Can you get the contact details of the previous owner of a car ?

bigjl

In your example I would think that would be a resonable request, but I don't think it would be reasonable to want to research the providence of a cars history prior to sale, unless you where buying a Ferrari F40 or a Bugatti Veyron.

bigjl

Jakg wrote: »

*rolls eyes*


I'm more than capable of looking at a car, thanks, but there are only so many things that you will notice in half an hour vs the years the owner had the car. Yes the owner could lie... but realistically who will be that quick and vindictive?

I wouldn't call it "harrasing" - both owners were very interested to know what happened to their cars, and were more than happy to answer my questions.

Luckily your opinion of what I feel is harassing is irrelevant to me, plus you never mentioned that it was somebody working out of a lock-up, I wouldn't even have looked at it, too high a risk for me, if I am buying from such a trader then I would rather save a few pounds and buy at auction.

I am glad that you have never met any quick and vindictive people.

Also as I have said above, if the new owner was to ring up to enquire about something such as cambelt changes or the whereabouts of the second key, i would consider that more reasonable, even more reasonable would be for them to write me a letter.
Another thing I would have grave doubts about a car with only stamps in the book, these stamps can be bought off ebay, no substitute for a print out or good old fashioned reciepts from a VAT reg business.

Though I am surprised that somebody was interested in a car that he freely admitted to never servicing, and knew that he sold it to a bloke working out of a lock-up.

Additionally the insurance will pay out for a car that was stolen with the keys. And I know that for a fact as it has happened to me, the only time they won't pay out is if you leave the keys in the ignition and leave the car unattened or insecure, such as the window or roof open.

harveybobbles

patman99 wrote: »

I mus admit that after I'd bought a Renault Espace, I wrote to the previous owner (ex directory) to ask when the timing belt was replaced being that the car had 125k on the clock.

Just hope they didnt reply with "yes, it was done at 145,000 miles..."

Jakg

bigjl wrote: »

Though I am surprised that somebody was interested in a car that he freely admitted to never servicing, and knew that he sold it to a bloke working out of a lock-up.

After I found out the dealer was full of !!!! and the car hadn't been cared for, I wasn't interested either. This particular car came up for sale in around March... it's still for sale. For £500 more... and is still advertised as having an FSH...!

The DEALER said the car had an FSH, that it'd been done from an MG Rover main dealer, and I could call to verify if I wanted - I wanted a really well cared for car. I took him up on this (as there were no stamps) but the dealership had since gone bust so I couldn't get hold of them... very convenient. I called the previous owner (with his address on the V5) who explained the cars true history (i.e. hadn't really been cared for...).

The guy PX'ed the car in a big-name dealership, and the guy had a contact in the dealership who sold him the stuff that was more "unique" (i.e. hard to shift)... from here the car ended up with the "dealers" from the lockup. He was also very interested to know how much the car he'd been told was "worthless" was up for sale for!

EDIT - Wasn't aware of the insurance issue. I assumed if it was found recovered with no forced entry they wouldn't pay, but alas not. Either way - still not very comfortable with a key to my new car floating around.

bigjl wrote: »

Luckily your opinion of what I feel is harassing is irrelevant to me, plus you never mentioned that it was somebody working out of a lock-up, I wouldn't even have looked at it, too high a risk for me, if I am buying from such a trader then I would rather save a few pounds and buy at auction.

I wanted a specific car with a specific spec - I wasn't looking at a dealer, rather any car within a driveable distance that had what I want. Trading from a lockup wasn't ideal... but it's no more risky than a private sale.

bigjl

Very nice harvey, very nice, lol.

You will find that when he traded it in the main dealer phoned his "underwriter" to get a trade-in quote, the underwriter is just the trader, who puts in a below book offer, this is relayed to the customer, maybe with a few quid on top and the deal is done.

The closed down dealer stamp routine is also not new, though I have known owners of cars to put these stamps in ti increase their cars value to the trade, these same kind of owners are the kind that will put the boot in when questioned in case the person calling them is an investigator for trading standards, until you have worked in the trade it is sometimes difficult to believe the things that both traders and sellers will do to get a sale, adding axle grease to the engine to make it sound sewing machine smooth, for a few miles at least, not forgetting sawdust in the gearbox, or for motorbikes, the Honda VT500, with stockings cut to fit inside the engine to stop silence a top end rattle.

emmell

Someone once rung me up about a car that I had part exed. It was a Fiat Punto 'N' reg, 6 months old with 500 miles on the clock. I had bought it brand new but decided it wasn't for me. They had seen the car at a large multi-franchised dealer, liked the car but thought the salesman had made a mistake with the mileage, they thought it should be 5,000 miles.
They got my name and address after looking at the v5, got my telephone number and rang me and I was only too happy to verify the mileage and tell them the only reason I had sold it was, it wasn't the car for me.
ML.