7:30 am, April 22, 2023
JS, from Herts, writes: I had a call via an Auto Trader advert I had listed to sell my Jaguar XFS and the experience that followed was a bit of a worry.
The car had recently been MOT’d and nothing at all was wrong with it – there were certainly no warning lights on the dash.
The call I received was from a guy supposedly from a car dealership in Welwyn Garden City who offered me well below what I was asking, but I accepted.
He sent two guys to collect the car who arrived and spoke very broken English. It was dark too and they started to check the car over.
They rushed around in a well-rehearsed manner around the car, using the torches on their phones to look at my car.
I note one of the chaps is under the bonnet, pulling plastic covers off the engine. He had his hand right down into the engine area at one point.
The same guy then gets into the driver’s seat and switches the engine on. He looks upset and says I’ve got the gearbox warning light on.
I look inside and just about every warning light is on flashing for everything. I am not sure if it is connected but I did see him on something on his phone while he was sat in the driver’s seat.
My car has never ever done this. I started it before they turned up and it was fine.
I turned off the ignition as they left it running and when I restarted it all of the warning lights disappeared, apart from the engine management yellow light.
I suspect they did something to either get the price down or stop my sale to them. I also worried they had cloned the key to return later.
Concerned, I accused them of causing the warning lights and they didn’t seem bothered and they left.
A few hours later I got a call from the guy who called originally demanding I pay him £200 for the wasted time as he had to pay the two people who had turned up to look at the Jag.
I am sure they did something to try and get the price down. Does this sound familiar? Has this happened to any of your other readers?
Jamie Caple, owner of used car dealership Car Quay in Derby replies:
When selling a vehicle privately I think there’s a few pieces of advice I could give.
I think it would be very important in the first instance to set the agenda when taking the initial call.
If you aren’t willing to negotiate, explain the price is fixed so if they want to pay less than the advertised price then tell them it’s probably best if you don’t waste each other’s time.
Let them know they won’t be able to drive the vehicle, but you would take them out and drive it. Also explain that if they want to go for a drive, only one person will be coming with you.
If they are happy with the above I would advise the following for viewing time. Firstly I would make an appointment for the day time, it would be easier to see what’s happening and be more visible to neighbours, so you will feel safer during the process.
Secondly, I wouldn’t hand the key over at any stage. Personally, I would ensure the keys are kept in my possession at all times.
Thirdly, based on these tactics of multiple people coming over, it might be worth having a friend or family member with you to even up the numbers when showing the vehicle.
Based on the number of scams around, my honest advice would be to potentially look at selling the vehicle via one of the established buying companies and avoid dealing with the general public.
We’ve seen incredible valuations offered by the likes of Cazoo, Motorway, Motordough and even We Buy Any Car in the last couple of years.
Whilst the price may be a bit lower than what could be achievable privately, to remove the stress and hassle and to guarantee the funds being received it might be advisable to go this route.
Umesh Samani, director of Specialist Cars in Stoke and chairman of the Independent Motor Dealers Association, replies:
I’ve heard various stories of ‘buyers’ looking to ‘chip away’ at the prices, I’ve certainly not come across this one where they are demanding money for wasted journey, but I guess new tricks get invented every day.
I’ve heard of scams where keys have been swapped with similar keys and then they attempt to steal the car. I’ve also heard of scams where buyers have turned up, usually 2-3 people so they can cause some distraction, as one’s under the bonnet, another in the boot so you can’t see what’s happening, only to be told by one of them that the head gaskets gone as the header/coolant tank is showing signs of oil.
You can guess, while you weren’t looking, they dropped some oil in the header tank which of course they can flush out easily when they buy the car at a much-reduced price having told the seller that there’s a major problem and it’s going to cost hundreds of pounds to fix.
Most sellers will not know this trick and the so-called buyers might even say ‘I don’t know anything about cars, so I’ve brought my mechanic with me to make sure it’s ok’ – a very feasible story, but all part of the deception.
So, some tips and advice. Even if there are two or three people simply say you deal with one and you don’t want all of them clambering around the car.
Do not hand over the keys. Make sure there is only one key so it can’t be switched and make sure when they hand you the key back that it opens/closes the car before they leave, so you know it’s not been switched just in case.
Do not let them take the car on test drive on their own – one, it may never come back, and two, there will be no insurance on it if it’s a private buyer.
If they want to see the V5 or service history, do not let them out of your sight or allow them to take any pictures – especially of the V5 as they could potentially clone the car using the document reference number.
I would also suggest if you’re single then ask a friend or family member to be there when someone is coming to view the car.
Cash used to be king, but beware of forged notes and remember if they do pay by cash there’s nothing stopping them hitting you over the head and taking the money. I have heard of this happening.
The safest way to get paid is bank transfer and ensure the money is in your account before the buyer leaves with the car.
There are some apps now that people use where the buyer asks the seller to input their bank details into it and the amount, this is supposed to be the seller’s bank and it shows as if it’s been paid to the seller. The seller doesn’t receive the money, but the buyers say look this is my bank account look at the transactions and its clearly paid. So be careful!
And never let them ‘plug in’. I’ve even had people interested in buying and they want to plug in their ‘cheap £20’ reader. It’s always a no from me, as some of them have no idea and it may potentially cause some issues.
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