How to respond to AutoTrader buyer query.

motorguy

DUTR wrote: »

I agree with you on the methods of contact, however I have found the more serious prospecters simply pick up the phone and ask for info that is not in the advert .
Naturally the buyer has to be wary, but indeed so does the seller.

Yes, agreed.

However your original response was more "dont correspond via email at all" and "they can ask you details when they inspect the car", which isnt really how things work these days.

Marktheshark

These often lead to the part refund scam.
Thats where they use an international money transfer saying someone will collect the car as they are miles away.
Then they make some excuse and say refund half the money for messing you about.
Then the money transfer vanishes and you just refunded them half the money out of your own money.

motorguy

Marktheshark wrote: »

These often lead to the part refund scam.
Thats where they use an international money transfer saying someone will collect the car as they are miles away.
Then they make some excuse and say refund half the money for messing you about.
Then the money transfer vanishes and you just refunded them half the money out of your own money.

Sorry, but no. Its nothing like the part refund scam, other than its an email.

They dont start like that and what is being asked for is quite common these days.

HOWEVER, any email that involves SHIPPING or BEST PRICE or THE VEHICLE is generally a scam.

Nebulous2

I'm looking for a car at the moment, I was interested in leasing a citycar and posted a thread, but I'm now looking on Gumtree / Autrotrader for older cars. I just skip by any with the number plate blanked out without even reading the details.

Now I'm coming from the opposite side from you, but my thought is, Why would they do that? What do they have to hide?

DUTR

Nebulous2 wrote: »

I'm looking for a car at the moment, I was interested in leasing a citycar and posted a thread, but I'm now looking on Gumtree / Autrotrader for older cars. I just skip by any with the number plate blanked out without even reading the details.

Now I'm coming from the opposite side from you, but my thought is, Why would they do that? What do they have to hide?

Depends on the car and where it is being advertised, as the OP mentions there are lots of similar examples advertised alongside his own. Perhaps through habit he has blanked the plates out, I just checked my autotrader advert and I hadn't blanked the plates.
I have seen threads where advertisers see their car being advertised by someone else, autotrader have certainly clamped down on this practice.

Hoof_Hearted

It seems a perfectly reasonable request to me and the sign of a sincere buyer. Why do people black out number plates anyway? What is there to hide?

izzy65

Hi I blanked out the number on my advert because it had a cherished number and by the time it was bought it would have its age specific number re allocated:)

Nebulous2

DUTR wrote: »

Depends on the car and where it is being advertised, as the OP mentions there are lots of similar examples advertised alongside his own. Perhaps through habit he has blanked the plates out, I just checked my autotrader advert and I hadn't blanked the plates.
I have seen threads where advertisers see their car being advertised by someone else, autotrader have certainly clamped down on this practice.

Oh lots of people do it - but I automatically exclude them all. I like to be able to check the MOT expiry date matches the advert for instance. I may also want to try an insurance quote.

arcon5

Nothing wrong with giving this info. Anyone can get the reg anyway just walking past your car.

Perfectly legitimate question.

Doesn't necessarily smell of a scam at all.

You're panicking over nothing, just give the info. Or at the very least screen shot the dvla website showing history without your reg number and go from there

DUTR

Nebulous2 wrote: »

Oh lots of people do it - but I automatically exclude them all. I like to be able to check the MOT expiry date matches the advert for instance. I may also want to try an insurance quote.

Like Izzy65, I have my own plate, so chances are I didn't blank out the plates as they were already re-assigned so the advert had the plates that the new owner would be keeping, as mentioned earlier though, it depends on how desperate the seller is vs how keen the prospective purchaser is. I'm personally not interested in those that pass by my advert, however I have been fortunate in that the last 3 cars sold were to the 1st viewer.
If the car was advertised on ebay then I would perhaps respond to some requests.
As a used car buyer in the past, I have never asked for reg or VIN.