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.