Public selling crap

[Bren]

After reading Colt Seavers' thread about his micra and how under all that shiny green paint it turned out to have the structural integrity of a ryvita it reminded me of when my mate was looking for a cheap second car in the summer.

 

He was looking to spend between £5 - 800 on a fiesta, he rang me to pick my brains because my other half has one, he told me that he was going to look at one for sale locally and he would let me know how he got on.

 

He did'nt buy the car, he said the brakes barely worked on the test drive, when he got back to the seller's address a look under the bonnet showed the brake fluid reservoir was empty. This was a car with no tax and short ticket - it was worth bridge money but the fucking chancer who was selling it (private sale)was asking £400. Nobody expects a great car for that money, but if it goes it should be able to stop as well.

 

Are people really that thick that they don't notice things like this, or are they just out to screw what they can from somebody? Sometimes I feel sorry for people working in the trade, those that buy and sell, it appears that they are at the mercy of the public and trading standards, but it's ok for joe public to try and sell or part ex his shite on anybody with no comebacks.

 

As people on here have no doubt experienced selling to mouth breathing mongoloids on flea bay and gumtree, those who want a car for £300 but then want something off because the tyres are underinflated. 

[Jim Bell]

Buyer Beware.

 

Think thats the best advice anyone can heed in any situation involving taking money out of your pocket.

 

Everyone wants your money. If its not chancers, its power companies, the government, petrol moguls, insurance magnates (not magnets) etc etc etc.

 

Think we all get caught out once in a while.

[brickwall]

No surprise really. On the plus side I've had people being totally honest " don't trust the brakes pal", " It'll need welded here, here, here and here and over there too".

[twosmoke300]

crap is a relative term too. The fiesta that the op mentioned could have been a good car that just needed a wheel cylinder !

[srad34]

Its a sensitive subject, a while back, I sold a '02 Punto with 80K for £500, service, new brakes and MOT followed, all good and it was a tidy little thing.

The last owner told me not to use the 'city' button on the dash for lighter power steering/easier parking as it was intermittent (common issue with electric power steering on these).  

 

The new buyer came to look and was happy with the way it drove and before I took the deposit, I mentioned (being honest) the above issue as it was a common fault despite it not happening to me or her when driving, I would not use the city button to avoid any problems, but she was not at all interested....

 

Anyhow, balance paid, off she goes and the following morning she calls to 'inform me' that the car has a problem with the steering. I asked what was the problem and she said 'What you said about the steering'.  

She then proceeded to inform me that she had rights for me to either refund or replace the faulty part. A 'friend' has advised that he can repair for £400 but I have to pay her as its a favour!

 

I politely pointed out that as it was a private sale (including receipt signed by both - I even clarified what a private sale meant) and whilst it was sadly unfortunate, as she was very happy with the fault-free test drive before handing over the balance. I also mentioned that it was something I had previously made her aware affecting these cars, before deposit and collection had taken place.

 

So, fast forward nearly a month of numerous phone calls to consumer direct. It turns out that she had told CD that I was a garage and hoped to force me into refunding or repairing for 4/5 of the sale price! 

FFS, what a ball ache........I blocked her number in the end as she continued to make threats of legal action, blah, blah, blah.

 

Its a 10 year old Fiat FFS, why do folk expect something perfect and new for £500...... It boils my piss....

[dollywobbler]

I hate selling cheap cars - things can and do break, as I've found several times this year when selling cheap chod! The guilt eats me up but all you can do is try to be honest. 

 

But most people don't have a clue when it comes to cars and I doubt many people check the brake fluid level at all! "If there are no warning lights on, it must be ok." Which as my wife discovered before she met me, is a good way to blow up an engine that's short on oil. 

[Angrydicky]

I'm not sure I could be arsed selling a sub-£500 car to anyone outside Autoshite.

[Junkman]

I have noticed that there are huge local differences when it comes to honesty when describing a car for sale.

Really up front are Scousers and Jocks. If they know something is wrong with that heap, they tell you so.

Never buy a car in Greater Manchester, unless it's one of mine. Manchester is the scrappage capital of the world.

A car is either advertised for breaking to begin with, or it is so expensive that you weep.

Bringing a good car to Manchester from anywhere in the UK is an automatic 10% profit, or minimum 200 quid, whichever is more.

Never buy a car from anyone in Down Southshire, unless he is a 100% approved Autoshiter.

Southerners either try to screw you deliberately, or they are too daft to realise what's wrong with a car, sometimes both.

[John F]

I quite agree, Dicky.

 

Which reminds me - Kristin's Twingo might well be up for sale on here early next year.

 

Just bid now!!! If nobody buys the car it will be banger-raced!

[Vince70]

Or even worse don't sell cars to elderly neighbours.

I sold my beautiful low mileage diesel xantia about 10 years ago to a an elderly neighbour I was looking for £900 at the time which was cheap and as I already bought myself a new car and he was pleading poverty I let him have it for £600 with a years tax and test and full history.

 

He came back complaining about the car not having a cassette radio as previously in my ownership I had a decent pioneer CD player professionally fitted and didn't want to take it out and leave him a hole.

 

Then within a week he said the engine is knackered because the temperature gauge only goes up half way so there must be something wrong with the cooling system.(his previous car would boil up and go off the gauge as the headgasket had gone )

 

I sent him to a Citroen specialist who told him the car was A1 and one of the best he had seen but the moaning still continued.

I would of bought it back just to shut him up but within a week of ownership he sideswiped a lorry with it an completely destroyed the side which was such a shame as it really was immaculate.

 

Another time about 6 years ago I had a nice 2 owner late 60000 mile Peugeot 306 for £700 and had the car a couple of years and in the meantime had bought myself a year old roadster so it was sitting on my driveway doing nothing.

 

Another elderly owner asked me if I would sell it so I said take it for a test drive.

 

That was a mistake as he mounted a high curb and damaged the sidewall of the tyre so I had to put a new tyre on at my expense then I said before you have the car I will put a fresh mot on it at my expense as it only had 3 months ticket on it.

 

It only cost about £150 to get through the mot and needed the new tyre and a new set of rear pads fitted and it was good as new again. But within a week I was getting complaints again.

 

This time it was because of a squeaky parcel shelve so in the end, I managed to get an earlier one as the earlier parcel shelves are better quality and again I had complaints that the stereo was too complicated as again I had an aftermarket one fitted and had binned the original as it had always played up from when I first bought the car.

 

Next time I think when I've got bored with a car I'm going to give it a Viking burial, I'm sure it will save me money in the long run.

[plasticvandan]

had some woman buy a Robin off me from ebay,loved it,as described etc.rang me a month later asking if she could use my photos of it to sell it again as it "was smaller than she thought" i just said "well,what did you expect,one of those BIG robins?" lol

[oman5]

I tend to usually sell cars only to people I know, that way they know the car and how I look after them. If all else fails I will use egay but I have to be scrupulously honest about any faults. It means you get less for the car but also gets rid of the twats who want perfection for 500 quid. chances are if I'm selling its only because I've run out of room and want shot of it at any price anyway.

[Micrashed]

Unless something is an utter death trap and its been bodged to hide it why would you get arsey about an old car having faults?

 

MicraShed 2 - stinks of petrol when you brim the tank and drive with the windows open.

Has done since I bought it. Done 25K miles now like that, no one has died.

The clutch is a bit snatchy, has been for the last 25K miles as well - Im used to it.

 

I think the bloke at the dealer selling it was a bit surprised that I wasnt in the least bit arsed that it had little faults. It was clean, stopped and started as it should and had a full Nissan history. I haggled a bit on the price as is the norm, got more off than I expected when I threatended to trade in the MicraShed 1 on the proviso that I scrap the MicraShed 1 instead and Ive had 4 years of utterly dull driving ever since.

[Cavcraft]

I'm not having that 'regionalistic' car sales bit, to be honest. The best rule of thumb is to trust absolutely nobody, no matter what area they are from. I've certainly got favourite areas to buy from but it sure as hell won't mean I'd automatically trust everyone from that region.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

With reference to Junkman's regional advice ,as a soft shandy drinking southerner I take exception to the advice not to buy from us. Now I'm not anti' Fackin Norvern Mankies'( copywrite, Lenny McLean), in fact some of my best friends...um..er....have an Elbow record. But in 30 odd years of buying and selling cars as both amateur and prof.. I mean pikey trader the only time I've ever had an actual physical fight over a deal was with some charming lads from Bratfurt who thought after towing a fucking great 6 wheel Ivor Williams farm trailer behind a Montego Countryman Diesel 200 miles in the snow to pick up a genuine Mk3 RS Turbo rolling shell,,I wouldn't notice that the logbook actually said 1.6 Ghia. One of the cheeky feckers tried to grab the envelope of cash off my brother which inevitably led to fisticuffs,even 15 years ago the police that turned up were more interested in 'possible racist overtones to the situation' than these little toe rags nicking a White Lightening.

Saying that whenever,against my better judgement I go into London to look at a car it's invariably mis- described and on finance.

Also I must say on that documentary on ITV about that street in Manchester the people in the local garage seem like nice chaps, probably wouldn't let Kevin babysit though.

[Stroller133]

In 1998 I was selling a 9 year old Rover 216S for £375 in local rag. One bloke spent ages looking round 'tutting' and in the end declared he had one new and this one wasn't as good! The eventual buyer called and reeled of a load of spec asking if my car had it. No, no, no.... I replied, just about to tell her to do one and bother someone else when she said brilliant - less to go wrong. Turned up with the cash and drove off within an hour.

 

I was selling the rover as I had just bought the Mini clubman in my profile pic.

[lovejoy]

John F  -  what's this "TWINGO" of Kristins you may be selling ?   Is this in the UK?? (Lugburgz...  )  - a  Twingo 1 ???

[CortinaDave]

I sold a 1963 PB Cresta around 5 or 6 years ago. It was absolutely solid with a recent paint job and rebuilt engine, but a shit interior.  I was totally honest on the ebay listing and a guy from Middlesbrough  came up on the train to meet me in Edinburgh with his kids having won it for a disappointing (for me) £875.

 

He looked at it and uhhmed and ahhed and said "its just not..... er.. I dunno". He was unable to find any fault with it other than the shit interior (which I'd mentioned in the auction) but still moaned and complained and tried to knock money off his bid price.

 

after a full hour of his bleating about "nothing i can put my finger on, its just not right" he relented and paid up and drove off home in it.

 

The car got him home without issue ( not bad for a then 45 year old car) but he plagued me for weeks with emailed threats because........

 

 

....... on his drive home one of the HEADLIGHT BULBS HAD BLOWN. this was APPALLING and I could have been responsible for KILLING HIS CHILDREN.

 

 

[Cavcraft]

You just have to ride the cheeky eBay ones out. If they've driven or got the train from miles and miles away, then try and take the piss, just refuse their offer. It's them that's wasted time and money coming all the way and if they have to go home empty handed, that's their hard luck.

[Mr Lobster]

John F  -  what's this "TWINGO" of Kristins you may be selling ?   Is this in the UK?? (Lugburgz...  )  - a  Twingo 1 ???

 +1 

 

Twingo indeed. 

 

*makes mental note of possible Twingo for sale in 2014 *

[lovejoy]

one of "these"  - I hope...      http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/carbycar/renault/twingo-1995/