Ask a Shiter

[ChinaTom]

here is the ad

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/180720827338? ... 1559.l2649

 

I'm on my side on this one. I will await the inevidable dispute, but as you say, will stick to my guns.

[Negative Creep]

All you need are 2 words - caveat emptor

 

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topi ... ....&mid=0

 

If you can't be bothered to read 34 pages, basically it's sold as seen and the buyer doesn't have a leg to stand on. Continue to message him and there's simply more chance you'll give in. Just state something along the lines of "car was sold as seen, if you are unhappy then take me to court. Any further communication will be considered harassment."

 

 

Now for my question, what is this blue stuff around my thermostat housing?

 

[scaryoldcortina]

^ It's crystallized antifreeze which has either leeched through a dodgy gasket/seal or porous casting.

[Cavcraft]

I believe you have already nailed him anyway CT, it was a bloody cheap car and if he expected brand new he's a flipping melon.

However the wording 'So there may be a few niggles to sort out' would have led to anyone with a brain realising that £500 gets a car with a few niggles. Tell them sorry, but you're not interested in helping out as it was an old (and cheap) car and these sort of things happen.

[CIH]

I believe you have already nailed him anyway CT, it was a bloody cheap car and if he expected brand new he's a flipping melon.

However the wording 'So there may be a few niggles to sort out' would have led to anyone with a brain realising that £500 gets a car with a few niggles. Tell them sorry, but you're not interested in helping out as it was an old (and cheap) car and these sort of things happen.

 

This, then ignore any future texts. Caught fire ? Fook right off.

[HillmanImp]

Tax dodge question;

 

I'm doing a London to Brighton run at the end of the month in my T2

Down to London on Friday the 30th

London to Brighton on Saturday the 1st

& back home on Sunday the 2nd.

 

I will be legal,

 

My friend wishes to sorn his vehicle after the event & wonders if the few days of leeway

that you're given on tax renewal will enable him to get away with simply not re-taxing

until he gets home & then sorning it?

Or will he be horribly punished?

 

I would have thought that the few days grace means that its a few days on the understanding it will be taxed. Its like buying a car on Friday, saying to the owner you will pay on Monday, taking it away, using it for a few days and then taking it back as you never intended to buy it. You just felt like blezzing around in it for the weekend.

[ChinaTom]

I believe you have already nailed him anyway CT, it was a bloody cheap car and if he expected brand new he's a flipping melon.

However the wording 'So there may be a few niggles to sort out' would have led to anyone with a brain realising that £500 gets a car with a few niggles. Tell them sorry, but you're not interested in helping out as it was an old (and cheap) car and these sort of things happen.

 

This, then ignore any future texts. Caught fire ? Fook right off.

 

Here is a message received through Ebay this morning

 

"please get back to me by the end of today re the headache i'm had/having with this car you have sold me.... it MAJORLY DIFFERS from what your listing reads, as i've explained to you by telephone & i've been very patient on your returning back to the uk. The issues/headache i'm having with this car now needs resolving as above it majorly diifers from your listing & words describing this car/headache i have bought from you on a buy it now & only done so on your word discribing your car you had for sale "after only 28 miles i've had to spend £483 to stop the engine from overheatin, £90 recovering the car due to breakindown overheatin & it's had the fire service called out to it by the car park it was parked in" very dissapointed in the car your discription & finding it hard to contact you or to get you honour your responsibilty as a eBayer re your wording & listings + as a genuine guy selling a genuine car? i've now called yourself 4 times + text'd you re the above & getting no response"

 

I guess as this is through Ebay, I am obliged to respond. I assume I should just say the normal usual things like "ad clearly stated problems I was aware of which demonstrated prior to payment being made", "signed sold as seen receipt", etc. I take it nothing in the above text would change your advice as given so far? Sorry to be a wimp, but I no experience of disputes on Ebay whatsoever and don't know the pitfalls.

 

Thing that annoys me is he would treble his money if he parted the car out for spares given the amount of new stuff on there.

[Negative Creep]

The vehicle in question was sold as seen, no warranty given or implied and these terms were agreed to upon purchase. This will be my last response on this matter, any further communication will be considered harassment and forwarded to the police. Thank you.

 

Proper job

[Cheggers]

I had similar problems with a bell-end chancer who bought a dinghy off me recently. In the end it went to eBay customer services for resolution who found in my favour...funnily enough I've not heard from the prick since. The main thing you have in your favour is that he came to collect the car in person, and inspected it before driving away. If the car was THAT different from the description, he could have rejected it and walked away.

 

Personally, I'd flag the dispute to eBay and let them deal with the chancer.

[Pete-M]

Just inform him of his right to go fuck himself.

 

Cheap car, sold as seen, he took his chances. Tough shit.

[r.welfare]

Kinda linked to the 'disappearing fast' thread. I've just been perusing Mk1 Audi TT's on t'Bay, to help a colleague value hers.

 

Now, when the TT first came out, there was (IIRC) about a year's difference between the LHD mainland Europe and RHD launches. As such, quite a few enterprising folk, who couldn't wait, purchased LHD cars and imported them. Same with the first Boxster, Z3, SLK, and New Beetle. There may be others that I've forgotten, but this seemed to be very much a late 90's phenomenon.

 

So, my two stupid questions are:

 

- These early LHD cars seem to no longer exist - is it because they've all been exported back to the Continent to make a higher secondhand price; and

- No-one seems to undertake this practice anymore. Why? Is it because the LHD and RHD launches are pretty much simultaneous these days? Or everyone now knows that the price to be paid for being an innovator means a tigerbumming on eventual p/x once the market floods with RHD examples?

[ChinaTom]

^ have done (although not in those terms of course). Not sarky, or baiting in any way - just a simple statement of the facts as drafted by a legal buddy who is out here with me.

 

Expect he'll keep on trying, and as he only lives a few miles away, he will probably show his face at my door once or twice. Which is fine as me and the Missus are in the far east at the moment. When he came to collect he bought Vinnie Jones with him, but other than a quick walk around the car and a grunt, he went to sit back in his van again. The buyer sounded like a decent Naarf'k lad - bit older than me, but civil, friendly and exuded a passion for E39's. It was quite a jovial event actually, but I'm sure that is no indication of a smooth transaction. I rather suspect his Missus is giving him grief for buying a cheap car that needs fixing all the time. Certainly nothing like Merlot's experience in the 34 page link on PH. Yet, anyway. Ho hum. Trade-in next time. Don't need this grief.

 

Cheers for the advice everyone.

[yes oui si]

Have some shonky old tat dumped on his drive... Something utterly horrific like a 1.1 auto Fiesta on some mid-nineties TSW three spokes...

 

*n

[face]

Employ the classic free-ad trick, not that I've ever done it:

 

1996 Golf Tdi

120,000 miles FSH

I month MOT (needs two front tyres for next one)

2 months tax

VGC

£500 ono

 

[insert his mobile]

Please ring after 9pm

[Albert Ross]

CT. I once sold a shonky Polo Genesis on t'bay. I listed it honestly, as a "dented heap with mechanical issues, suit enthusiast as a fixer upper." I had three viewers, and one (Strangely a recently arrived chinese gentleman) was extremely keen as the black paint and the reg number combination meant something to him! He got outbid by a new, low pointed user. Well he arrived to collect the car, took a look round it, and asked for a test drive. "A what? Did you not drive it when you came to look at it prior to the auction?" Respnse was a bit like "Erm... I didn't come to view it before bidding.. I just bid on it, now I want to see if I like it......." My words were along the lines of "You bid, you bought, now hand over the folding"......He did so.

A week later came a claim for the money in full or he would send the Police round to see me. Turns out, he had taken it for an inspection at a Kwik-Fit................. Need I say any more? Like I told him, read the receipt. Sold as seen, with all known faults disclosed, and no guarantee on any mechanical condition. His Father got involved and all snotty with me. "How dare you sell a death trap to my Son" ... To which I responded thusly. "GO fuck yourself you pompous cunt. If you cared about your kid you would spunk 5 grand on a 4 year old Fiesta instead of letting him buy a bag of shit like what I sold you.What do you know about cars anyway? Now hear this. Never contact me again" Or summat like that. And you know what? He didn't!

[Pete-M]

Employ the classic free-ad trick, not that I've ever done it:

 

1996 Golf Tdi

120,000 miles FSH

I month MOT (needs two front tyres for next one)

2 months tax

VGC

£500 ono

 

[insert his mobile]

Please ring after 9pm

 

Overpriced advert? Nah, it's got to be 2004 Golf TDi, no mot, sale due to bereavement, 35,000 miles, £850 for quick sale.

[Pete-M]

Or everyone now knows that the price to be paid for being an innovator means a tigerbumming on eventual p/x once the market floods with RHD examples?

 

Nope, the LHD ones are worth quite a bit more than RHD ones as UK RHD cars are cheap as chips compared to most of Europe but RHD is a ball-ache to register in a few 'new European' states. You won't be tigerbummed at all, you'll be snowed under with Czechs / Poles / Latvians / Lithuanians / Brit Ex-Pats fighting to buy your UK registered LHD car for 70% of the price it'll fetch in their country.

 

The number of European folk heading home at the moment is amazing and there are a fair few who're buying cars to take with them as that means they don't have to pay to get their stuff shipped over. Taking something like a TT or Boxster means they can't take much luggage, but they can earn enough money from selling it to more than cover any costs.

 

I've been searching for about three years for a quick UK registered, LHD automatic estate with AC, leather and a towbar for sensible money. Not found anything yet.

[warren t claim]

I'm sure we've all noticed the amount of log books for interesting tat appearing on the Bay over the last couple of years so here is my question.

 

I know for a fact that due to a mixture of lazy scrapyard owners and DVLA indifference I'm probably still the registered keeper of all sorts of OSF tat that I weighed in yonks ago. Could I apply for a duplicate log book for any of them and make a few quid?

[Pete-M]

I'm sure we've all noticed the amount of log books for interesting tat appearing on the Bay over the last couple of years so here is my question.

 

I know for a fact that due to a mixture of lazy scrapyard owners and DVLA indifference I'm probably still the registered keeper of all sorts of OSF tat that I weighed in yonks ago. Could I apply for a duplicate log book for any of them and make a few quid?

 

Provided they don't need VIC checks with being off the road for so long... Who knows?

[warren t claim]

I'm sure we've all noticed the amount of log books for interesting tat appearing on the Bay over the last couple of years so here is my question.

 

I know for a fact that due to a mixture of lazy scrapyard owners and DVLA indifference I'm probably still the registered keeper of all sorts of OSF tat that I weighed in yonks ago. Could I apply for a duplicate log book for any of them and make a few quid?

 

Provided they don't need VIC checks with being off the road for so long... Who knows?

 

I KNOW I dumped a genuine 1300E in Bidston docks, reg BTD 8**L and never bothered notifying the dvla. I totalled a genuine Mk2 RS Mexico into a sandstone wall in West Kirby (BMA3**S) and broke it up for spares shortly afterwards and never told anyone.

 

I only wish I knew the reg of the RS1800 I destroyed with a mate in New Brighton in about 1990. I'm sure it was bought by its first owner from Skellys Of Liverpool. I wonder who'd have the old sales ledger? I'm sure it was Liverpool registered on an R plate with a two digit number.

[Cavcraft]

Is it correct to say 'Kas' (plural of Ka) as it just looks wrong, but then so does Ka's when describing more than one Ka? Bit random I know but bugs the hell out of me, and typing Escorts, Mondeos etc seems perfectly o.k.

[Tayne]

"Kas" is the correct plural.

 

The apostrophe should only be used when shortening certain words or in the possessive.

 

ie.

There were loads of Ford Kas at the dealership.[plural]

The Ford Ka's sills are rotten. [possessive]

The Ford Ka's failed an MoT on rotten sills. [shortened from "has failed"]

[Cavcraft]

Thankyou. Miss using apostrophes bugs the hell out of me, but that's a whole seperate rant.

[ProgRocker]

^ have done (although not in those terms of course). Not sarky, or baiting in any way - just a simple statement of the facts as drafted by a legal buddy who is out here with me.

 

Expect he'll keep on trying, and as he only lives a few miles away, he will probably show his face at my door once or twice. Which is fine as me and the Missus are in the far east at the moment. When he came to collect he bought Vinnie Jones with him, but other than a quick walk around the car and a grunt, he went to sit back in his van again. The buyer sounded like a decent Naarf'k lad - bit older than me, but civil, friendly and exuded a passion for E39's. It was quite a jovial event actually, but I'm sure that is no indication of a smooth transaction. I rather suspect his Missus is giving him grief for buying a cheap car that needs fixing all the time. Certainly nothing like Merlot's experience in the 34 page link on PH. Yet, anyway. Ho hum. Trade-in next time. Don't need this grief.

 

Cheers for the advice everyone.

 

As someone else said 'caveat emptor' . Let him dispute it on eBay if he want or even try to take you to the small claims court. He won't win.

 

I've bought a few used cars and even one small property that, after a few weeks, I wasn't happy with. That was my tough luck for not being so rigorous with on inspection.

[Tayne]

Thankyou. Miss using apostrophes bugs the hell out of me, but that's a whole seperate rant.

 

HAY M8 HOO IS MISS USING?

 

Would she let herself be misused in the back of a Ford Ka?

[Cavcraft]

*Oh crap

[Father Ted]

Whassit Worth Q...

 

Woman at Work has a Y reg Sierra 1.6 in metallic green.

30 odd thousand miles. All service history, receipts, original radio etc.

It looks rust free but has usual old giffer owner parking by Braille scuffs and a couple of self tappers in a bumper. Im going to give it a good going over tomorrow dinner break and take some pictures for an ad on car&classics.

 

She thinks its worth £2000 ish. I think its probably worth nearer £800 on a good day with a following wind.

 

Opinions please.

[Cavcraft]

Dangly or non-dangly, three or five door? I'd imagine any 3 door is going to be worth a big-ish premium due to OMG COZZIE replica shit. For a boggo five door I think your estimate of eight hundred rips is about the best it could expect unless really tidy.

[Father Ted]

4 door. Cant say I noticed if it was a dangly mirror one. M0a|R pictures tomorrow.

[Cavcraft]

Probably asked before so excuse my rubarsh memory:

 

Are Audi 80s and Audi A4s pretty much the same car? I fancy a slightly flasher interior for the 80 (estate) and wanted to know if A4 seats etc will go straight in.

Ta muchly.