Car Seller Is Not The Owner

efunc

Ideally, yes, but not found a TTS in my price range that way in over 2 years. I should have bought the last one, but hesitated.

My logic is that if I run the VCDS diagnostic I can know more about the state of the car than most owners or mechanics, or at least get an idea of what I'm getting into before handing over any money. Big engine faults, haldex, s-tronic, central electronics, Bose, etc, and I can easily walk away or offer £3k less.

Herzlos

If you're still tempted to go along with it, I'd be insisting on taking it to an Audi specialist for a once over. Perfectly normal thing to do when buying a car from a private seller...

The additional checks could be anything - plate changes, additional owners (could have been pre-registered or a demo car or something).
Definitely get a full HPI done on it to check it's history.

motorguy

efunc wrote: »

Yep, just saw those myself too and was dumbfounded! I'm left wondering if I should proceed. It is the car I'm after, at a price I'm happy about. But I can't go ahead knowing what I know without letting him know he's rumbled. He's BS'ing me telling me that he's just spoken to his friend and has accepted my offer...

Well my point has been borne out - he has had loads of cars for sale when you google his phone number. And thats just the adverts he forgot to delete and who knows how many phones he has, or how many he sells via facebook groups without needing a phone number. :eek:

Hes a low life whos trying to masquerade as a private seller to avoid his responsibilities as a trader.

Engine management light on in a weeks time? Sorry pal, i'm not the owner.

And what faults does he know about and has hidden or doctored to save himself money?

I'd walk. Hes a liar and as such who knows what else hes lying about

motorguy

efunc wrote: »

Yes, long time member if the forum. However the price is attractive for what I'm getting here (IF there are no major faults!), about £1500 less than other similar ones.

Which begs the question - i'm sure he knows the precise value of it, so why is he prepared to let it go cheap (and outside of ebay)? What does he know that you dont?

motorguy

efunc wrote: »

He just wrote me the following in response to concerns about the ownership:

"I checked online on the government DVLA website, you can change ownership online on their website without a signature from the current owner as long as you have the reference number etc on the v5 so we can do that! Or as I said earlier, I am happy to put the logbook under my name and then transfer to you! You are also welcome to do a HPI check online!"

Is the above correct, and does it legitimise anything?

No it doesnt. Hes neatly dancing around the fact that hes not the registered keeper because hes a trader and doing an HPI check wont expose that either

motorguy

The guy seems to be a bit of a "wheeler dealer" - if you look at his ebay feedback hes been flogging "brand new" LCD TVs (that seem to have actually been refurbed / graded stock)

efunc

I agree with all the excellent advice above, but just playing along for a moment, just out of curiosity I don't quite get the seller's logic. Normally if you try a scam like this you hope to disappear and not let the buyer know where to find you. But this is different. I went to the buyer's house (I assume) which is 10 mins from where I live, as he knows. The car was on his driveway. He let me take it for a test drive and then we returned to his house. He even went in and came back out when I asked to see all the documents. I bought along VCDS Diagnostic suite to read all the ECU data and faults etc on my computer, and he was more than happy to oblige (and seemingly intrigued by such a thing as he's never heard of it!).

Apart from his basic lie about ownership he was apparently not trying to hide anything about the actual car, even though he knew I was a TT owner myself and knew more than he did about them. He himself was also not trying to hide away and knew I could track him down to his house and come for him any time I wanted, day or night.

So why be so daft?? I'm genuinely fascinated!

neilmcl

efunc wrote: »

I agree with all the excellent advice above, but just playing along for a moment, just out of curiosity I don't quite get the seller's logic. Normally if you try a scam like this you hope to disappear and not let the buyer know where to find you. But this is different. I went to the buyer's house (I assume) which is 10 mins from where I live, as he knows. The car was on his driveway. He let me take it for a test drive and then we returned to his house. He even went in and came back out when I asked to see all the documents. I bought along VCDS Diagnostic suite to read all the ECU data and faults etc on my computer, and he was more than happy to oblige (and seemingly intrigued by such a thing as he's never heard of it!).

Apart from his basic lie about ownership he was apparently not trying to hide anything about the actual car, even though he knew I was a TT owner myself and knew more than he did about them. He himself was also not trying to hide away and knew I could track him down to his house and come for him any time I wanted, day or night.

So why be so daft?? I'm genuinely fascinated!

And do what precisely. If you buy the car and subsequently have an issue he's just going to claim it was a private sale and there's little you're going to be able to do about it.

motorguy

efunc wrote: »

I agree with all the excellent advice above, but just playing along for a moment, just out of curiosity I don't quite get the seller's logic. Normally if you try a scam like this you hope to disappear and not let the buyer know where to find you. But this is different. I went to the buyer's house (I assume) which is 10 mins from where I live, as he knows. The car was on his driveway. He let me take it for a test drive and then we returned to his house. He even went in and came back out when I asked to see all the documents. I bought along VCDS Diagnostic suite to read all the ECU data and faults etc on my computer, and he was more than happy to oblige (and seemingly intrigued by such a thing as he's never heard of it!).

Apart from his basic lie about ownership he was apparently not trying to hide anything about the actual car, even though he knew I was a TT owner myself and knew more than he did about them. He himself was also not trying to hide away and knew I could track him down to his house and come for him any time I wanted, day or night.

So why be so daft?? I'm genuinely fascinated!

As per what Neil has just said.

Plus chances are hes just got lazy. Probably was more cautious initially but now he would just rely on "sorry pal, it wasnt my car, private sale". And if pushed he'd up the "cancer" story a bit to put you off pursuing it.

Merlin139

If you dig about with his phone number and look at previous sales you can find another E-bay account with previous sales that revert back to the account he is using for the Audi TT.

07717778882 brings up a Mercedes-Benz C Class 2.1 C220 CDI SE Coupe which was sold by the same E-bay account.

On the original number look at the BMW 1 SERIES 123D M SPORT COUPE Black Manual Diesel and have a look at the back story.

So its a bit obvious that he is running a business.