eBay tat volume 3.

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

But surely the whole set-up is much closer to a retail sale than a conventional auction. A bank getting rid of a repoed house isn't particularly bothered about the buyer's satisfaction with it.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I would have thought that seeing as the buyer 'dictates' the price he should note that theres no warranty and bid accordingly. Anyway the car is 27 years old, what sort of warranty do you suggest he offers on it?

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

I never said he should offer a warranty- only that he is deliberately conflating auctions and retail sales, which is both dishonest and has got potential for backfiring. If somebody ends up spending 3 grand for that povo Golf and it blows up on the way home, I can't see him being able to get away from the SOGA with the auction excuse like a normal private seller would.

[Micrashed]

Hey look its our favourite 'OMG WOT A GREEDY LYING WANKER' with another LUMP OF WOBBED-UP FRAG FODDER!

 

What a pile of shite that advert is.

 

Sure, he does have a knack for finding interesting old motors, and some of them are in GR9 condition. But that doesn't prevent him from being a lying wanker! And 6 bids upping the amount by almost a grand within six hours? In a week-long auction?

 

I wonder what a court would make of that sort of thinking.

Im fairly Sure Mr B's comments were tongue in cheek.

Hes a car salesman, he has his little niche of finding decentish "practical classics" and then doing the detailing and punting them on.

Yes there is a fair old amount of flannel in his ads, but its like reading a modern day "Arfur Daley" without wishing to be derogatory towards the guy. Im sure that people who buy off him are not the "green behind the ears" car buyers looking to make a fast buck or double their money in a few years, more likely they want a good example of what he is selling and will pay the price for someone else to do the work.

 

In short, the spiel doesnt really wash or score many points that Doris only drove it to the Mothers Union meeting once a month, what counts is that there is a nice example of a particular car that doesnt look like the arse is going to drop out of it after 5 minutes down the jet wash one Sunday morning. The spiel is just that, second hand salesman patter, the sort we expect wrapped up in a sheepskin coat and spouted from under a pork pie hat. I miss that when going car hunting now, its all sharp suits and Muzak.

 

A Boggo unmolested 1300 Mk2 Golf, if I was after one, if I had the money, this would be the one I buy. But (and here is the point,) YOU DONT HAVE TO - you think its overpriced, move on. You think what he writes is so much shite, move on, there are other cars out there.

 

 

And as for the comment about tyres? Bugger me, I dont change em unless they have to be. Regardless of how old the damn things are. If the sidewalls are not crazed and the tread is fine why waste money? Yet I look after my cars, making sure they are serviced as they should be and work as they should do.

[Ross_K]

Probably not very much, warranties very rarely apply to auctions (business or otherwise).

 

Not true. Sale Of Goods Act 1979 and Distance Selling Regulations apply to businesses selling on eBay.

 

I'd be wary of 150 bhp in a Primera - my late father had a Primera (can't remember what engine but not of the 'go faster' breed) and I very nearly put it in a hedge without much effort.

 

It has to be at least 200% more fun than a 350 quid Proton. Which I've umpteen lucky escapes in, thanks to the crappy handling.

[Hertz]

Hey look its our favourite 'OMG WOT A GREEDY LYING WANKER' with another LUMP OF WOBBED-UP FRAG FODDER!

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/OUTSTANDING-1 ... 0807541006

 

A bit of dectective work lead me to this:

 

http://pistonheads.co.uk/sales/4125391.htm

 

 

I guess he paid about £1700 for it? A nice valet and he wants £4k plus according to the ebay ad.

[rml2345]

He'll probably find someone to pay it too

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Probably not very much, warranties very rarely apply to auctions (business or otherwise).

 

Not true. Sale Of Goods Act 1979 and Distance Selling Regulations apply to businesses selling on eBay.

 

Neither have a shred of relevance in this case.

[Ross_K]

How so? Sale of goods act doesn't apply?

[RedSparrow]

If he can turn a profit on these old motors and people are prepared to pay it then what's the problem?

Fair play to him I say.

[garethj]

If he can turn a profit on these old motors and people are prepared to pay it then what's the problem?

Fair play to him I say.

What he said

[Mr_Bo11ox]

He has taken all reasonable measures to allow the buyer to satisfy himself of the condition of the car before actually bidding. He describes the car in detail with clear photos and invites viewings and invites bidders to ring him up with questions before bidding. Therefore you have no redress to say afterwards ‘it wasn’t what I thought i was buying’. I cannot see how he can possibly be infringing any aspect of the sale of goods act.

 

‘Distance selling’ is completely irrelevant as he is not posting the car out after you have paid for it. You actually have to go and get it yourself, and unless you were a complete vegtard you would pay for it then stood in front of the car.

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

MrB, the SOGA says "fair description" for private sales, "fit for purpose" for trade ones. You can't be a trader and sell cars on a "fair description" basis. Them's the laws.

 

Im fairly Sure Mr B's comments were tongue in cheek.

 

I know!

 

Hes a car salesman, he has his little niche of finding decentish "practical classics" and then doing the detailing and punting them on.

Yes there is a fair old amount of flannel in his ads, but its like reading a modern day "Arfur Daley" without wishing to be derogatory towards the guy. Im sure that people who buy off him are not the "green behind the ears" car buyers looking to make a fast buck or double their money in a few years

In short, the spiel doesnt really wash or score many points that Doris only drove it to the Mothers Union meeting once a month, what counts is that there is a nice example of a particular car that doesnt look like the arse is going to drop out of it after 5 minutes down the jet wash one Sunday morning.

 

That makes sense. Still, if his buyers are a niche of people who aren't into that kind of crap, why would he bother with writing all that?

 

And as for the comment about tyres? Bugger me, I dont change em unless they have to be. Regardless of how old the damn things are. If the sidewalls are not crazed and the tread is fine why waste money? Yet I look after my cars, making sure they are serviced as they should be and work as they should do.

 

Tyres have a sort of 'best before date'. I think it's about 7 years. I'm not 100% sure about what happens to them after 12, 15, 20 years, but I can't imagine it's JUST the tyremakers covering their arses, and that problems have to be visible from the outside before they surface in a blowout.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Perhaps you can explain to us what 'fit for purpose' actually means when applied to a 27 year old Golf (which is very obviously in excellent condition).

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

Perhaps you can explain to us what 'fit for purpose' actually means when applied to a 27 year old Golf (which is very obviously in excellent condition).

 

It's defined retrospectively, i.e. it constitutes a de facto guarantee that it won't be blowing up within a few weeks (which it may well do, despite its otherwise good condition, being a 27 year old car that hasn't been over 2000 revs in the past 12 years and probably hasn't been maintained as it should).

[cort16]

Guy buys something for less then sells it for more shocker. You see this all the time on RR. Someone buys car for £400, mot's it, welds it, fits lots of new bits to it then re-sells for £600 to the cries of "OMG you bought this for £400 you criminal".

 

If he can get someone to pay his prices for his cars and it doesn't involve a baseball bat or him blackmailing the purchaser with pictures of them being initmate with a goat then who cares!

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

Haven't got a problem with the basic premise- just find his sales techniques rather surreal (and alright, a bit unethical, but that doesn't really matter).

[Louise2cv]

If he can turn a profit on these old motors and people are prepared to pay it then what's the problem?

 

I think that's exactly "the problem" for some people (not you specifically Luxo). That Vauxhall "scandal" for example: guy who once owned the car gets upset because it's being sold for loads of asking price... not rocket science is it? Maybe The Doctor stretches the truth a bit maybe not, show me a sucessful business man who doesn't talk the talk. Maybe all The Doctor has to go on is what he was told when he bought the car.

 

How many dissatisfied customers of The Doctor do we know about?

[messerschmitt owner]

I'm with cort16 and for those tyre botherers out there, he does mention you should satisfy yourself of the risks driving home on the original tyres.

 

I don't see the issue - all his cars do have a good chunk of preparation work go into them, more than I see on any other car for sale, they all look great and I don't care about what someone has paid for something if I am happy to pay the price they want for it.

 

A good example is my XM estate - I bought it for £250, took the trouble to get it MoT'd, spent more at the MoT station on it than it had cost me to buy, have spent more money subsequently servicing it, am just about to buy a set of alloys for it too - now should I punt it on for £250 or should I expect to recoup [some of] my money spent on an exhaust, service etc. You tell me but I know my XM estate is worth a lot more than my initial £250 investment.

[RedSparrow]

Yeah, but there was nothing stopping the Vauxhall owner tarting it up himself and doing a good write up. He just sounds a bit sore to me. Someone else took the initiative, thats life innit.

[Louise2cv]

Yeah, but there was nothing stopping the Vauxhall owner tarting it up himself and doing a good write up. He just sounds a bit sore to me. Someone else took the initiative, thats life innit.

 

If that's a reply to me, that's exactly what I'm trying to say. His little facebook campaign screamed "why did I let it go so cheap?" to me.

[John F]

Car salesman in "I turned a profit on my stock" shocker....!

 

 

Now can we get back to drooling over cheap murtas?

[Rocket88]

I've met him, sold him a really nice ex Jersey Austin 1800, he gave me a good price, he had the hassle of re-registering it, doing some minor repairs, advertising it, and dealing with the pond life who inevitably waste your time. He did well out of it, I did well out of it, everyone's happy.

[Spiny Norman]

For my tuppence worth I'll say this.

Yes I find his ads a load of gushing tosh so I exercise my option not to read them, but I'm pretty sure that if I DID spend £3-4k on that Glof I'd probably feel a lot less shafted that if I'd spent five times that much on a new one.

 

Anyway, we have our own 'Scottish Doctor' just up the road. This guy's ads are similarly verbose and his pictures similarly Photoshopped, although he tends to deal in 10-20 year old Mercs, Porsches and BMWs rather than classics, but here's an example of his current wares.

 

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Perhaps you can explain to us what 'fit for purpose' actually means when applied to a 27 year old Golf (which is very obviously in excellent condition).

 

It's defined retrospectively, i.e. it constitutes a de facto guarantee that it won't be blowing up within a few weeks (which it may well do, despite its otherwise good condition, being a 27 year old car that hasn't been over 2000 revs in the past 12 years and probably hasn't been maintained as it should).

 

Total balls. Are you seriously expecting him to offer some sort of guarantee with this thing? If so, just out of interest, how long and/or how many miles would you like on the guarantee.

 

He expressly says there is no guarantee. You are not obliged to bid, and if you do, you bid a price that takes into account the fact (of which you must be already aware, lest you are bidding without reading the description) that there is no guarantee. Now you are saying that he is potentially in breach of a contract with a buyer, because he hasn't offered a guarantee. You are talking horse shite.

[RedSparrow]

Yeah, but there was nothing stopping the Vauxhall owner tarting it up himself and doing a good write up. He just sounds a bit sore to me. Someone else took the initiative, thats life innit.

 

If that's a reply to me, that's exactly what I'm trying to say. His little facebook campaign screamed "why did I let it go so cheap?" to me.

 

 

Ah Ok. Where on fb was he moaning about it? Didn't know about that.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I can't help thinking of this bit from 'The Office'

 

[brent believes anything with the Queen's image should be currency]

David Brent: In fact, a postage stamp is legal tender. A bus driver would have to accept that as currency.

Tim: Yeah, that'd happen.

Gareth: Well, if he doesn't, report him.

Tim: Yeah, I'll report him while I'm walking home.

Gareth: Get a taxi. (if you've got enough stamps).

Dawn: Or cash 'em in at the Post Office.

David Brent: Shouldn't have to! Shouldn't have to!

[Ross_K]

MrB, the SOGA says "fair description" for private sales, "fit for purpose" for trade ones. You can't be a trader and sell cars on a "fair description" basis. Them's the laws.

 

What he said. It doesn't matter that it's a 27 year old car.

And eBay isn't an auction in the traditional sense of an auction: The buyer's contract is with the seller, not the "auction house".

So any bollocks about auction items being sold as seen is just that - bollocks.

 

And if the seller is a trader, SOGA applies - we all know this.

Flowery item descriptions about Mrs Boggins driving to the Bridge Club with the vicar once a week don't count for shit.

[Mash]

That Golf is lovely, what seems to have escaped notice is that the selling price will end up pretty high because it could be a GTi within a few weeks! No point restoring a knackered one if you can buy such a clean shell.

 

Mk2 Escorts anyone?

[Formula Autos]

If I came by enough money (say via a lottery win) to pay the mortgage off and live off the interest every year, meaning I didn't have to work, I'd spend my days doing what The Doctor does*.

 

The guy is living the dream - buying, working on/detailing, finding out the history of, and most probably getting a good drive in all sorts of interesting kit. The guy seems to make a decent profit (so maybe even a decent living) out of all this too. Surely all us shitists should all aspire to that as a lifestyle?

 

Wuvvum and others are rightly lauded on here for doing pretty much the same thing, aren't they? I'm not sure about the profit bit in some cases, mind.

*Though I'd probably just decide to keep pretty much every car that came my way and turn victory into financial defeat, Del-boy style. Coz I is thik.