dealer at house address

tescofan

I have made an appointment with a dealer on auto trader - for a cheaper than usual honda jazz. this dealer has 10 cars for sale but he told me to meet at a house address. Google maps shows it's a house rather than a dealer forecourt. also the cars number plate has been blanked out in the ad. Is this normal or should I be wary?

Cody123

No you shouldn't, a lot of car dealers work from home and a lot of people cover there plates up for the reason of being cloned, hpi the car and check if all the documents match up to chassis numbers and engine numbers. The Honda Vin plate is found on a metal plate on the offside centre of the slam panel.The stamped VIN chassis number is located stamped in the offside centre of the bulkhead.Stamped into the front centre of the block low down. Not to be confused with the Transmission number which is to the right of the engine number. Just to be on the safe side get some id of him that he does live there ie driving license traders insurance before you hand over any money, better to be safe than sorry

Bantex_2

Ask if he is OK wit an AA inspection.

tescofan

thank you for the quick replies. Perhaps I am uneasy because it is about 15% cheaper than other equivalent FSH, similar mileage and age honda jazzes, the dealer does not have a website but only advertises on auto trader and twitter. However in our email correspondence he does mention full HPI checked, not cat C or D.

burlington6

Hpi it yourself!

tescofan

at the moment I can't because the plates have been blanked out! :mad:

Inner_Zone

tescofan wrote: »

at the moment I can't because the plates have been blanked out! :mad:

You should be able to on Autotrader if you select the 'Check it's history' link, the reg number etc will be revealed once you setup a payment..

EdGasket

Ask the seller for the number plate number and VIN number or MoT serial number then you can check the mileage and MoT history online:

https://www.gov.uk/check-mot-status

If he refuses, walk away; plenty of other cars. I've never had a problem getting this information from a genuine seller with a genuine car to sell.

tescofan

EdGasket wrote: »

Ask the seller for the number plate number and VIN number or MoT serial number then you can check the mileage and MoT history online:

https://www.gov.uk/check-mot-status

If he refuses, walk away; plenty of other cars. I've never had a problem getting this information from a genuine seller with a genuine car to sell.

thanks! the dealer did give me the reg plate no. but not the VIN. kinda understand as I may be out to clone his car or whatever. Now the issue is that he says the reg plate is private and will be taken off. from what I have read it takes some trust on both sides as I either drive off without owning the car until the reg has been transferred or I drive off with the reg and he has to trust me to transfer ownership of the personal reg. ah well!

colino

Easy solution, buy somewhere else as he is already ringing alarms in your head and a driveway dealer with no overheads but 10+cars in stock isn't going to have the facilities to quickly resolve future, potential problems.
Incidentally how difficult do you think car cloning is? Finding a similar car in similar colour would take a few seconds standing beside the average busy road. Covering plates is a knee jerk reaction from privateers or a DD with something to hide.
Forgot to mention, it doesn't matter what reg or VIN a dealer is giving you, you have to verify the info., not take it over the phone.

EdGasket

You take the details over the phone to check the Mileage and MoT history on the web site. Then if you are still interested you check the VIN against the car when you see it.
Sounds like he doesn't want you to check this doesn't it?