Would you buy a house unseen?
Or a sofa?
Or a painting?
A £10k car? You are joking and this IS a windup?
I have checked the date.. so it's the wrong month for windups..
|
How would you pay?
Cash - they could just mug you - see article on HJ site in last couple of months
Cheque - hang around for a week?
|
If its the car you really want, then an 800 mile round trip won't stop you - no more than it would me ... what car is it btw?
10k is a lot of green folding stuff so cash is a no-go, if you pay by cheque or bankers order, then you'll be doing that trip a 2nd time :(
You could get the AA/RAC to check it out.
You could check previous MOT's on-line.
You could check out the VIN No. @ main dealer.
Is car registered to him/her at their home address.
Its a difficult TBH - 800 miles is a lot of piddles!
|
Well just to give an opposing view to all the hand wringers on here, I will recount my car buying story.
About 4 and a half years ago, I saw my car a VW Bora 130 TDI Highline for sale on ebay in Portsmouth, I live in West Yorkshire so it's a good 500 miles round trip.
The car was exactly what I wanted, was a year old and the seller was asking 11K .She did not get any bids on the car so I sent an email offering 10K.
I made contact on the phone and discovered that she had owned the car for a year, bought brand new for 18K + and the reason for selling was that she had had been promoted to an area manager for Tesco and got a company car.
Long story short, I travelled down on the train and we met at the station. She was waiting with the car which was in immaculate condition, virtually as new.I knew it still had 2 years warranty left on it, but a short drive later, we went to her bank and I gave her a bankers draft for 10K and the deal was done.The car had all the service history, the original purchase receipt, everything
I still have the car and count it as one of my better buying decisions.
When I started on the road back to Yorkshire, the car had just about a half tank of diesel in it and I was amazed to get home with some left in the tank.
So I would say, don't let distance put you off because you might get your ideal car at a price you like.
Edited to add, the car when I bought it had 14000 miles on the clock and it had now done just over 60000
Edited by Mr.Tee43 on 15/11/2009 at 20:27
|
I can get a flight from Edinburgh to Cardiff for £6!!!! Honest I was a little shocked myself - it's £300 by train.
The car has only covered 3000 miles with 3 services carried out by main dealer
Gut feeling is to pay for a full RAC check, find and contact the main dealer and ask of the history of the car.
And take it from there.
Maybe I'm just too trusting!!!!
|
hpi
plane
travelodge
inspection
last keeper if any on the blower
main agent history via vin
buy
drive home
enjoy
|
>>> buy
>>> drive home
>>> enjoy -----------> ;-)
|
Goodness me this forum gets more like the Daily Mail every day.
Just do some basic checks, get an HPI check done in advance so you know it is basically clear and ask some firm questions. If it checks out just be prepared to walk away and don't end up buying what you know is a dud just because you have travelled.
The reality is the chances are you will not get mugged, beaten up, ripped off or any of the other disasters which seem to be an every day occurance in the lives of some people here.
An AA inspection might be an idea - they are not brilliant IMO but should identify a basically sound car and at least should give you confidence in the car before you travel.
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 16/11/2009 at 00:31
|
...Goodness me this forum gets more like the Daily Mail every day...
And what's wrong with that?
There have been several people on here who have had their fingers badly burned when spending a lot of money buying privately.
The risk is far, far, greater than buying from an established dealer, although I don't doubt the vast majority of high value private transactions go smoothly.
If it's a well-worked scam, the OP will lose the lot, all £10K.
I wouldn't risk it, just for a car, but good look to anyone prepared to do so.
|
There have been several people on here who have had their fingers badly burned when spending a lot of money buying privately.
But probably several hundred, if not 1000's who haven't.
|
I've sold a number of cars over the years, most of them expensive, to long distance buyers.
I sold my TVR Griffith to someone who saw the advert in Autotrader and phoned me up and agreed a price on the basis that the car was as described. He appeared at my doorstep the following morning with 22 grand in cash having travelled halfway across the country with his Dad in a car. He insured the car on the phone, drove me to the bank and we went our separate ways.
Also sold a Mercedes C250TD to someone who took the train from Scotland to Manchester, looked at the car, handed me the cash and drove it away. The buyer of my BMW M3 brought a car with a trailer to take it away having haggled on the phone and driven 600km across Germany.
In each case the buyer brought cash and if the car hadn't met their expectations they could have just gone home without it. There are honest sellers out there, you know.
|
Personally I wouldn't let distance worry me if it was the exact spec of car I'd been after, but...
1) I would take someone with me, 2 heads better than one when checking car over plus some support etc (no rash decision making, pushy seller),
2) Never use cash for that amount, seller may also be justifiably concerned anyway over fake notes,
and
3) Ideally be looking at checking the car/test drive, before both seller and I visiting a bank same day and arranging funds transfer with instant (same day) verification so the seller has confirmed money in account and I leave with the car not being out of my sight for another week and so on.
I wouldn't necessarily use a 3rd party inspection, but would do all my own checks (HPI, MOT) and ensure/ask if all the paperwork is present and correct and the car is located at that address. For mechanical purposes, the person I take with me would be someone like my brother-in-law who can strip and rebuild engines and cars with his eyes close, to supplement any limited knowledge I may have. With full (dealer) service history advertised I'd also ring that dealer as most stuff is held on computer and they could confirm the basics.
To prevent all the above being a wasted journey, a bit of common sense when telephoning the seller would prevail - good pertinent questions and expect sensible replies. A price which is obviously too low (do your research) or caginess on the sellers part I'd just walk away and keep looking.
|
another useful tip is if buyer and seller are computer savvy ask vender to email up a load of shots of car
you can tell more about a person by looking at his house and garden than you ever can by looking at folded pieces of paper
i used to buy cars for cash at peoples houses and if i didnt like the feel of the place when i pulled up i always got out of there pronto
|
>>> you can tell more about a person by looking at his house and garden <<<
Eh ... some of the best/worst crooks I've known up the smoke had magnificent spreads with immaculate gardens and wore sharper whistles than Honest J.
|
crooks I've known up the smoke had magnificent spreads with immaculate gardens
But perro, bb didn't say he was impressed by tidiness or apparent wealth. He said he went by 'feel'.
If you saw my office, normal dress style or three-day grizzled beard you might think I was a toerag. And of course you might be right. But I don't think so.
|
>>> or three-day grizzled beard you might think I was a toerag <<<
Don't tell me about it Lud - I do live in Cornwall ya know!
|
The risk is far, far, greater than buying from an established dealer
That depends on the degree of your 'far,far'. For me the main advantages of buying from a dealer are that comeback in case of difficulty should be easier, trade-in is obviously possible (irrelevant here) and a £10K purchase is not very convenient in used tenners. On the other hand a genuine private seller can tell you far more about the car than any dealer, who is just peddling metal for a living. Buyers can be caught out by either species.
Biggest problem may be that having driven the purchase from Cardiff back to Scotland, you won't want to do it again soon afterwards ...
|
|
