Yet another 'car dealer posing as private seller' situation

[Bluesgirl]

I'm looking at a car on AT that's advertised as being sold by XYZ motors. No website, just a phone number. The guy tells me it's a private sale - his gf doesn't like manual transmission, so he's selling it after 2 months' ownership. He says he used to be a trader and still runs the a/c on AT for advertising purposes and so he can sell at a discounted price. The price he's quoting is reasonable.
He says his name is on the V5. I've asked him for copies of the service history, invoices, V5 etc, but obviously my concern is the consumer protection angle. The car's quite a distance away, so I don't want to drive there to see it if it's all going to go pear-shaped.

Any advice from those in the know? TIA

[Canon_Fodder]

Treat it as a private purchase OP

[donkmeister]

OP, presumably your concern is he's selling a lemon as a private sale to get out of his obligations.

Really, you have to decide if that is an acceptable level of risk for you. I bought a car in similar circumstances once with some known faults (that he tried to hide) and in need of some service items, but the price was too good to miss. I took the difference between the sale price and what dealer examples were going for as my bork fund (it was around £6k).

I had an Indy specialist give it a once over once I bought it and I think the invoice for a full diagnostic and fixing those faults was around £200, with another £600 for the service items. So, it was a £5k saving in reality. That car gave me another 60k miles of very pleasurable service before I sold it on.

Now, if I couldn't cover the bork fund I wouldn't have bought it. So that's really what you need to consider.

[Theraveda]

Walk away.

[CarCrazyDad]

Bluesgirl said:

I'm looking at a car on AT that's advertised as being sold by XYZ motors. No website, just a phone number. The guy tells me it's a private sale - his gf doesn't like manual transmission, so he's selling it after 2 months' ownership. He says he used to be a trader and still runs the a/c on AT for advertising purposes and so he can sell at a discounted price. The price he's quoting is reasonable.
He says his name is on the V5. I've asked him for copies of the service history, invoices, V5 etc, but obviously my concern is the consumer protection angle. The car's quite a distance away, so I don't want to drive there to see it if it's all going to go pear-shaped.

Any advice from those in the know? TIA

Sounds like a private purchase

If his name is on the V5 and the story adds up?

Although if you're concerned then maybe find another car at a main dealer, although as a friend of mine found out only recently being a main dealer doesn't make everything OK !

[julian64]

Yep there are bigger problems here.

If you buy from a private seller you each have a fairly equivalent knowledge of the car. If it turns out to be a lemon than at least you can say to youself that it was an unknown that you got the short end of. Unlucky

There is a reason this guy is not selling through his official responsibility as a dealer, and his knowledge of the car is likely to be greater than a simple private seller. So your chances of him doing this because he knows its a lemon are much higher. Likely stitch-up



The only thing that beats this in a game of dealer cards is an enthusiast. A buyer with the capability of sorting (cheaply) almost all problems with a lemon.

So you have to ask yourself, are you that person?

[MustangGT]

Theraveda said:

Walk away.

This, every time there is a question over the type of sale.

[buyer&seller]

You do not run an account on Autotrader for the fun of it as there's an expense involved, unless he's just advertising the odd car in which case it's more expensive than as a private seller. Has he got any other cars for sale or just the one?

[dundarach]

If you're posting on here, I say walk away.

[Theraveda]

MustangGT said:

Theraveda said:

Walk away.

This, every time there is a question over the type of sale.

Or indeed, anything else about the car or vendor.

[Bluesgirl]

julian64 said:

Yep there are bigger problems here.

[b]If you buy from a private seller you each have a fairly equivalent knowledge of the car. If it turns out to be a lemon than at least you can say to youself that it was an unknown that you got the short end of. Unlucky

There is a reason this guy is not selling through his official responsibility as a dealer, and his knowledge of the car is likely to be greater than a simple private seller. So your chances of him doing this because he knows its a lemon are much higher. Likely stitch-up [/b]



The only thing that beats this in a game of dealer cards is an enthusiast. A buyer with the capability of sorting (cheaply) almost all problems with a lemon.

So you have to ask yourself, are you that person?

Yes, this is my concern. The car appears to be straight (on paper). It's average mileage for a 4 year old car, 3 owners, which isn't ideal, but pretending to be a private seller suggests he wants to evade his responsibility, as otherwise, why bother? If anything goes wrong with it, I'll be paying garage rates for it to be fixed. It's a shame because it ticks the boxes.

[CarCrazyDad]

Bluesgirl said:

Yes, this is my concern. The car appears to be straight (on paper). It's average mileage for a 4 year old car, 3 owners, which isn't ideal, but pretending to be a private seller suggests he wants to evade his responsibility, as otherwise, why bother? If anything goes wrong with it, I'll be paying garage rates for it to be fixed. It's a shame because it ticks the boxes.

Or, maybe , it is not a trade car and is a private sale

If I own a garage but sell my personal car privately, is that not allowed then?

As has been said, if you're not comfortable, walk away, but don't assume the worst immediately?
You're entitled to your suspicions or to talk away, so it's no harm either way

[Canon_Fodder]

OP you could arrange an RAC inspection of the car - that might put your mind at rest.

But forget about getting consumer rights as if buying from a bona-fide dealership as that just ain't gonna happen with this geezer

[deckster]

Bluesgirl said:

Yes, this is my concern. The car appears to be straight (on paper). It's average mileage for a 4 year old car, 3 owners, which isn't ideal, but pretending to be a private seller suggests he wants to evade his responsibility, as otherwise, why bother? If anything goes wrong with it, I'll be paying garage rates for it to be fixed. It's a shame because it ticks the boxes.

Is it a rare car? How long have you been looking?

You might get lucky but given what you've said I would automatically assume that (a) there's something, potentially serious, wrong with it; and (b) the seller is getting rid so that he doesn't have to fix it.

Based on both of those, unless it is both exceptionally hard to get hold of and priced at a considerable discount, I wouldn't touch it with a bargepole.

[Jonny Wishbone]

What’s the car?

With anything common it’d take way, way less than this to make me look elsewhere, to the detriment no doubt of plenty of genuine vendors.

[Mastiff]

CarCrazyDad said:

If I own a garage but sell my personal car privately, is that not allowed then?

Actually - I don't believe we can. I checked on this some time ago as I was looking to sell the other halfs S3 - it's been registered in my name to the home address for 6 odd years as I took it in part exchange and bought it for her for the firm that I worked for at the time.

Even after all that time - I understood the rules to mean that I have to declare the vehicle as a trade sale, purely because of my involvement in the business and therefore my apparent "expert knowledge". I may be wrong as it isn't overly clear but that's how I chose to do it in the end.

As a previous poster said - treat it as a private sale anyway. IMHO there's not a lot of point in missing what could be an ideal car. Have it mechanically inspected by an indie of your not confident enough to look at it yourself, complete due diligence regarding outstanding finance etc and get it bought if it checks out.

[Richard-390a0]

Four years, three owners one of which is a trader getting rid after two months?. Sounds like a lemon to avoid imho!

[av185]

Trader trying to sell a car privately lol.

What could possibly go wrong.

Even IF its his own car as a trader he should be selling it as a trader.

So he's not only trying to avoid his legal obligations but also his moral obligations and his tax obligations as well.

With such a positive case for his overall integrity you really ought to ask yourself why are you even considering buying from him. Most sane purchasers wouldn't buy a second hand pram from this schmok.

Run for the hills.

[fred bloggs]

LOL

[TonyRPH]

Bluesgirl said:

Yes, this is my concern. The car appears to be straight (on paper). It's average mileage for a 4 year old car, 3 owners, which isn't ideal, but pretending to be a private seller suggests he wants to evade his responsibility, as otherwise, why bother? If anything goes wrong with it, I'll be paying garage rates for it to be fixed. It's a shame because it ticks the boxes.

Would there be any tax / vat to pay if he sold his privately owned vehicle through his dealership?

Could that be a valid reason he's selling it privately?