sellers trying it on

[dylan0451]

so, i went to go see this yesterday

http://www.classiccarsforsale.co.uk/classic-car-pa...

doesn't look too bad does it?

so, what wasn't mentioned, or was glossed over was that:

handbrake mech had been snapped from the shell - over exuberance initiating some sideways action?!

headlights/fog lights had water in

aerial had been snapped off

O/S wing mirror smashed

door, sunroof + arches had been resprayed - corrosion?!

lowered on something or other - rock hard

big alloys corroded badly, wearing rubberbands that'd seen better days

rust coming up on the tailgate

bonnet was snagged, took ages to open and seller had no idea how to open it

it had no mot, so wasn't really legal to drive on the road at the time even though he did

oh, and it was living in central london, not tunbridge wells

how the flying fk did he expect to get such a strong price for it?! he even had the ordacity, maybe stupidity to tell me to view others as this one would be the best i could find.

anyone else gone to view something so epically mis described?!

[amirzed]

you have to remember the Storm is particularly desirable model and he's prob seen higher mileage ones on for more money, not telling people about faults is not cool though...

I wouldn't worry unduly about the lights but I wouldn't want that car cos it's on the wrong wheels (look like Golf anni wheels) and a rebuild at 60k, coupled with the handbrake make me thing it's quite prob an abused example....

[dylan0451]

well, they're all fairly minor faults, it's just that, at that price would it really be so hard to fix the few niggly issues?!

then told me the reason for the rebuild was that one of the pistons seized! would have thought a replacement engine would give better piece of mind but hey!

[Jazoli]

It sounds like a proper bag of st, why anybody would want to spend nearly £5k on a leggy old VW is beyond me, they aren't *that* good really.

[rallycross]

its hardly trying it on, its a 15 yr old car and none of those sound like major problems what do you realisticaly expect on a 15 yr old car?

[dylan0451]

i suppose trying it on is a bit harsh. still, all the little bits just left it looking tired and uncared for, especially the momo steering wheel and shift knob

my car's 21 years old and worth less than half that but i wouldn't entertain selling it with any issues like that!

[twazzock]

rallycross said:

its hardly trying it on, its a 15 yr old car and none of those sound like major problems what do you realisticaly expect on a 15 yr old car?

They'd be fair enough on a £500 'snotter' but this is a 'modern classic' up at 10x that price.

[soad]

dylan0451 said:

it had no mot

Ad states 12 Months MOT?!
That alone is not on. I'd be not too pleased to find unmentioned minor niggles or issues...maybe i expect too much. View car with open eyes and mind, not to your liking - walk away

[Flintstone]

rallycross said:

its hardly trying it on

It is if the description doesn't mention it.

[nicky.mattsson]

I'd say he was trying it on, big time. If your buying a £500 shed or a £50000 luxo barge, you expect the vendor to be honest in his description and tell you EVERYTHING he can.

Ok, se he didnt lie in the advert but i would be gutted if i'd travelled any kind of distance and taken up my time only to find a load of stuff i did'nt know about. Not on!

[chard]

Run Awayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

[AndrewW-G]

With the exception of the MOT thing, the seller hasn’t told any stories in the advert, with things like the aftermarket steering wheel, clearly visible in the photos

All the bad stuff however, should have been dug up during the phone conversation, prior to the trip to see the car. If the seller didn’t disclose when asked, it’s very naughty of him, if the potential buyer didn’t ask, then it’s very naive to simply accept that the seller has declared all the bad points as well as the good

[dylan0451]

AndrewW-G said:

With the exception of the MOT thing, the seller hasn’t told any stories in the advert, with things like the aftermarket steering wheel, clearly visible in the photos

All the bad stuff however, should have been dug up during the phone conversation, prior to the trip to see the car. If the seller didn’t disclose when asked, it’s very naughty of him, if the potential buyer didn’t ask, then it’s very naive to simply accept that the seller has declared all the bad points as well as the good

perhaps this. maybe i am naive to assume if someone's going to the trouble to have panels resprayed that they'd atleast stick a new mirror glass on etc.

i wouldn't have been surprised, would have almost expected it if it was £1-1.5k lower but at that price you're looking at mint vr6 storms. as it happens i was driving for about 9 hours through central london. not an experience i intend to repeat in a hurry!

[h4muf]

Jazoli said:

It sounds like a proper bag of st, why anybody would want to spend nearly £5k on a leggy old VW is beyond me, they aren't *that* good really.

[chrisispringles]

Yes, but worse. The car (a 2.5 20v Volvo 850 they'd taken as p/x) was described in the ad as mint condition and was well priced so me and my dad went all the way from Glasgow to Blackburn in the middle of January this year to look at it. To the untrained eye it looked alright: a bit of a scratch on the drivers door and a couple of scuffs. Thankfully me and my dad are pretty savvy car buyers and didn't buy it, we reckon it had been crashed and bodged back together. It had a brand spanking new front n/s track rod with no road dust on it whatsoever, the fuel filler cap had a different key so we couldn't get it off and somebody had made a huge cock up rewiring the lights: with the switch at off the headlights were on, wih it set to sidelights nothing was on and set to headlights the sidelights were on. We'd taken a haynes manual with us and spent the train journey back looking at the wiring diagrams trying to figure out what the hell they'd done and they wouldn't let us take it for a test drive so we wouldn't have been able to tell if the track rod had been fitted properly or whether it was as bad as the headlights. There was nothing in the paperwork to suggest that it had been done legitimately either. We think that the garage knew about all the problems , they'd probably inspected it before they took it as p/x and given the owner £1-200 for it, and were trying to sell it on for £990 IIRC to someone who wouldn't notice them. On the plus side we had a long wait at Preston so we went and found some godawful looking chippy and accidentally bought the best kebabs we've ever had, they were bloody fantastic.

About a week earlier we'd gone all the way down south of London to look at a V70 which apparently had a full main dealer service history and all it's old MOT certificates. For some reason this actually means that it has a couple of old MOT certifactes, not including the most recent one, and no service history at all. Shame really because it was a fairly good one for the money, but the dealer had lied to us about the service history, so what else was he hiding, and we couldn't look at the recent MOT to see whether it was perfect or whether it had barely scraped through and would probably fail next time round.

[big_russ]

broke all my rules, took the wife and kid to stafford services on the m6, met a guy (who had 4 mates with him). Ended up swapping £700 and my 528 for a 'mint' condition jeep v8. The car didn't even make it home, and 2 months later, it still isn't fixed. Exhaust was set wrong and had rubbed the offside rear tyre to the chord, it has a misfire, but you'll only notice if you get it to start. My own fault, if you see a 528 for sale from mr rashid, dont buy it though, i have seen the advert, and he has badly lied in it.

[dylan0451]

big_russ said:

broke all my rules, took the wife and kid to stafford services on the m6, met a guy (who had 4 mates with him). Ended up swapping £700 and my 528 for a 'mint' condition jeep v8. The car didn't even make it home, and 2 months later, it still isn't fixed. Exhaust was set wrong and had rubbed the offside rear tyre to the chord, it has a misfire, but you'll only notice if you get it to start. My own fault, if you see a 528 for sale from mr rashid, dont buy it though, i have seen the advert, and he has badly lied in it.

crikey, i bet the OH was proper impressed with the situation! the 528 was on its last legs as well then?

[frosted]

Why would you ever swap a car unless you can't sell it ?

[peterbredde]

I think he's trying it on - the 'Needs to be seen' comment is usually followed by 'to be believed' suggesting that it's an outstanding car. Sounds like a st-heap that's had a very very hard life to me.

I have been subject to this kind of mindless st myself. My brother called me on a Friday night a couple of years back begging me to drive him to Manchester the next day (from Cardiff) to buy an Audi Cabriolet (on an S or soemthing - can't remember exactly) that was 'totally immaculate' and 'had to be seen to be believed'. I asked him to phone the guy again and explain that we didn't want to drive all that way to be disappointed. We got the assurance it was 'mint'.

Drove for over 3 hours next morning to be greeted by the biggest st-pile you've ever seen. Covered in dents, filthy with bubbling and faded paintwork.

We went home empty handed.

I feel your pain.

Edited by peterbredde on Sunday 17th October 16:54

[big_russ]

frosted said:

Why would you ever swap a car unless you can't sell it ?

Had it advertised on ph offering px and swaps, the guy contacted me offering a swap for his jeep.
Beemer needee an o2 sensor and abs sensor. Not really last legs, just thought i was on to an ok deal so took it. Big regrets now though. Stranded at frankly services, with a 2 week old baby and a very annoyed wife was bad. Like i said, broke my own rules, never meet up like that, never take wife or kids, always fully inspect and test drive, walk away if something seems amiss. Broke every single one.