If you were looking to buy another car, where would you look?
 

I alway look on Autotrader. And I alway think that gumtree and ebay will lead to trouble.

Am i wrong?

Lots of scouring autotrader, eBay and general searches. But I do visit all the local garages to look at what's there.

Im usually offered a car every few days, TBH half of NI's 75/zts will end up going through my hands at this rate of buying and selling them.

It is also worth checking out your local car auction, I have one not far from my house and it amazes me how little some of the cars fetch. A couple of weeks ago there was a lovely 75 Estate V6 with a decent MOT with lots of toys it went for under £300. I was tempted.

Yes, of course you're wrong.

With both eBay and gumtree you're under no obligation to pay for something that isn't as described when you go to view it.

A lot of good cars get advertised on Gumtree because it's free and 65% of the UK population aged between 26 and 72 either have an eBay account, or have sold something on eBay so it remains the go to venue for a lot of decent people.

When it comes to these cars auction houses tend to be a good place to buy someone else's problem, which is okay if you have the budget and/or ability to fix whatever's wrong.

Bought my ZT off of eBay 7 years ago.

Really depends upon your budget and marque. If you were going for a late prestige model, I would probably go down the main dealer route - chances are it will have been checked out in their workshop and serviced prior to sale. But, other than that, you pays your money and takes your chance.
Private sellers are not covered under the Sale of Goods Act (unless demonstrably misleading), and some 'trade sellers' seem to think they are not also.:}

Mike

ebay, Forum, Autotrader

To be fair the best 75/ZT I owned I bought of ebay private seller, but then again the worst one I bought was also off ebay. 6 and 2 3s.

Have bought plenty of cars off eBay, including mis-described cars, simply adjust your winning bid by the damage not disclosed and be prepared to walk away, but when you're stood in front of them with a rucksack full of cash, sellers will always negotiate, especially if they know they're in the wrong.