I am writing this guide to share with the ebay community about buying trucks off of this site. I hope that this guide will be helpful, especially those who are new to the ebay community. I have never had a successful ebay buying experience when it comes to buying trucks off of ebay. This latest buy was no exception.

 I bought a v8 s10 off of ebay the other week for $1600 which was somewhat of a good deal (item: 280014588174). The last buying experience ended in disaster because the truck's motor blew up within 50 miles and there were about 20 things wrong with the truck that was not mentioned. I lost about $2500 in that deal because I thought there was no way of getting out of a binding contract. This time around I made sure that I would not get scammed. Before buying this truck I made sure that it would make it from Dayton Ohio to Fredericksburg, VA. The seller assured me that it should make it here without any problems, just drive slower because of the low gearing in the truck. That was the only problem with the truck that the seller disclosed to me before I won. After the auction had ended he mentioned that the horn was not working and the parking brake might be broken. He said that he did not want to try the parking brake because it could freeze up the brakes on him. I still thought, well those are some minor issues with the truck so I will continue and buy.

This time around I knew that I would have to pay in person so that I would not lose any additional money. Before I took a look at the truck I wanted the seller to get a mechanic to take a look at it and make sure it would be alright to drive 500 miles. The seller said the mechanic looked it over and made sure it would be good for a long trip. I made my way off to ohio on a bus which was a 18 hour trip. When I arrived, the seller picked me up in his other s10 that he had and I was kinda leary because he had no shoes or socks on. It was a little scary also because he ran about 2 or 3 stop lights. When I went to his house the truck started up right away and sounded very good. Nice little rumble and lopy. I took it for a test spin and did very well. The truck was fast and it drove pretty good also.

When I got back to the house the problems started to rise. I noticed a small smoke cloud rising up from the passengers side door! I looked under the hood and sure enough the oil was dripping onto the exhaust. This was no slow drip, it was dripping at a pretty good rate. I noticed that both the engine and transmission were leaking oil. I also noticed that there was white smoke coming up from the tailpipes. For those of you who do not know white smoke means you are burning oil. Burning oil means you usually have something wrong with the engine such as your piston rings are worn out. The seller said that both the engine and transmission had about 20,000 miles on them. Ok, so why are they leaking? And why is the engine smoking?

 I knew it would not be a good idea to drive back to Virginia in the shape that this truck was in. I also looked under the truck and found that there was no parking brake system. The backup lights did not work. So I spent almost a day getting out there to find the truck is not worthy to drive such a long distance. Back to the bus station I went. Another grueling 18 hour journey back home. The seller said that he did not misrepresent the truck and would like money for his ebay fees and gas money for driving to and from the bus station. I told him before I won the auction that he should tell me everything that was wrong with the truck to avoid wasting both of our time and money. I wasted 2 days of agony driving on a greyhound bus and $150 in travel expenses. I feel that I could not waste anymore money paying for his fees and gas.

 I do not know if this guy is a scam artist or not but I thought this guide might be helpful. He might just be a poor guy who is in desperate need of some money. His username is synaman  his rating is now at 0 because I left him negative feedback for wasting my time and money. He might also go by other usernames.  I cannot put his personal information on here but if you buy a vehicle from this guy you might want to watch out!  He left me negative feedback saying that I knew about all the problems before and that he wants money for gas.  I learned about these problems after the auction, after wasting 2 days on a bus, and after spending $150 on travel.  I already wasted my money so I  did not have any money to pay for his gas.  He was the one who chose not to list the problems until after the auction and not tell me about the other problems with the truck.  Could his low rating mean that he changes user names ofen or has more than one account?

If you buy a vehicle off of ebay it is probably best to take a look at it in person and pay in person. Test drive it and see if there are any things not mentioned and if you are not happy with the vehicle get the seller to fix the things he lied about or forgot to mention.  See if all the lights work, rust damage, and if your not sure what to look for in a vehicle, then take it to a mechanic.  Most likely the guy did not get a mechanic to check the vehicle out because of the major problems with the truck.  It might be best to take it to the mechanic yourself.  You can also get a vehicle inspection purchased through ebay motors which costs $100.  A $100 inspection is better than spending your hard earned money on a useless piece of junk.  You can always walk away if the vehicle is not the same vehicle described in the auction.  Yes, there is a binding contract but I think if the seller misrepresents the vehicle, he voids the binding contract. 

I saw the same truck listed on ebay today the 29th of October 2006 sold by ewaldracing73 (item number 190045964384 )  Maybe he fixed all the problems with the truck?  I saw that he lives in Michigan so maybe the truck could have made it all the way back to Virginia.  I just did not want to take my chances with the truck braking down.  Also I would have had to rebuild the engine, transmission, and all the other things wrong with the truck. 

Thanks and hope this was helpful. If this guide was helpful, then please vote for it at the bottom of the screen.