Your worst private car selling experience..

Sizzler · 25-04-2008 2:23pm #1

About 2 years ago had my car up for sale on carzone, got a lad to come from the ars*hole of Kildare to come and see it at 930 on a Sunday morning.

Two lads roll up, turned up in a 1990 OY reg Nissan Sunny that frankly look liked it had pushed up to Dublin !

Car had literally just been NCT'd (Passed first time no problems) New Tyres, serviced and had 9 months to run on the road tax. The lads preceeded to spend the next HOUR going through the car with a fine tooth comb, LOOKING under the bonnet...nothing more ! Sitting in all the seats and bouncing on them (I kid you not) lifting the mats etc etc. You get the drift !

They then spent 15 mins discussing the NCT cert between them. They then took the car for a spin and barely got the revs high enough to get out of 3rd gear, despite a 3 mile drive.

Then the piéce de lá resistance, he makes me an offer when we get back to the house, of €1500 less than the asking price :eek: I said you're having a laugh mate and he then says the front axle differential on the NCT cert was a few mm off where he would have liked to be !!!! With that I bid farewell and went back to bed :pac:

BnA · 25-04-2008 2:39pm

Ha Ha Ha. That's a classic.

I (like half the young fellas in the country) imported and sold on a few cars a few years ago. I have no particular horror stories but one of the main reasons I stopped doing it is because of all the freggin time wasters.

Sherifu · 25-04-2008 2:48pm

Sizzler wrote: »

he then says the front axle differential on the NCT cert was a few mm off where he would have liked to be !!!! With that I bid farewell and went back to bed :pac:

Classic. Don't have any stories. The only cars I sold so far was 1 to a friend and 1 to my brother.

bazz26 · 25-04-2008 3:00pm

Don't you just hate tyre kickers.

kaizersoze1980 · 25-04-2008 3:01pm

why do people bother going to see a car if they have no interest in it?
Bit of a waste of their own time no?

Dermo123 · 25-04-2008 3:13pm

I had a guy that claimed to be Italian and was driving a rented car looking to buy a Peugeot 406 I had for sale about 3 years ago. The first thing he said the minute he got out of his car was to tell me that my car looked like it was a crashed car as there was a different shade of colour on the different panels. Absolute bollox. Then he proceeded to open and close the doors and said they don't line up. Told me stories about how friends of his got caught out with a crashed car before etc etc and it was not worth it for the hassle.
So I tested his resolve and put it to him that he is not interested in my car if he believes that it is a crashed car. "Maybe we can talk about the price was his reply". I drove away and left him there. I sold the car a week later to Irish people living in my area and they still have the car with no issues.

There are guys going around trying to convince clueless sellers that their cars are in poor shape so as to try and get a substancial discount. Its the law of the jungle and there are enough people around trying to get rid of cars that its a buyers world.

A chap at work here just paid €3,500 for a 2003 Alfa 156 1.8 with 67K miles and a brand new engine supported by full documentation. I know Alfas don't fetch much but that is cheap by any stretch of the imagination and an indication of the 2nd hand market currently.

Murt10 · 25-04-2008 3:15pm

As a young fella years ago, we used to go looking at private cars that were for sale and take them for a test drive. The bigger and more sporty the better. We hadn't the slightest intention of buying them but we used to give them a real lash.

No insurance or anything like that. Hadn't even got a full licence.

Most fun was had when the owner chose not to accompany us. Foot to the floor all the way, wheelspins, locking brakes, oversteer, understeer, skidding, handbrake turns, humps.... We had supreme confidence in our driving ability.

Now that I think about it we were terribly irresponsible. Ahh the joys of youth!
At least stealing cars for joyriding wasn't fashionable in those days. Still it's funny how your attitude changes as you get older.

Beta Ray Bill · 25-04-2008 3:24pm

Murt10 wrote: »

As a young fella years ago, we used to go looking at private cars that were for sale and take them for a test drive. The bigger and more sporty the better. We hadn't the slightest intention of buying them but we used to give them a real lash.

No insurance or anything like that. Hadn't even got a full licence.

Most fun was had when the owner chose not to accompany us. Foot to the floor all the way, wheelspins, locking brakes, oversteer, understeer, skidding, handbrake turns, humps.... We had supreme confidence in our driving ability.

Now that I think about it we were terribly irresponsible. Ahh the joys of youth!
At least stealing cars for joyriding wasn't fashionable in those days. Still it's funny how your attitude changes as you get older.

WAIT A SEC...

let me get a drink and a comfy chair.

*gets drink, sits down*

Ok begin (this is gonna be good)

prospect · 25-04-2008 3:28pm

grahambo wrote: »

WAIT A SEC...

let me get a drink and a comfy chair.

*gets drink, sits down*

Ok begin (this is gonna be good)

Me too, I'll have put the buttered popcorn in the microwave...

javaboy · 25-04-2008 3:34pm

Any minute now

Cmar-Ireland · 25-04-2008 3:42pm

Did a similar thing myself when I was younger, test driving cars with no intention of buying. Although I didn't rag any of them. But it was cool (at the time) to see what I could blag a drive in.

NiSmO · 25-04-2008 3:55pm

This post has been deleted.

JoeySully · 25-04-2008 3:56pm

had a guy with a darker complection

buying a car from me once - first car i ever sold actually. He looked at the car was happy with it didnt find anything wrong with it then proceeded to talk about nostadamus and the stars and god and how if you do a favour for someone that it gets returned to you tenfold then he offered me less than half the asking price to which i refused did a bit more talking about the stars and then asks me "so we have a deal then? " - i just left him doing a favor for someone is good and all but not in business or money i think

Eoin · 25-04-2008 5:02pm

I had some Indian guys looking at mine last year, and because of the tiny ///M sticker that were on the alloys I bought, they were under the impression it was an M3. A 4 door, 2 litre diesel M3. Bear in mind that I had not de-badged it, added an ///M badge to the boot, or any M-Tech body kit.

We didn't agree a sale in the end (laughable offer from them), but I still wonder if I hadn't been so honest would they have stumped up the cash.

bman · 25-04-2008 5:06pm

Murt10 wrote: »

As a young fella years ago, we used to go looking at private cars that were for sale and take them for a test drive. The bigger and more sporty the better. We hadn't the slightest intention of buying them but we used to give them a real lash.

No insurance or anything like that. Hadn't even got a full licence.

Most fun was had when the owner chose not to accompany us. Foot to the floor all the way, wheelspins, locking brakes, oversteer, understeer, skidding, handbrake turns, humps.... We had supreme confidence in our driving ability.

Now that I think about it we were terribly irresponsible. Ahh the joys of youth!
At least stealing cars for joyriding wasn't fashionable in those days. Still it's funny how your attitude changes as you get older.

This has to be a troll. Please feed though as I wouldn't mind a laugh!!

Gatster · 25-04-2008 5:51pm

Murt10 wrote: »

As a young fella years ago, we used to go looking at private cars that were for sale and take them for a test drive...We hadn't the slightest intention of buying them but we used to give them a real lash.

When you say 'years ago' are you sure it wasn't after Xmas...pretty much everyone that came to see my Impreza gave this impression LOL

jetski · 25-04-2008 6:00pm

Murt10 wrote: »

As a young fella years ago, we used to go looking at private cars that were for sale and take them for a test drive. The bigger and more sporty the better. We hadn't the slightest intention of buying them but we used to give them a real lash.

No insurance or anything like that. Hadn't even got a full licence.

Most fun was had when the owner chose not to accompany us. Foot to the floor all the way, wheelspins, locking brakes, oversteer, understeer, skidding, handbrake turns, humps.... We had supreme confidence in our driving ability.

Now that I think about it we were terribly irresponsible. Ahh the joys of youth!
At least stealing cars for joyriding wasn't fashionable in those days. Still it's funny how your attitude changes as you get older.

proper little knacker, jesus i would have given you some kick in the arse if you did that in my car...

buckfast4me · 25-04-2008 8:38pm

lol this reminds of the time last year my friend was selling his skyline, gtr 2.5 litre turbo. Every anto, micko and wacker from Dublin must have come out to "take it for a spin". After a few of these wasters he decided to ask them to produce a full license if they wanted to test drive it (his reasoning was I think they would need a full license for their insurance policy to cover them driving other cars). Soon stopped the time-wasters, kind of discriminatory against provisional drivers tho lol. I'm not even sure some of the lads showing up had any sort of license at all tho.

L-M · 27-04-2008 12:18am

Hah! I sold a car last week, i walked out to the drive, they looked at it for no more than 5 mins, then handed me a big lump of cash and off they went back to Ennis... Tryin to sell my wee Polo now, no horror stories as of yet.

Sam Kade · 27-04-2008 12:48am

I always deal with a garage. I read last week where a 22 year old girl bought a car off ebay uk. She got a loan of £4000 from her parents to pay for it. It was a 02 VW beetle a bargain for 4k. She rang the seller and did a history check on the car, everything was perfect so she paid the seller at the end of auction. She was told that the car would be delivered in three days, five days past no car so she contacted the seller with an email but got no answer, she also rang and got no answer. The one important thing she forgot to do was go to see the car before she paid and ask to see all documentation for the car. The seller had taken a picture of a car at random and done a history check on it and put it up for sale on ebay. She can't get the money back.

BostonB · 27-04-2008 12:59am

Sam Kade wrote: »

I always deal with a garage. I read last week where a 22 year old girl bought a car off ebay uk. She got a loan of £4000 from her parents to pay for it. It was a 02 VW beetle a bargain for 4k. She rang the seller and did a history check on the car, everything was perfect so she paid the seller at the end of auction. She was told that the car would be delivered in three days, five days past no car so she contacted the seller with an email but got no answer, she also rang and got no answer. The one important thing she forgot to do was go to see the car before she paid and ask to see all documentation for the car. The seller had taken a picture of a car at random and done a history check on it and put it up for sale on ebay. She can't get the money back.

What has buying privately got to do with a fool who buys something off ebay?

Sam Kade · 27-04-2008 1:09am

BostonB wrote: »

What has buying privately got to do with a fool who buys something off ebay?

Buying off ebay is buying privately
:rolleyes:

BostonB · 27-04-2008 1:30am

Ok be pedantic. Its so useful. How has a fool buying something off ebay, led you to the sweeping conclusion that you should only buy off a garage. Considering that ebay auto sales are only a tiny % of private sales, and those by fools lacking even the minimum of common sense, even smaller % again.

BnA · 27-04-2008 6:53am

Dermo123 wrote: »

I had a guy that claimed to be Italian and was driving a rented car looking to buy a Peugeot 406 I had for sale about 3 years ago. The first thing he said the minute he got out of his car was to tell me that my car looked like it was a crashed car as there was a different shade of colour on the different panels. Absolute bollox. Then he proceeded to open and close the doors and said they don't line up. Told me stories about how friends of his got caught out with a crashed car before etc etc and it was not worth it for the hassle.
So I tested his resolve and put it to him that he is not interested in my car if he believes that it is a crashed car. "Maybe we can talk about the price was his reply". I drove away and left him there. I sold the car a week later to Irish people living in my area and they still have the car with no issues.

There are guys going around trying to convince clueless sellers that their cars are in poor shape so as to try and get a substancial discount. Its the law of the jungle and there are enough people around trying to get rid of cars that its a buyers world.

A chap at work here just paid €3,500 for a 2003 Alfa 156 1.8 with 67K miles and a brand new engine supported by full documentation. I know Alfas don't fetch much but that is cheap by any stretch of the imagination and an indication of the 2nd hand market currently.

I wonder was that the famous Con man who goes around trying to sell people dodgy suits ?

Sam Kade · 27-04-2008 9:19am

BostonB wrote: »

Ok be pedantic. Its so useful. How has a fool buying something off ebay, led you to the sweeping conclusion that you should only buy off a garage. Considering that ebay auto sales are only a tiny % of private sales, and those by fools lacking even the minimum of common sense, even smaller % again.

What are you going on about? I never said that I would only buy off a garage because ebay is too risky. I was just giving an example. For your information it was a buy it now sale what's the difference between that and carzone?

Seth Brundle · 27-04-2008 9:21am

eoin_s wrote: »

I had some Indian guys looking at mine last year, and because of the tiny ///M sticker that were on the alloys I bought, they were under the impression it was an M3. A 4 door, 2 litre diesel M3. Bear in mind that I had not de-badged it, added an ///M badge to the boot, or any M-Tech body kit.

We didn't agree a sale in the end (laughable offer from them), but I still wonder if I hadn't been so honest would they have stumped up the cash.

I had the exact same when trying to sell my E30 320i which also had an ///M badge (and bodykit, etc.). The guy was nearly shouting at me that I had actually got an M3.

Another fella rang one afternoon from Kerry after seeing the ad in the buy & sell. Himself and two others drove up to Leixlip to see the car. The first thing they said to me was "I thought you said it was a two door". I replied that I ever mentioned the number of doors when he phoned but if he looks again at the buy and sell, it says four doors. They mde a crappy offer and then back to the Kingdom they went!

I also had every skanger in Dublin call asking if it had an lsd - no other questions!!!

BostonB · 27-04-2008 10:33am

Sam Kade wrote: »

What are you going on about? I never said that I would only buy off a garage because ebay is too risky. I was just giving an example.

I was asking you to explain this comment....

Sam Kade wrote: »

I always deal with a garage. I read last week where a 22 year old girl bought a car off ebay uk. ....

But I now realise you're not aware of what you wrote, or what it implies, so forget it.

masseyno9 · 27-04-2008 11:37am

Sam Kade wrote: »

What are you going on about? I never said that I would only buy off a garage because ebay is too risky. I was just giving an example. For your information it was a buy it now sale what's the difference between that and carzone?

You do know that carzone is just advertisements? you have to contact the seller yourself, and go see the car and make the transaction yourself, between you and the seller. Essentially its a 'buy and sell' thats just for cars.

eBay is very different. it is an online auction site with online payment, so if some fool decides to part with that amount of money for a car without checking it out then thats their problem. Similar to buying privately if you dont know what to look for you may get stung with a piece of sh!t.

Golden rule, if you don't know what to look for, start by looking for an actual car

BostonB · 27-04-2008 1:23pm

Theres lots of horror stories about selling from garages too. But this thread is abut selling your car, I thought.

pontovic · 27-04-2008 1:29pm

That girl fell for a classic car sales scam. What the scammer does is advertise a very good example of a car for a masive knockdown price, like the 2004 VW Polo SDi Twist I saw for £2000 on autotrader.co.uk.

The easiest way to spot these ads is to look out for people who say 'I have lost my phone so please email me at this address', followed by a hotmail or gmail address. The car in question is usually a legit car for sale but the scammer has copied the pictures, so the reg will always check out as HPI clear and the car won't come up as stolen. I got the ball rolling to see how things would happen.

Some woman who claimed to be Dutch said she was moving back home and needed a quick sale. I added her to my gmail chat and was emailing and chatting away to her about the car.

For payment, she wanted me to use a third party 'escrow' service, so I agreed and then she asked me to send money via Western Union to an address in the North of England. She also told me that when I was sending the money, I should tell them I was sending money to a relative, so as to save on some sort of transfer tax. This was a ploy to protect her so I would have no legal comeback.

In the end I sent the address she sent me onto the ebay online fraud division and I tried sending it to the Metropolitan Police but I couln't figure out how, not that I would have expected them to do much.

You just have to watch out for these things and if a deal seems to good to be true, then it generally is.

Koopa · 27-04-2008 2:09pm

are the people falling for this scam buying cars without even test-driving them?

Your worst private car selling experience..

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