£100 VW Golf from eBay motors drives 5000 miles in desert

Rupert Gillingham and Sam Fenton purchased a sixteen year old car from eBay motors and drove from Plymouth to Banjul in Gambia. They were part of 200 cars entered into the Plymouth-Banjul Challenge 2007

Along the way they were robbed, had to bribe police checkpoints with sweets, hit by a bus on a ferry crossing and had to dig the car out of the sand in force 10 gales. However the trip did raise about £7000 for the Round Table Children's Wish and Yorkshire Cancer Research charities - not bad for a hundred quid motor from eBay!

The tax man just bought me a new car

It's not often I find something new to do on eBay, but I did this week. For the first time I purchased a motor from eBay.

As mentioned in our post Accounting for your accountant purchasing a commercial vehicle would be advantageous from a tax perspective. At the busiest time of year in sales there was no time for running around garages to choose a motor so eBay motors was an obvious choice. However the purchase was not made directly through eBay.

eBay recently introduced a new listing format specifically for eBay motors called Classified Ad Format. Classified Ad Format allows sellers to list vehicles for a 28 day period at a fixed price, but the sale is completed off eBay in the same way as if you were buying from a traditional newspaper advert. The big advantage is that it's possible to search the whole country to find your ideal vehicle and that's exactly what I did!

Crewe is the place I found it, and yesterday saw me spending three hours on the train (passing the time reading Ben Elton's latest novel). The dealer collected me from the train station and after swiping my debit card (I'm sure that's not the best way to pay for a car!) I was on my way back south.

You might think travelling a couple of hundred miles to buy a car you've never seen is a bit of a risk, and normally it would be. However eBay does give you a lot of peace of mind. Firstly the motor I chose was offered for sale by a professional vehicle dealer displaying the Car Dealer Icon shown on the right. Also with Classified Ad Format the only way of completing the deal is to talk directly to the seller enabling you to ask for additional information to satisfy you regarding the transaction. It's not like bidding on an auction.

So the perfect motor for business use, plenty of space for stock or the odd delivery, still comfortable enough for long distance trips, and importantly seating for four! Best of all because this one was bought for business use the cost can be written off against tax



All in all a great buying experience, if you're looking for either a car for personal use or a commercial motor, eBay motors is a great place to buy from.

Tuk Tuk or Tuc Tuc to a new motor on eBay

Tuctuc Ltd runs a fleet of twelve motorised rickshaws in Brighton. Routes cover the seafront from Hove to the Marina and into town to the train station. The twelve three-wheelers named after the distinctive sound they make (Tuc Tuc or Tuk Tuk) are now to be auctioned on eBay in the New Year and will be replaced with ten larger models.


This is a chance to own a really fun vehicle, perfect for dropping the kids off to school or a quick trip into town. Environmentally friendly running on natural gas they're a snip to park in the smallest of spaces, much more practical than a motorcycle and a lot less effort than a bicycle. Bidding is expected to be in excess of £5000 for these must have motors.

CLD eBay.co.uk Motors 18th & 19th November

Well what a week for CLD's as one finishes another starts! Free Listing all weekend on eBay motors. Ok so listing on Motors is only six quid, but six quids add up if you're a trader with a bunch of motors to shift!