Buying high value cars privately

[Pubba66]

I've never bought a car privately but have sold two in past year privately via eBay. One was a Subaru at £10k and another Subaru at £2k. Was straightforward, I was paid via cash or bank transfer and I used the new feature on DVLA website to inform them of new keeper and buyer drove away.

So after saving up and taking out a personal loan I have £40k for a R35 GTR and am looking to buy one privately.

Say I view a car after seeing it advertised on the GTR forum (there are a number of good ones at moment), I do a HPI check on it, check the V5C document thoroughly, confirm the service invoices with the garages (e.g. emailing Litchfield with invoice number to confirm it is legit), check the "seller's" driving license and utility bills to compare with V5C, but what else can I do to protect myself from being scammed? Because I have a strange paranoia that despite everything checking out, after I transfer the £40k to the seller, he could either refuse to hand over the car and drive away into the sunset never to be seen again OR could give me the keys and inform DVLA of new keeper but next day it turns out the seller was NOT the real LEGAL owner of the car at all, and his "brother" or anyone else could report it as stolen and it would be seized by the police and given back to him or I could be sued in court.

Is there any kind of special insurance a private person could take out to protect themselves from this? What insurance do car traders have to protect themselves from being part exchanged a car that doesn't belong to the buyer?

Or should I accept there is nothing to protect me and I could lose all my money so would be better to just buy from a used car dealer and pay the £3-5k premium.

[stuthemong]

I HPI and get the theft/write off insurance that way.

But if you meet someone at their house where V5 is registered, sign a sale agreement (AA and RAC have example ones you can dl) xfer cash digitally so there is record and drive away the risk isn’t very high. Biggest real risk is the car may hidden bills, you have no warranty so do your research.

If you place a deposit with a dealer and they go bust you lose your money too (credit card payment can help), nothing in life is risk free!

I always buy privately, save 15% or so and that makes risk profile worthwhile to me, plus made some mates!!

[Roboticarm]

Whatever you do, do not take cash. So many horror stories of people arriving to find no car and a gang of lads ready to take some cash.

My advice:
1) research and HPI the car
2) speak to the seller (on the phone rather than via message) so you get a vibe of what they are like
3) do not go alone, take a mate
4) pay electronically but speak to your bank first to payment doesn't get flagged for further checks which delay the transfer
5) make sure paperwork is agree and a contact signed
6) trust your gut, walk away if anything seems dodgy
7) check the vin, so many people never check the vin number

[omniflow]

If I was buying a £40K car privately, I definitely wouldn't do it in one hit.

Go and see the car, decide if you like it.
Assess the seller.
HPI the car
Arrange to get the car inspected by a reputable / specialist garage. In the case of a GTR I would assume Litchfield. This is something that you would need to pay for, but the seller would need to arrange / execute.
Do not buy a £40K car without getting it inspected.
At this point you will want some kind of arrangement with the seller that you'll buy the car if the inspection is satisfactory. You don't want him selling it to someone else, but you need to be able to walk away if the inspection shows up issues.
Subject to satisfactory inspection, go and collect the car, pay by bank transfer.

If the seller is reluctant at any stage, then walk away.

[jjr1]

I bought my M4 Comp privately for £42k.

Saw the advert on Autotrader. Called the girl who owned it. Got a train down to Southampton one morning and drove her and her father to the local bank. In there I transferred my money to her account and then gave her and her father a lift back to their house.

Some of you are too paranoid !

[Toed64]

HPI is useful, but there are quite a few cars that are stolen and recovered or are damaged, then sold through the salvage sites, but some do not end up on the register. HPI often does not have a record of the damage on these cars. (Copart and Synetiq clear something like 10,000 cars every week - just look at CAT X and U in their listings).

https://www.vcheck.uk/ is amassing photographic record of these cars and they do all the other standard checks too.

[Nano2nd]

jjr1 said:

Got a train down to Southampton one morning and drove her and her father to the local bank.

if you got the train down, how did you drive them to the bank?

[lornemalvo]

May seem obvious, but the free online MOT check is worth doing. They sometimes go back a long way, so useful mileage check as well as checking for past mechanical issues and corrosion. In addition to independent check that is.

[Venturist]

Nano2nd said:

if you got the train down, how did you drive them to the bank?

In his M4 he’d recently bought.

[troika]

Sold my last VW California privately. Bloke phoned up, agreed price, came and looked at it, instant bank transfer for circa £50K done on his phone, paperwork done, drove off. Simples.

[Jamescrs]

Nano2nd said:

if you got the train down, how did you drive them to the bank?

I make the assumption that the drive to the bank was done in the car he was purchasing?

In relation to the OP I think it's sensible to buy from an owners club member as if on a forum such as this you can also look at the sellers previous postings to both gauge what he's said about the car in the time he/she has owned it and it gives some extra reassurance that he is a legitimate owner and not acquired to make a quick profit on whether legally or not.

[Nano2nd]

Jamescrs said:

Nano2nd said:

if you got the train down, how did you drive them to the bank?

I make the assumption that the drive to the bank was done in the car he was purchasing?

yeah that's what i was wondering, which would mean 3rd party insurance (unless he arranged insurance?) - a very trusting seller of an expensive car indeed, i do find it interesting when adverts read "no test drives" etc, a big put off for me...

[Jamescrs]

Nano2nd said:

yeah that's what i was wondering, which would mean 3rd party insurance (unless he arranged insurance?) - a very trusting seller of an expensive car indeed, i do find it interesting when adverts read "no test drives" etc, a big put off for me...

Completely agree re the no test drives thing, I wouldn't buy a car, certainly from a private seller without a test drive first. There is an App now though I forget the name which will insure by the hour if needed for things like this,

[Sir Bagalot]

omniflow said:

Arrange to get the car inspected by a reputable / specialist garage. In the case of a GTR I would assume Litchfield. This is something that you would need to pay for, but the seller would need to arrange / execute.
Do not buy a £40K car without getting it inspected.

This

[jjr1]

Nano2nd said:

jjr1 said:

Got a train down to Southampton one morning and drove her and her father to the local bank.

if you got the train down, how did you drive them to the bank?

I drove my new M4 to the bank. Had to check it worked.

[anonymous-user]

Venturist said:

Nano2nd said:

if you got the train down, how did you drive them to the bank?

In his M4 he’d recently bought.

Wow. That's the sort of "ask without putting any sort of thought into it at all" question my 6 year olds ask

[johnwilliams77]

Nano2nd said:

yeah that's what i was wondering, which would mean 3rd party insurance

No, it wouldn't mean that.

[washingitagain]

troika said:

Sold my last VW California privately. Bloke phoned up, agreed price, came and looked at it, instant bank transfer for circa £50K done on his phone, paperwork done, drove off. Simples.

But the OP is asking from the *buyers* perspective. We're all honest souls but he's trying to avoid a dodgy seller.

[Nano2nd]

stickleback123 said:

Venturist said:

Nano2nd said:

if you got the train down, how did you drive them to the bank?

In his M4 he’d recently bought.

Wow. That's the sort of "ask without putting any sort of thought into it at all" question my 6 year olds ask

blimey i clearly have the intellect of a 6 year old... so can someone explain this to me as i'm obviously missing something, the story goes he got the train to view a car which he then drove to the bank to pay for, fair enough, but the car was owned by him when he drove it to the bank? which suggests the owners gave him the car as he'd not paid for it yet... what am i missing?

[Nano2nd]

johnwilliams77 said:

Nano2nd said:

yeah that's what i was wondering, which would mean 3rd party insurance

No, it wouldn't mean that.

what would it mean then?