Buying a motorhome from ebay

We have had 13 vans and all but two were bought & sold on Ebay so yes it's fine but you do need to have your wits about you for the buying side and you need to have clue about vans and be quite abrupt with sellers as they can be quite evasive.

I very quickly found that "some" seller didn't mind telling a porky or two, but I was in it for the money as well as liking the hobby so I had to be keen when looking at a potential van, I had to be all over it, I didn't mind if it had problems as that was where I could add value, so long as it wasn't rot or rust as I couldn't deal with that without giving money to someone else, I've had just about any other problem you care to mention and fixed them before moving them on, and it's allowed me to run a van for nothing since 2006.
 
Swifts are no better or worse than others, the first issue is the dealer, do they care? do they do a proper PDI, do they fix all problems found on the PDI? does the first owner have to do his own PDI? does the dealer fix the problems found by the owner? does the owner have a clue what he is looking at, and if he reports issues does the dealer fix them and fix them properly? then does then first owner make so many screw ups in owning it that the poor sod who gets it used have to go around fixing all the first owners feck ups.

We looked at a van at a dealers before buying this one, it was a bargain, same age and make/model as ours, one owner from new, only used to go fishing with with his three brothers I was told, only 8 thousand miles on it, and £15k cheaper than ours, I was tempted to have a go at it as the price gave me loads of leeway to sort it, but there wasn't a single cupboard door that didn't need replacing, the shower door was off the shower floor was covered in sealant, nothing worked like it should, it drove spot on and the exterior was spotless, but I had to walk away as it was just so wrecked, I did make an offer on it a few days later £5k lower but it was being sold on behalf of the owner and they though it was a great van. I found out later that they never caught any fish they just filled it up with booze and didn't come home until it had all gone, it eventually sold for £3k an 07 Swift ace Siena.
 
Ours had it's issues, bottom of the range but we like it, but the paper/vinyl veneer needs to be stuck down, the fridge only works if you talk to is very nicely, and it's had to have a ECU refurb, I had to refit two cupboard doors and the wardrobe door fell off on the way home, luckily it didn't damage anything and it was an easy fix.
 
We found a MH on eBay around 8 years ago that was not cheap cheap but worth a look. The script was very similar to as you quoted, I suggested I send a truck to see it and maybe collect, seller then had to travel abroad.

I wonder why..
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That said we bought our first one on EBay, Did all the checks visited at registered address all fine. Paid £17k sold it for £21k a year later
 
Robmac said:
I don't think they're any worse than other makes in that respect Trev.

I know several people who own or have owned them and have been very pleased with them.
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My local dealer wont touch them with a stick, mainly german m homes sold here.
 
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