WWhat's the back story to this mess? did you buy this car "over the phone"? without actually seeing it ?

I'm afraid to say if you did and it was a private sale your stuffed........

Smoke sounds like turbo, I'm guessing but hope I'm wrong but is it a diesel?

First thing i would do is check the engine number against the registration document, and check carefully for signs of recently disturbed bolts and fittings, ie exhaust bolts/clamps, if they have been disturbed in the last few days will most likely show evidence.

One might wonder about the reason for the delay in delivery, have you suffered at the hands of one dodgy person or two, which has muddied the waters, could there have been collusion?

What you could do about this another thing entirely, and as said i would never buy a vehicle unseen, even an online auction you can simply walk away if the vehicle proves to be not as described, but not if you don't inspect it before paying up.

Strange conversation with the seller, my discussions with sellers usually centre around discovering if they know what they are talking about, ie if they've described ongoing maintenance it takes only a couple of minutes to work out if they have any real idea what they are talking about.

Edited by gordonbennet on 19/03/2019 at 08:54