Should I buy this car?

Hi everyone, I hope someone can help me with this.

I have just bid for and won a car on ebay - £705 for a great condition Saab 9-3 2.0T 2002.

I went with the cash last night to see the car and it looked and sounded good, but I had a query with the V5C and wanted to check it out before making an expensive mistake.

The guy selling the car is not the registered keeper on the V5C and section 9 is missing.

He claims that he bought the car 2 months ago from a friend for £1,000 but was unable to keep up with the insurance payments, was very sick and got made redundant and so has decided to sell it!

He says he is not a motor dealer and that his friend isn't either. He does not know the registered keeper listed and is not sure how his friend came about owning the vehicle.

He does not have any bill of sale from his friend to prove how the car came into his possession.

I understand section 9 is for sales to a motor trader, which leads me to conclude that the original registered keeper sold it to a motor trader - and the V5C has then been passed from owner to owner without anyone re-registering the car.

He offered to sign section 8 as if he was the registered keeper - but this sounds potentially fraudulent. He also offered to write me a bill of sale/letter to DVLA....but that's no good unless he does actually own the car.

Everything else seems fine - we did a quick check on the car (via Cartextcheck.co.uk) and it has no stolen record and has not been scrapped or been subject to a total loss claim. The VIN numbers also match the V5C.

Is there any way of proving who actually owns the car and whether he can legitimately sell it to me?

Am I right in thinking it all sounds a little dodgy? He has no history as a seller on eBay either - this was his first sale.

Any help/insights would be much appreciated!

loto