only spent $3000, I have $3000 in reserve to make this car right. And after driving it top down today without anything going wrong, I am optimistic that I made a good buy. Let me know if you take the plunge and good luck.