Bad experiences with private car sellers

gilbert_and_sullivan

arcon5 wrote: »

If I see a car i think ill like but not quite happy on price ill happily ask that question to gauge whether there is going to be movement on price. If you hang up or act like a moron then you've answered my question.

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In this instance you asked politely if the price was negotiable, which is how we behaved at one time and would possibly lead to a deal...unlike the moron (your words) who comes out with 'whats the lowest price you will take' before asking anything else pertinent.

Stoke

I'm not sure I'd consider someone selling the car first, regardless of whether I was on the way a big issue. First come first serve in my opinion. However, not describing a car properly is a different matter and I've had that:

1. I saw a Lupo 3L advertised on Gumtree. It was in Luton which is a hell of a trek from Stoke. I spoke to the guy on the phone who told me it had roughly 80k miles on, had recently been MOT'd, serviced and had just had a cambelt. He told me the front passenger wing could do with a respray but that the rest of the car was in good condition. He sent me some photos via email. I was happy with his description and the photos, so I went down to have a look, a good 2 hour trip. My word, what a liar this clown was:

The photos he sent were clearly taken months or even years before. The front bumper had taken a proper whack and had a hole that he'd covered using a piece of similar coloured plastic and silver duct tape. He never told me about that and it definitely wasn't visible on the photo. The wing he described as needing a simple respray was totally knackered. It probably needed replacing it was that badly damaged, and had then been filled, poorly, and covered using some weird Japanese cartoon stickers. The drivers door was heavily scratched, almost rubbed down, to the point most of the lacquer was gone and the door felt matte to run your fingers over. The 80k miles was actually 160k miles. It had been MOT'd but hadn't been serviced in a long time (despite the fact it's vitally important to service 3L models on time to protect the turbo). When I asked him about the cambelt, he initially told me they didn't have one, when I pointed to my car (a standard Lupo 1.7), he changed his story and said he didn't really understand cars that well and that his friend handled all that. After I pressed him more, he admitted he hadn't had the cambelt done while he owned it which meant upon viewing the service history it hadn't been changed since 40k miles... yes, you read that correctly, it had a cambelt with 110k miles on!! The interior was absolutely disgusting, something else he never described. It looked like it had been owned by a couple of coal miners. The (grey) floors were black, covered in some thick sticky carbon deposits and the seats were disgusting. A valet would probably refuse to touch it. To it's credit, the car pulled well and the engine felt strong. I offered him about £600 less than he wanted and said that would be for cleaning it, and getting all the damage sorted. He said no and listed it on ebay. He only made £100 more than I offered with a lot of dodgy looking bidding going on. In hindsight, I'm very glad I avoided it.

2. I saw a Lupo TDi advertised on eBay. I contacted the seller and he told me the car itself was in good condition but the drivers side lock barrel needed replacing. I wasn't put off by this as I tend to fit a remote central locking kit to any car with a key-only central locking anyway, but replacing a lock barrel with a new one isn't exactly a big job anyway. I drove down on a Sunday. I didn't take the money as I wasn't sure I wanted to buy it that day, but I was happy and said I would happily buy it off him tomorrow morning. The only thing I was a bit put off by, there was a very strong smell of marijuana in the vehicle, but I took it for a drive on my own (he told me it had trade insurance...) and pulled over to check the floors and seats. After a thorough check there were no burn marks, so I figured the smell would go eventually, few air fresheners etc. I drove down early next morning and while I was on the way down, he text me to tell me he had increased the price by £100. I thought that's a bit odd considering we'd agreed a fixed price the previous day and I'd already said I was happy to buy, but I figured I could negotiate with him when I got there. I got there at about 8:45 in the morning, he came out of his house with no shoes on, absolutely stoned off his face, struggling to string a sentence together. That explains the marijuana smell. I was going to take the car for another drive, but he then told me the car wasn't insured, despite telling me he had trade insurance the previous day. The guy didn't know what planet he was on, he kept mumbling incoherently about how the car was a family owned car for the last 8 years, had a full service history, but then he said his brother had been doing the servicing, then it had about 4 or 5 owners, but one of the owners wasn't declared or something???? I'm not convinced he knew whether he was selling a car or a pair of socks to be honest. I told him I was happy with the car but that we'd agreed a price and only wanted to pay what we had agreed. He initially couldn't remember the price we agreed, but when I reminded him he said he would consider it. I told him that I'd driven from Stoke to buy the car, not as an enquiry and that I had only booked the morning off work. He kept switching from yes to no, on the offer I'd made him (this must have been the weed talking right?) and then asked for 15 minutes to decide. I told him I would go and fill up at a nearby station I'd gone past and then come back, as I got in the car to drive away, he started rolling a spliff going back into his house. I decided that was it, I didn't want anything to do with this clown. I went the petrol station, filled up and drove home.

motorguy

1DayAAT wrote: »

Yes, I had made it clear that I was coming with a high likelihood to buy - I had left the house and was en-route - wouldn't it be nicer to have said to the other buyer that someone is coming, if they don't take it, we'll give you a call.

Indeed, though you did just text them. Personally i would have phoned it was ok to travel.

Yes, its annoying. But unfortunately it happens. And yes if people were all as decent as you and i, they would let you know whats happening. Unfortunately most people only think of themselves.

1DayAAT wrote: »

The type of idiots that I am referring to when trying to sell my car are the Gumtree scammers who want you to ship your car to Nigeria or the guy who was in Manchester and said he was going to travel to London where I am to view it - waited in all day, then phoned me at 8pm to say he still hadn't left yet. He never came.

Yes, i get those a lot too. The most recent one was "hello, do you still have the automobile for sale. If so can you email me at..." and it came through not from a phone number but from "BULKSMS". Clearly a standard message being sent out in bulk.

1DayAAT wrote: »

Bit different , I feel? I didn't waste anyone's time whilst buying, I was serious, honest and friendly at every point of the process.

People are funny. Sometimes they dont even know they are being offensive.

motorguy

arcon5 wrote: »

If I see a car i think ill like but not quite happy on price ill happily ask that question to gauge whether there is going to be movement on price. If you hang up or act like a moron then you've answered my question.

If its a text i tend to reply "give me a call to discuss", and if its over the phone i will try to agree broadly where we are on price if people are coming a long way, even if its only a "I can work a little on price if you can take the car today".

But if i do commit to a discounted price, then thats the price. I've had people come out and offer £500 less than my "best price" that i've made clear on the phone, and i've just told them sorry, no. They either buy or go home having wasted their own time.

arcon5

gilbert_and_sullivan wrote: »

In this instance you asked politely if the price was negotiable, which is how we behaved at one time and would possibly lead to a deal...unlike the moron (your words) who comes out with 'whats the lowest price you will take' before asking anything else pertinent.

Erm, no I haven't, i've asked how low they are willing to go.

vaio

motorguy wrote: »

.......But if i do commit to a discounted price, then thats the price. I've had people come out and offer £500 less than my "best price" that i've made clear on the phone, and i've just told them sorry, no. They either buy or go home having wasted their own time.

Yep, that's the other side of what I said in post #9....if you've agreed a price in advance and the car is as described then no haggling about money. Take it or leave it

1DayAAT

motorguy wrote: »

Indeed, though you did just text them. Personally i would have phoned it was ok to travel.

I had been dealing with the brother of the girl who's car it was, and he had told me to text when I leave as he was going to be at a wedding. He replied to that text just before I left, saying that all was good and they'd see me soon. At no point was it ever suggested that anyone else was coming to look at it in this 1 hour time frame and I assumed it was a given that they'd hold someone off very briefly in order for me to get there. It is 99.9% certain that I would have bought and couldn't have sounded more keen. Just needed the obligatory test drive and yadda - as any smart folk should.

1DayAAT

Stoke.. I feel your pain! I viewed a veryyyy "suspicious smelling" Golf GTi a couple of years back. The guy was a 'mechanic' and had done a lot of modification work to it himself, in pics looked very special (which I was after at the time) and it was on eBay for a pretty fair 'buy it now price' reflecting the modifications and FSH etc.
When I got there the smell of GREEN on the inside and dealing with the guy who was an 18 year old-ish Ali-G made me a little nervous, but trying not to be judgemental I had a look over the car - still interested.

.. Until I found how poorly all his modifications had been performed. The bumpers and grills and other bits of enhanced body kit were literally held on with cable-ties and none of it was properly matched to the car so wonky lines and wobbly bits everywhere. The mileage advertised as 80k on an 2004 was nearer almost 100k. And top it all off I asked to see the V5 and it was a category C write off a few years prior (he hadn't mentioned this) which would have made its value VASTLY less than what he was asking, cr*ppy modifications aside. Oh and FSH was 1 stamp

I left that one

Stoke

1DayAAT wrote: »

Stoke.. I feel your pain! I viewed a veryyyy "suspicious smelling" Golf GTi a couple of years back. The guy was a 'mechanic' and had done a lot of modification work to it himself, in pics looked very special (which I was after at the time) and it was on eBay for a pretty fair 'buy it now price' reflecting the modifications and FSH etc.
When I got there the smell of GREEN on the inside and dealing with the guy who was an 18 year old-ish Ali-G made me a little nervous, but trying not to be judgemental I had a look over the car - still interested.

.. Until I found how poorly all his modifications had been performed. The bumpers and grills and other bits of enhanced body kit were literally held on with cable-ties and none of it was properly matched to the car so wonky lines and wobbly bits everywhere. The mileage advertised as 80k on an 2004 was nearer almost 100k. And top it all off I asked to see the V5 and it was a category C write off a few years prior (he hadn't mentioned this) which would have made its value VASTLY less than what he was asking, cr*ppy modifications aside. Oh and FSH was 1 stamp

I left that one

To be fair, neither of the cars I viewed were modified as such, but the first had been horribly neglected and I just lost patience with the seller when viewing the second. I viewed them both in the space of a few weeks in, but to be honest, it gave me a new found respect for my current car. It's not been trashed by some neglectful owner, and it hasn't been owned a stoner who probably never insured it.

I would have bought the second one, despite the fruity smelling interior but while I appreciate the guy selling it wasn't a car dealer, coming out of your house with no shoes on, smashed off your face isn't the best way to do it. To be fair, the previous day, he was a lot more lucid so perhaps Sunday is his stoner day off? No idea... but hey, I put it all down to life experience

1DayAAT

Ditto- alls well that ends well and I've also ended up with a beaut and had some lucky escapes probably
Got a 1 previous owner low-mileage very well cared for car of the exact spec etc that I wanted now and couldn't be happier with it. It's all learning