Would You Buy a Car from Facebook?

A while back, Facebook created Marketplace and surprise surprise, you can actually purchase a car there. So, would you? The answer to that question is that it seems to be gaining traction enough to start to make other online car sites worry; well, at least a bit.

Buying a used car online is not new and the quality of the cars that are being posted on Facebook is not demonstrably better than the other sites, such as Craigslist. So then what is the secret to the success of Facebook Marketplace, and why is it becoming preferred to the more established players?

According to industry insiders, there is a good reason for the rise in popularity and that is the lack of anonymity of the selling process. To sell on the Marketplace, you have to link your Facebook profile to the entry so that any potential buyer can see (roughly) from whom they are buying, and how long the account has been in existence. Thus, if there is scant information on an account that has very recently been created, you reasonably suspect that it is a shady and thus to be avoided account.

Fear of being scammed is probably the biggest turn-off for anyone contemplating buying online and the removal of anonymity is greatly reduced with Facebook Marketplace, where you can get directly in contact with the seller. But here is the thing having taken a look at a number of listings on the Marketplace; it would appear that there are a lot of badly written descriptions of the cars on the site and really it is a case of buyer beware if you decide to purchase a car from Facebook, as it is for any other way of buying a car.

WOULD YOU BUY A CAR FROM FACEBOOK? Let us know in the comments below.