Pre-purchase check

EStreeter04

A motor dealer told me they had a vehicle coming in that eould suit me. I asked to be given first refusal snd asked for the car reg no & v5 info so i could do a pre-purchase check. As i live some way from the dealer i also said I'd be wanting someone to come & have a look over the vehicle on my behalf. Was told i couldn't have vehicle details prior to putting depisit down due to "security concerns" and that they don't allow pre-purchase inspections   I decided not to proceed but the seller said i was asking too much and that i should accept that they wouldn't sell dodgy vehicles- the vehicle had no service history. These were all red flags to me - am i wrong?

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EStreeter04 said:

A motor dealer told me they had a vehicle coming in that eould suit me. I asked to be given first refusal snd asked for the car reg no & v5 info so i could do a pre-purchase check. As i live some way from the dealer i also said I'd be wanting someone to come & have a look over the vehicle on my behalf. Was told i couldn't have vehicle details prior to putting depisit down due to "security concerns" and that they don't allow pre-purchase inspections   I decided not to proceed but the seller said i was asking too much and that i should accept that they wouldn't sell dodgy vehicles- the vehicle had no service history. These were all red flags to me - am i wrong?

Definitely not.

They might not want to hand out details by email or over the 'phone to any Tom, !!!!!! or Harry who might want them to clone the vehicle, which is why they want a deposit to prove you are genuine or for you to turn up and find the details out in person, but refusing a pre-purchase inspection is waving a massive red flag.

There are plenty of other cars, they contacted you to try and offload that one in the first place! (and it is far better to miss a "bargain" because you were over suspicious than purchase a lemon because you weren't)

Goudy

Years ago, dealers took in stock and prepared them for sale.
They did little jobs to make them look presentable and check over any mechanical faults.

These days it's more common for them to put them straight on sale and then deal (or not deal) with any come backs for faults and problems later on, either by good practise, threat or warranty (obviously some dealers just won't).

This means it's particularly important to get a good look at the car first, either yourself if you are confident or by someone else that is.

There are plenty of posts regarding people buying used cars from distance like this without seeing it and even if the dealer is pretty honest and helpful with any issues or problems, they usually get told to bring it back in to the selling dealer, often hundreds of miles away.

Your vehicle details problem is again distance related.
If you could stand in front of it you could just HPi it there and then on your phone from the reg number, so asking for a deposit just to supply the details is something I just don't understand unless they want to financially tie you the car before the simplest of checks so you're less likely to want to back out.

I don't know what car it is or how old it is but no service history tends to smell like they have sourced the car via other means, like a repossession or maybe even via Copart (disposal business for insurance write offs).
Most used cars will have some form of history even if it might be electronic.

So unless you can get in front of it (or someone can for you) so the basic checks can be done, I would say you're right to walk away.

HampshireH

It's weird they wouldn't give you the reg. Any used car website shows pictures of the car including the registration plate.

I'd have swerved it too.

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HampshireH said:

It's weird they wouldn't give you the reg. Any used car website shows pictures of the car including the registration plate.

I'd have swerved it too.

If you tour a few of the car dealers you will see that the number plates of the cars on the forecourt are covered up, with a pretend plate like "Supercars". If you want a test drive the trade plates come out.  The ones in the adverts in Autotrader are the same.

This is done for "security" & "it's data protection- honest guv" as it stops people cloning the number plates (even though it would be a bit silly, as the car would show as "in trade" and might get pulled at midnight).

By sheer co-incidence it makes it a little bit harder to do your homework before you are confronted by the salesman.

Obviously, with a smart phone, your big glasses and a 4g/5g signal you just do all the checks while the salesman hovers over you when you ask to see the V5 & service paperwork.

EStreeter04

Goudy said:

Years ago, dealers took in stock and prepared them for sale.
They did little jobs to make them look presentable and check over any mechanical faults.

These days it's more common for them to put them straight on sale and then deal (or not deal) with any come backs for faults and problems later on, either by good practise, threat or warranty (obviously some dealers just won't).

This means it's particularly important to get a good look at the car first, either yourself if you are confident or by someone else that is.

There are plenty of posts regarding people buying used cars from distance like this without seeing it and even if the dealer is pretty honest and helpful with any issues or problems, they usually get told to bring it back in to the selling dealer, often hundreds of miles away.

Your vehicle details problem is again distance related.
If you could stand in front of it you could just HPi it there and then on your phone from the reg number, so asking for a deposit just to supply the details is something I just don't understand unless they want to financially tie you the car before the simplest of checks so you're less likely to want to back out.

I don't know what car it is or how old it is but no service history tends to smell like they have sourced the car via other means, like a repossession or maybe even via Copart (disposal business for insurance write offs).
Most used cars will have some form of history even if it might be electronic.

So unless you can get in front of it (or someone can for you) so the basic checks can be done, I would say you're right to walk away.

When i visited in person i was told the vehicle was coming in a few days later and that yhey didn't have reg details yet. As it's a 4h tound trip for me that's why i was proposing to get someone more local to the vehicle to look over it and why i couldn't do history check there & then.