I feel like i should have known better than to buy a 25 year old car on ebay, but I thought the ad and the description of the car sounded too good to pass up. So I bought it, payed $1450 ($950 car + $500 shipping). Got it a couple days ago and it was a complete wreck! I thought he had sent me the wrong car. The car described in the ad had "no rust" and an "immaculate interior". Who is he kidding? The bottoms of all the doors are completely rusted out! There is moss growing on the inside of the rear windshield. The ebay item # is 4613053293. I've attached some pics. Never again will i take my chances with a car I dont see in person! Help. WHat are my options to get my money back? Ebay?...Paypal?... I contacted the seller but I dont think he is going to agree to giving me my money back. I realize that i didnt pay a ton of money and I didnt expect a brand new car, but when the guy uses the word "immaculate" to describe the interior, I didnt think that a big chunk of wood trim would be broken, or there would be a tear in the seat or moss growing on the rear windshield!

Steve

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'00 Golf TDI
'81 300D

I hate that, but why did you expect to buy something that cheap and not have problems?

The greatest lessons I learned, drained my wallet. At least it was on a small amount of $$.

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1981 300D 147k
1998 VW Jetta Tdi 320k
2001 Dodge Ram 2500 141k
1979 300D 234k (sold)
1984 300D "Astor" 262k(sold)
Mercedes How-To and Repair Pictorials
I love the smell of diesel smoke in my hair

Oh ya, i almost forgot the stitching that has come undone on the rear seats, broken side compartment, completely bald tires and crack in teh windshield.

Steve

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'00 Golf TDI
'81 300D

Like I said, I was going off the item desription, pics and the conversation I had with the guy (i called hime on the phone to ask questions). Regardless of the price, I should have gotten what was desribed as a car in "good running condition" with "no rust" and an "immaculate interior". Its almost like he found the car in a scrapyard, took some pics from a distance and desribed a completely different car in his ad. The scary thing is that I was willing to pay more for it. I havent even mentioned the tranny problems since i cant really take a picture of that to show anyone.

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'00 Golf TDI
'81 300D

well that blows.. and the car was facing north for most of its time the seller screwed you over.. id totally report that

haha, i just remembered the funniest thing was that despite the car being a complete wreck, it is the first pre-1992 benz that I've ever seen that actually has a working power antenna. its the only thing on the car that works. Is there a chance that I can actually get any money back?

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'00 Golf TDI
'81 300D

What was the sellers feedback ...That tells all...

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83 300CDTurbo 307,000
2005 Honda Element 266,000
56 Nash Ambassador Country Club Special 34,000(under restoration presently)

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/car-audio-multimedia/125099-123-install-extreme-dynamat.html

In reality, you paid $950.00 and received a vehicle that is worth about what you paid for it.

Now, you can fight with the seller to get a refund, but the best you could ever hope for would be to pay $500. to ship it back to him and then get your $950. back.

Doesn't seem to make sense to me. If you really don't like repairing it, just sell it the way it is. I'm sure you'll get more than $450. for it unless the engine and transmission are shot.........then it's truly a parts car and is not worth even that.

That's worth something....

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Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

Steve, I paid 200 for all the front wood trim for my 300sd. I had the drivers seat side bolster leather replaced for $260 and that price included the front arm rest recovered at the same time on my 300SE. The leather expert did amazing work in Boston. If the car runs good you can scrounge doors for it easy enough. The bald tires are not a good sign of front end health and the broken windshield is expensive to replace. Try to work it out with the seller using the ebay dispute BEFORE you leave him any negative feedback.
Good luck! John

You got a pre-installed $600 In Dash Alpine 3-disc changer Cd-Player. It is fully fucntional with good speakers.
In all seriousness that does suck. Even with the rust though if it is mechanicly sound you probably could get $1,500 for it.

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1959 Gravely LI, 1963 Gravely L8, 1973 Gravely C12
1982 380SL
1978 450 SEL 6.9 euro restoration at 63% and climbing
1987 300 D
2005 CDI European Delivery
2006 CDI Handed down to daughter
2007 GL CDI. Wifes

Sorry to hear about your car. That hurts in more ways than one. I live in the midwest and nice cars are nearly impossible to find. I took a chance and bought a 240D off of ebay. I used my heart more than my head and got lucky. I probably paid too much but it was a damn near perfect car. Keep looking, nice cars are out there.

Kevin
240D manual
265000miles

I kinda like pmari's idea of making a webpage, but like KE mentioned, he doesnt have much feedback, so it wouldnt be a big deal for him to just change his ID. The deck is kinda cool, and it might have cost $600 including installation 10 years ago. Giving specific costs is a good idea, but if i asked him to just pay to repair the things he didnt mention, he would end up paying more than I paid for the car! Maybe i'll just pick one thing (like the cracked windsheild) and try to get him to pay for that. either way, i wouldnt actually get it fixed, i'd just sell it for what I can get. I spoke to my dad today (he's storing it for me) and he said that the engine is really solid (just a little blow-by) and starts pretty easily and sounds smooth. Hopefully someone will buy it for that. I also think the fuel pump has got to be worth something.

Steve

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'00 Golf TDI
'81 300D

You could probably make a little money on this car if you put a few days' easy work into it. It's sad that you said you weren't a mechanic, I mean if the engine and transmission still work alright you could adjust the valves, change filters, clean it up and pop the doorpanels and POR the doors, etc. and make maybe 1750 or 1800. Of course I haven't bothered to look at the eBay ad but there is a possibility you could make lemonade out of this lemon for very little dough and some time. Might even make you want to keep it. Otherwise just clean it up and try to sell it locally, see what happens. Truthfully, if you aren't a bit of a wrench you won't make out well with these vehicles.
I think you just didn't fully understand the nature of what you were getting into. The car you bought is 25 years old. Think about that. Some people can turn a wrench and others just don't have the talent or the initiative. If you are in that category it's time to turn it over before you really start losing money. If you can turn a wrench however and don't mind fixing some things, and if you're like me even enjoy the challenge of overcoming, well then life with these cars is beautiful indeed. They are extremely responsive to good maintenance.

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'02 BMW 325i
'85 300D 450k
'93 190E 2.6 170k(killed by tree)
'08 Ducati Hypermotard 1100S 6k
'06 Ducati S2R800 14k(sold)

I am sorry to hear that the car was misrepresented to you. However, to put a positive spin on it, I really think that you did ok anyway.

I am in Wisconsin. Any kind of car that runs at all will bring $1,000-1500 around here. Doesn't matter if it is a Mercedes or a Ford Escort--If it runs that is what it will bring.

I know of a 82 300D that was for sale on ebay from someone in Indiana. The car was not running, partialy dissasembled, and stored in a shed on a farm for 2-3 years. It had rust, cracks in dash, missing wood, and rear bumper trim. All the seller knew was that it had overheating issues prior to being parked. This still sold for $1,500.

I think you could part out what you have and get your money back if you wanted to.

While it still sucks, it really isn't all that bad.