Recently, as you know, I travelled from Cornwall to Wales to buy a Discovery TD5.
Now, I will admit I was very aware that I had to protect myself in respect of making sure the car was mechanically fine, not accident damaged and, above all not stolen. This is an account of what I set out to do and how I prepared myself for the journey and transaction.
The thread I read today about a stolen car being bought made me think about my recent car buying experience and how I went about it. Although this was my biggest fear - I knew that it wasn't sufficient just to make sure I had legal title to the vehicle. It had to be what I wanted and right for the money.
Having agreed a price with the seller, I had to then organise myself to do some checks, make the trip if those checks were fine, have the means to do the deal, and guarantee a safe journey home, one way or the other.
In chatting to the seller over the phone I found out a bit about him and what he did for a living. He claimed to run a small company based in Llanelli. I did internet searches for his name and company name. His landline number that he had given me corresponded with that on a website for that company. I was also able to find articles and reports based on his company, and get a feel for how long that company had been trading, and what it specialised in. All the information I gleened checked out. All I needed to do was to meet the guy and 'place' him inside the building occupied by this company. That was important to me. When I explained this to him he was quite at ease with it.
The plan was that I would arrive in Swansea at around 12.00 and the seller would meet me at the station. I would then inspect and drive the vehicle. If I was happy then we would go back into Swansea, draw out the money from my BS account then we would go back to his business premisis (where the car was registered) to do the transaction. I would then drive back home that day or stay over. [b]I wanted to see him walk in the door of his office, be recognised by his staff etc and generally behave as if he belonged there.[/b] The seller was happy with this. I had the option of going to Llanelli station but that involved a longer journey, and we would have had to go into Swansea anyway to get the money. So Swansea semed the easier option.
Plan of action before I left would therefore be
1) Keep in constant contact with the seller. I had to give him the benefit of the doubt in this respect until I felt I had cause to do otherwise. I had to bear in mind that the seller was blanking out a large chunk of his day for me. I would need his cooperation in furnishing me with details of the car (VIN etc) for the HPI check. I also didn't want him to write me off as a time waster before I'd had a chance to see the car.
2) Confirm that I could draw the money out the following Monday. As it was Saturday I had to make absoluely sure. A quick call to the building society confirmed that they could have the necessary cash at the Sansea branch for me to draw out on Monday. If I didn't need it for any reason, it would just go back into their stock. Also I needed to check I would have the correct ID. Most importanty I didn't want to get all the way up to see the car only to have my purchas thwarted by my not having access to my money. As soon as I had conformation I updated the seller that getting the cash for the purchase would not be an issue.
3) Decide how I was going to check the vehicle was not stolen, written off etc.. Being an ex police/airport security car, I reckoned that no criminal was going to make too much effort to replicate or even apply new battenburg markings on the sides - these had to be genuine. Same for anyone hoping for a dodgey repair. It was much more likley that the car would be stripped of all its markings and resprayed white. Hence the uniformity of the battenburge would be a good indicator of any panel damage in service or afterwards. However, despite these facts, I decided that a check would be a prudent move. An extra £20 would either save me a lot of money if my conclusions were incorrect or further confirm my reckonings.
I read up on the vehicle checks. It seemed that the one that would offer you the best guarantee was HPI. I also liked the fact that they check the V5 Serial Number against known stolen ones. They also seemed to ask the most questions.
To this end I needed to speak to the vendor. I decided that I would ask him to supply the information I needed from the V5C, then double check the VIN on the vehicle when I went to see it. I explained that I wasn't chacking him out, it was the car that I wanted to check out. He may be selling it in good faith, but that doesn't mean the car is what it proports to be. He phoned me back with the details and was near the phone just in case I needed more info. I keyed in all the info on the site and the car checked out clean. I still had to see the VIN on the car. Obviously I couldn't do this until I met him so I would make sure I had the HPI report with me when I set off.
4) I then needed to make sure I had breakdown cover. As it is I do via a bank account. I just needed to know that the details I had were up to date and it was a full recovery service. I was going to be doing some 200 miles in a car I didn't know - I needed a plan B.
5) Arrange insurance. I had already established that my own insurer would change over and give me 7 days free cover on my old car. However HPI were offering 7 days free insurance when you use their service. As it was too late to phone before I left them I took their details with me so I could contact them en route. The car was taxed for 2 further months.
5) Arrange a train ticket. Having already looked at the train times and discussed them with the seller I needed to book the travel. I booked a return journey (just in case I didn't buy the car) from my home village to Swansea, then printed off the details.
6) Pack and check. I needed building society book, ID, clothes for overnight stay just in case, satnav to get out of Llanelli, paperwork including the HPI stuff. I also took a fully charged mobile phone.
7) Good night sleep.
In the morning I caught the train. The journey was fine. however, about 2 hours into the journey I realised I had forgotten one minor detail. Where to look for the VIN. A quick phone call to my local Land Rover dealer confirmed where to look. That was that sorted. I also grabbed a copy of a Land Rover Mag that happened to have a report about what to look for in a used Discovery TD5!
The journey involved 2 changes. Whilst waiting for my 2nd connection I contacted Aviva who were doing the free 7 days insurance, and arranged cover. I could have done this from his office but I was worried about taking up too much of his time.
As the seller told me it was about 1/2 an hour from Llanelli to Swansea, I phoned him just under an hour before my train was due to arrive in Swansea informing him that the train was running on time.
A few minutes after my arrival at Swansea he drew up in the vehicle. I hopped in, knowing that I was in a car with someone I had found out a fair bit about over the last couple of days.
We had a spin in the vehicle around a good selection of roads then we pulled into a layby popping the nearside wheels onto the curb to make diving underneath the car easier for me. I checked out the underside of the vehicle and checked its general condition - mindful of the landymag article and a few other areas. I then pulled out my HPI stuff and checked the VIN and engine number etc. All numbers cross checked. I was as sure as I could be that the car was genuine. It's condition was fine barring a couple of issues the buyer had mentioned, but he had given a super accurate description, which was helpful.
I then suggested we drove back to Swansea to get some money. This was where my planning could have been better. I knew my BS had a branch in Swansea, but I didn't know where. The seller made a couple of calls to his office and got one of his staff to find the address on the internet, and I plugged my sat nav into the car to help locate the street.
When we got close I jumped out of the car to go to the branch and, as promised, the money was waiting for me. I waited whilst it was counted in front of me, saw it put in an envelope and stuffed it into an emty pocket I had prepared earlier. I had made sure I was wearing a coat with fleece that would hang over my jeans, and front pocket where the money was to go. I then had to make the 2 minute brisk walk from the branch to the car.
I jumped back into the car and we drove back to his office to do the transaction. Bearing in mind I still had to check through the V5C. The transaction hadn't even started at this point. The V5C was checked over, the registered keeper was him at the address I was at. All seemed in order so I handed over the readies, which he counted in front of me. we both then signed 2 copies of a bill of sale (lifted with kind permission from the AA website), and each kept a copy.
Whilst I was there I was treated to a cup of tea, and the use of his computer to print off a copy of the cover note that Aviva had sent me to enable me to drive the vehicle home.
After I thanked the seller for all his help, and we said our goodbyes. I then set off back for home. As I was driving a car I didn't know I kept a close eye on the oil and temperature guages, lest I test the car to destruction on my return.
I arrived home some 4 hours later.
This is an account of measured caution culminating in a very enjoyable transaction. you couldn't have met a nicer fellow than the seller. Although I wasn't willing to take him or the car at face value, without doing checks, he didn't mind. In retrospect he most likely treats his business transactions in much the same way.
Genuine sellers won't mind you being cautious, and will provide every assistance when you want to make your checks.
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