Re: [alfa] Pros and Cons : Ebay

[Joe Elliott <jee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 4:07 PM +0000 8/12/04, alfa-digest wrote:
> Date: Wed, 11 Aug 2004 22:39:21 -0700 (PDT)
> From: johnny b <deepblue609@domain.elided>
> Subject: [alfa] Pros and Cons : Ebay
>
> This is a bit off topic, but not really as I am considering buying 
> an Alfa on ebay :)  Has anyone here bought an Alfa they've never 
> seen before?  This prospect scares me a bit, but things being the 
> way they are, the search for that perfect car must go far and wide.
>
> John
I haven't, but my parents just did in June.  I didn't think they'd 
buy it sight unseen, but they did only because we couldn't find 
anyone to inspect it for them.  It was also being sold by the same 
dealer who sold it new and serviced it, and they seemed honest.  My 
parents wanted the lowest-mileage 164LS in the country, and this one 
had 49k mi on the clock.  They also preferred black over any other 
color and this one was black, and asthetically immaculate. 
Personally, I wouldn't spend that sort of money on an unseen eBay car 
and expect it to be a reliable daily-driver with no additional 
investment.  But I probably would buy a $500 beater or a $100 parts 
car, for what that's worth.  I have bought a lot of Alfa parts on 
eBay and only been ripped off once.

Although I didn't have any luck with this particular car, the digest 
can be a good resource for finding local Alfisti to inspect a car for 
you.  An auction can obviously make the logistics more complex, 
though.  My dad discovered too late that eBay offers (through some 
other company, I assume) a service where (for a fee) they send a 
professional used car inspector person to look at and drive the car. 
While this might have made sense for a 164, it's hard to say if their 
used car-inspecting expertise would be of any use for a 2600 or a 
Montreal.  We did do the Carfax routine, which, as usual revealed 
nothing of value besides reasonable assurance that the odometer 
hadn't been fudged with.

The car seems pretty much as-described.  The clutch take-up isn't as 
smooth as I think it should be, and that's obviously the sort of 
thing that a local Alfisti or professional used car inspector person 
would have noticed.  There are also some noises under the hood that 
worry my dad, but I don't know enough about the 164 to comment on 
them.  The car is at European Auto Specialists (nee Prestige Imports) 
in Cincinnati right now for its 50k mi service, so we'll soon know if 
it's going to be a money pit or not.

Hope that helps,
Joe Elliott
'82 GTV-6
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