Estoril Blue e39 M5 for sale

[Patrick Bateman]

Thought I'd bring this up here for any potential buyers to hopefully save some time.

I got this off bmw5 and wouldn't want to see someone else waste their day as this poster has.

The car- http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/b...

Taken from http://forum.bmw5.co.uk/topic/105156-views-on-this...



So I've had time to calm down anyway the story goes......

I have been speaking to Ben aka B10 Bomber on the M5 Board now on and off for over a week. When I originally spoke to the guy he told me quite a bit about the car in that it has 3 owners very well maintained and as the advert say the car is mint and had a spot of rust on one of the sills which he was getting seen to. Last weekend he was going away and because the car was at the bodyshop it couldn't be viewed, so we arranged that I would go up today.

He did also say that he would give me £8k (which he said he could probably move on for £10k) for my car and would like £3,700 on top his way, I originally said my X5 plus £3k and he said we weren't miles apart so we could come to some arrangement.

My brother and I set out at 9:30am for our 2hr and bit commute and when we get there on first impression the car looks very nice but at this point we haven't got out of my car. I get out the car and notice that there are a couple of aftermarket decals silver if my memory serves me right running through the middle of the car on both sides. I thought ok maybe I didn't notice them in the pictures but I did ask the question to which Ben replies this car isn't the same car featured in the pictures that was another car he had a while ago but because this was estriol blue he used the pictures of that one. At no point did he tell me over the phone that the car I was going to view wasn't the car in the advert.

So my brother and I proceed to have a look at the bodywork and we find the following:

Rust on both sills
Rust on the boot lid were you have the number plate lights.
Rust above the rear boot where you have the bung
Over spray on the rear number plate light and boot lock
Front end needed a respray
The body work needed a good clay and detail
Interior needed a good clean and the boot looked like it had never been valeted
At this point I'm not happy say the least so rather than kicking off with him we decide to leave, I get home and sent if a simple but effective message just in case if hedecides to sell anymore cars:
It's probably worth while telling someone before they set off for a 5hr round trip that the car they saw in the advert isn't the car been viewed.
Also you need to have a good look round the car before telling someone there is no rust on the car
Finally no point describing the car as mint when it quite clearly isn't because people usually have their eyes open when viewing a car
I get a response back saying the following,

"Probably a good thing that we didn't get to the point of discussing a deal then - you'd have been even more pissed when I said I had changed my mind about your bland x5. Mainly because it's valued at £6500 retail. Hope you have more luck with the other estoril m5 that you when to view of which there aren't any "

This guys trades from home calls himself auto barn stormers and if you look at the pictures rbond9s link he's used the same pictures, this guys needs to be on Rogue Traders the guy is a joker. He's now probably going to remove the decals and private plate and put it back up for sale again.

Edited by Patrick Bateman on Monday 22 December 14:08

[Depthhoar]

Well said, OP.

Saw all this on bmw5 forum.

The guy is clearly a cynical conman. Surely there's some legal recourse to stop him trading?

[nick1275]

I had similar when looking at one last year, advert read well, but turned up to a car with 4 flat bald tyres and not one decent shut line or panel gap. Needless to say I walked off without meeting the vendor.. Unfortunately it's a hazard of secondhand car buying. Needless to say poor form from a supposed trader in this instance

[jayemm89]

Shame as these cars should be looked after and sold with honesty. I don't think any of us mind a shabby care, something in need of TLC if it is advertised as such.

Thanks to the OP for highlighting this.

[batmanreturns]

This guy bought my old estorial blue e39, I sold it when it had only 30k miles to a guy in Southern Ireland. He ran it to 130k miles and as we stayed in touch he told me he was getting rid of it for circa 6k. At the time I had too many other cars or I'd have bought it back again and stored it. Next thing I know then chap mentioned trading from Lancashire has it and it's up for 12k!!
Good work if you can get it but I know the car needed work and was not mint hence the original advertised price being 6k!