[shelbymotorsports]

Ebay has gone down hill over the past five years having really lost touch with both the sellers and buyers so it grabs my attention when they appear to do something right.

It seems ebay is now putting in vehicle history report summaries at the top of vehicle auctions and if the car has been wrecked they highlight the summary in red.

So its funny to see an ebay auction title for a Shelby that says in "Great Shape" but when you open the auction up theres a big red flag staring at you. For example this auction that says in great shape but opens up to a warning of accident damage and title issues. And to make it even better this great shape Shelby scores a 9 out of a possible score of 62. Ouch.

http://cgi.ebay.com/...:EF:MOTORS:1123

Here are two Hertz cars that look good until you see the vehicle history report showing they both have been previously wrecked. Funny how neither seller mentions this in their description.

http://cgi.ebay.com/...:EF:MOTORS:1123

http://cgi.ebay.com/...:EF:MOTORS:1123

Glad to see ebay do something for the users. It's been a while.

Steve

[Snake Handler]

Thanks for posting. I am glad that Ebay is starting to clean its act.

[Craigo]

You're right, it is a good thing and about time.

[shelbymotorsports]

It's especially good to see it on the Hertz cars as most rental car companies self insure which means they fix the car in-house so it normally doesn't appear on public records.

These two Hertz cars make me wonder when the accidents occured, before or after leaving rental duty. I'm guessing after because of the self insure thing.

Steve

[Ackman70]

This is a great addition. Hopefully it will keep someone from buying a lemon from a less then honest seller.

[Doug_GT350]

Ackman70, on Nov 9 2009, 07:24 PM, said:

This is a great addition. Hopefully it will keep someone from buying a lemon from a less then honest seller.

You mean to tell me that someone would sell a car and not be honest about it?!?!?

I'm glad to see Ebay taking the ball and running with it on this.

[springer]

Good for ebay. Now, if they could do something about all the counterfeit and fake merchandise being sold there I would really be impressed.

[shelbymotorsports]

springer, on Nov 9 2009, 05:14 PM, said:

Good for ebay. Now, if they could do something about all the counterfeit and fake merchandise being sold there I would really be impressed.

Now that's funny. Ebay stopping counterfeits

Ebay leaves it up to the manufacturers to police ebay auctions for counterfeits. Ebay does act when notified. In fact we caught someone last week selling fake SGT dash plaques but if we didn't see the auction it would have continued on.

Steve

[Stidog]

shelbymotorsports, on Nov 9 2009, 04:59 PM, said:

It's especially good to see it on the Hertz cars as most rental car companies self insure which means they fix the car in-house so it normally doesn't appear on public records.

These two Hertz cars make me wonder when the accidents occured, before or after leaving rental duty. I'm guessing after because of the self insure thing.

Steve

My 05 LL vert had a clean autochek, it was a hertz car, but it had been wrecked at least in the front drivers fender and rear fascia. Still inspect the car well. The broken glass under the seat, and runs in the paint were my first clue.... after I got her home and was waxing her.

[mywickedshelby]

The second Hertz car listed shows the accident 150 miles after the auction purchase!

somebody didnt get very far before they screwed up!

Nice find Steve, thanks for posting.

[MY500SS]

Great stuff. Thanks for posting Steve.

[gth0007]

Ebay is going down the same road as Sears, AOL, K-Mart and others who were once had a market to themselves. They just keep tinkering around and generally refuse to deal, on a case by case issue, with problem sellers and buyers. The Salvage car disclaimor may be a positive step but Ebay will turn it into a problem and additonal cost for honest sellers. All Ebay has to do is invest in some capable staff personnel to correct their problems which are many, ie, shill bidders, Ebay users with multiple IDs, abusers of the terrible feeback system (extortion if users don't get their way), excessive and complicated selling fees, non-payment deadbeat buyers (little or no recourse), fraudulent sellers from outside the U.S., etc etc. I now only sell or buy on Ebay as a last resort. If anyone buys a car on Ebay without doing due dilligence, including a live inspection, then don't count on Ebay to give you any comfort.

[svttim]

I found that you cant trust carfax or any of the reporting systems. I had a car that was clean in 2001. I ordered a new one to sell the car this year and low and behold, it had an accident. Then the rumors took off saying it was a total, which it was not. Its funny, everyone thinks because a car had an accident, it is worth so much less. I work with a body shop a lot and they work on a lot of brand new Chevy's under warrenty before they are ever delivered.

[gth0007]

Just a quick note about the Hertz Shelbys. I worked with Hertz for over 25 years and frequently was involved with auditing car sales and salvage documents to ensure the Hertz location was following Hertz Corporate policy when selling the cars. As "SHELBYMOTORSPORTS" stated, most Hertz cars are Self-Insured and will frequently NOT show accident damage on CarFax type reports. (unless the affected state sells private companies like CarFax their police generated accident reports with VIN number). All Corporate owned Hertz cars are sold at auctions with a few exceptions being the cars owned by Hertz Licensees. When running a car through the dealer auction, the seller (Hertz) is required to state if the car is a Green Light Car (no problems), Yellow Light Car (some problems or minor previous damage) or a Red Light Car (previous Theft, heavy damage, not running, or any othe known serious problems). A separate auction is generally used for the Salvage cars. A salvage car is defined as such based on the state laws and the value to damage ratios. In any event, ANY dealer that buys a Hertz Shelby FROM HERTZ at a Dealer Auction is fully aware of the car's condition. If serious previous damage is found by the Buying Dealer after the sale, they can return the car to the Auction who in turn deals with Hertz. This will occasionaly happen as we had some "creative customers" who wrecked the car, had it repaired, unknown to Hertz and then returned the car. So Hertz has little to gain by not declaring the true condition of the car. Also Hertz maintains a very complete file on every car which will have at least 4 pictures of previous damage, appraisal for repair reports, maintenance done, etc. Hertz has a Corporate Policy about releasing this file, so contact the Hertz Corporate office at 225 Brae Boulevard, Park Ridge, New Jersey, and someone can advise you how to get the file. Hope this helps,

[shelbymotorsports]

gth0007, on Nov 14 2009, 03:15 AM, said:

Just a quick note about the Hertz Shelbys. I worked with Hertz for over 25 years and frequently was involved with auditing car sales and salvage documents to ensure the Hertz location was following Hertz Corporate policy when selling the cars...........

Thanks for the view from the inside, GTH007.

Steve

[DarkShadow]

It was done to potect the pocketbook of ebay. They obviously got tired of paying out from their buyer protection plan account for all the crap cars that are sold on their site. If this wasn't the case, they wouldn't have started doing it. It's still a good thing for us, BUT...it wasn't put into place to protect the buyer. It was in the best interest of ebay plain and simple.

DS

[ITHERTZ]

I appreciate how the ebay cars now have history reports and rankings. Not sure how that will help old/vintage cars, but the late model ones will certainly provide more information now. I was interested in the CO Hertz, and noticed the accident report. Why wouldn't a seller disclose this upfront? It had both front fenders replaced (no VINs anymore on the fenders), the hood repaired, both headlights replaced, some stripes, etc. I had to talk to the body shop to get the information, and then it wasn't matching the story told by the owner. Still, I was interested in buying it at a discount, but when I finally got a hold of the owner after talking to the body shop, they had sold it to a guy in Canada outside of ebay. I left 3 messages, and even a phone call that got unreturned for 3 days - Owner ignored me once I started asking for documentation of the accident/repair estimate/work order..... Let's hope the new owner knew what he was buying. I guess it's his fault if he get's burned as he broke EBAY rules anyway...

[ITHERTZ]

gth0007, on Nov 14 2009, 05:15 AM, said:

Just a quick note about the Hertz Shelbys. I worked with Hertz for over 25 years and frequently was involved with auditing car sales and salvage documents to ensure the Hertz location was following Hertz Corporate policy when selling the cars. As "SHELBYMOTORSPORTS" stated, most Hertz cars are Self-Insured and will frequently NOT show accident damage on CarFax type reports. (unless the affected state sells private companies like CarFax their police generated accident reports with VIN number). All Corporate owned Hertz cars are sold at auctions with a few exceptions being the cars owned by Hertz Licensees. When running a car through the dealer auction, the seller (Hertz) is required to state if the car is a Green Light Car (no problems), Yellow Light Car (some problems or minor previous damage) or a Red Light Car (previous Theft, heavy damage, not running, or any othe known serious problems). A separate auction is generally used for the Salvage cars. A salvage car is defined as such based on the state laws and the value to damage ratios. In any event, ANY dealer that buys a Hertz Shelby FROM HERTZ at a Dealer Auction is fully aware of the car's condition. If serious previous damage is found by the Buying Dealer after the sale, they can return the car to the Auction who in turn deals with Hertz. This will occasionaly happen as we had some "creative customers" who wrecked the car, had it repaired, unknown to Hertz and then returned the car. So Hertz has little to gain by not declaring the true condition of the car. Also Hertz maintains a very complete file on every car which will have at least 4 pictures of previous damage, appraisal for repair reports, maintenance done, etc. Hertz has a Corporate Policy about releasing this file, so contact the Hertz Corporate office at 225 Brae Boulevard, Park Ridge, New Jersey, and someone can advise you how to get the file. Hope this helps,

I see no reason why this shouldn't be public knowledge and easy to access. One should be able to look up a car's repair history by VIN without worrying about privacy information as it relates to being owned by Hertz at the time. If dealers have access to this when they are bidding, so should the retail customer! You know the old saying..."Secrets are Lies!"

[tesgt350]

The Reports need to get better as well. Just because it says "Accident or damage reported" does NOT mean that the Vehicle was in an Accident. I have seen where "Accident or damage reported" has appeared on a Report and all that was wrong was where a part of a Panel was Painted because the Factory did not put enough Paint there and you could see Primer through the Factory Paint.

[GrabberOrange69]

gth0007, on Nov 13 2009, 03:01 AM, said:

Ebay is going down the same road as Sears, AOL, K-Mart and others who were once had a market to themselves. They just keep tinkering around and generally refuse to deal, on a case by case issue, with problem sellers and buyers...

Amen.

It was just too good of a deal to keep going. Reality it's the corporate "suits" whose only interest in TODAYs bottom line with no thought for long-term viability.

I watch EBAY to get an idea of what the going prices are, but it's not the same animal it was 10 years ago.

By the way, you can add magazine publishers to the above list - think primedia, etc.