How do door step traders pose as private sellers?

[e-honda]

I went to look at a car on the weekend, The guy said he was selling the car for his son, I got a car dealer vibe from him straight way. I did a couple of vehicle checks and it came up and current owner being over 2 years so seemed fairly plausible.
He did mention he used to be a car dealer at one point.
But i looked him up on companies house and he is listed with occupation of car dealer. His company has been through several name changes and its most recent change is to something more generic sounding and has some other stuff listed under nature of business, but still has "45112 - Sale of used cars and light motor vehicles" listed

I never got as far as seeing the V5 so no idea if the last name matched, or if son was going to mysteriously have a different last name.

Is this a common door step sell scenario where they have are doing sale or return for people or somehow otherwise get the origonal V5 from the seller without putting it into trade? or is there some chance he was actually trying to sell his son's car ?
Should I hit report on auto trader ?

[Trevor555]

I guess you'll never know as you didn't see the V5

[Richtea1970]

What difference does it make to you, you either buy the car or you don’t?

[e-honda]

Richtea1970 said:

What difference does it make to you, you either buy the car or you don’t?

It makes quite a big difference to me for several reasons.

Its still for sale a and I am still in the market so i could reconsider it if everything was to checkout.

On the other hand if it doesn't check out then he was a crook, to what extent I do not know, but I came uncomfortablely close to handing over a significant amount of money to an illegitimate trader, I was at his house, I took members of my family with me. That is quite an uncomfortable position for me.

Then there is the more general point of maybe this happens again maybe I do end up being ripped off by someone next time, or maybe I'm over sensitive and walk away from another perfectly good deal, better to be more well informed to avoid either situation.

[GeniusOfLove]

If the car checks out and you're paying private seller rates not dealer rates what does it matter? If anything he's less likely to be selling a pup than some bloke who is desperate to offload his old car, he's an experienced trader and knows not to buy a pup to sell.

I'm sure a dealer can bend you over for an approved used car, or even a new one, if you're that concerned.

[hunt123]

This is quite common ime. They avoid paying tax and having to honour a warranty. Big give away is v5 not in their name/address or only in their name/address a short time. If they're lying about making money out of cars are they also lying about the cars condition?

[e-honda]

GeniusOfLove said:

If the car checks out and you're paying private seller rates not dealer rates what does it matter? If anything he's less likely to be selling a pup than some bloke who is desperate to offload his old car, he's an experienced trader and knows not to buy a pup to sell.

I'm sure a dealer can bend you over for an approved used car, or even a new one, if you're that concerned.

Well here is the thing, a genuine ex trader selling his sons car I'd absolutely agree.
But someone who's livelihood is based on selling cars, and they are greedy enough to deceive buyers to fiddle the tax and avoid liabilities then they are of course going to be just as likely to manufacture receipts for work that wasn't done, or replace a broken part with a worn out one that's going to last 1-2k miles instead of 50k to save a few quid, the sort of things no legitimate owner or trader would consider doing.

[greeneggsnsam]

Have to agree with the OP here, even if the car and price are fine it's just dodgy. I'd always be thinking there must be some reason they are selling it privately and not as a trader - probably a major fault they don't want to fix. I drove for several hours last year to see a car and when I arrived I was told "it's my personal car, but I'm a dealer" - instant red flag and I just left. He messaged me the next day offering loads of money off the price. Wonder why?

[Truckosaurus]

greeneggsnsam said:

Have to agree with the OP here, even if the car and price are fine it's just dodgy...

Indeed. The car might be totally fine but you'd have to be extra careful as it is an 'untrustworthy seller' compared to a random bloke trying to get a couple of quid more than WBAC will give them.

[vikingaero]

Sometimes the easiest way to find out is to call them up: "'Ello, I'm calling up about the car..."

If they have more than one for sale they'll have to work out which one you want.

[e-honda]

I definitely dodged a bullet I used his postcode to look up cars for sale.
2 more at his house showed up.
1 a trade sale under his business name, so no chance he used to be a dealer who forgot to update companies house.

The 2nd a 7 year old 10k miles high end hot hatch that is supposedly his privately owned car that was originally listed 6 months ago with the exact same mileage.

[Richtea1970]

e-honda said:

Richtea1970 said:

What difference does it make to you, you either buy the car or you don’t?

It makes quite a big difference to me for several reasons.

Its still for sale a and I am still in the market so i could reconsider it if everything was to checkout.

On the other hand if it doesn't check out then he was a crook, to what extent I do not know, but I came uncomfortablely close to handing over a significant amount of money to an illegitimate trader, I was at his house, I took members of my family with me. That is quite an uncomfortable position for me.

Then there is the more general point of maybe this happens again maybe I do end up being ripped off by someone next time, or maybe I'm over sensitive and walk away from another perfectly good deal, better to be more well informed to avoid either situation.

But it still boils down to whether you want to buy the car or not surely? Whether he’s a Del Boy character or used the car just to drive to church on a Sunday doesn’t matter, do your checks, it’s the car you’re buying not the seller’s personality.

[e-honda]

Richtea1970 said:

But it still boils down to whether you want to buy the car or not surely? Whether he’s a Del Boy character or used the car just to drive to church on a Sunday doesn’t matter, do your checks, it’s the car you’re buying not the seller’s personality.

Well I did want to buy the car

Had he have been upfront from the start and said I am a motor trader, but this is a private sale for my son, I would have said great, he could have got his trader plates out I could have test drove it legally, unless it was obviously bad I probably would have bought it. A lot of the red flags I found were only after I had walked away and done some further research about the specific model variant and found some things that weren't right.

You've also ignored a big part of what I said
Good car or bad car I don't want to business with someone like that, I am not a stair dominator, I am not going to risk getting into a confrontation with crook in his own house.

I was looking for opinions that might have suggested I should be giving him the benefit of the doubt, but this morning when I found he was actively trading not an ex trader like he told me that became irrelevant his car is off my list and his number is blocked.

[bennno]

Pretty simple, check v5 (at that address) check if it’s taxed (if held by trade it won’t be) check if green part of v5 is missing (sold to trade).

[Greenmantle]

hunt123 said:

This is quite common ime. They avoid paying tax and having to honour a warranty. Big give away is v5 not in their name/address or only in their name/address a short time. If they're lying about making money out of cars are they also lying about the cars condition?

This all day long!

[Shedding]

Richtea1970 said:

But it still boils down to whether you want to buy the car or not surely? Whether he’s a Del Boy character or used the car just to drive to church on a Sunday doesn’t matter, do your checks, it’s the car you’re buying not the seller’s personality.

On the other hand, for me, my judgement of the person selling the car is very influential as to whether I buy

[boyse7en]

Richtea1970 said:

e-honda said:

Richtea1970 said:

What difference does it make to you, you either buy the car or you don’t?

It makes quite a big difference to me for several reasons.

Its still for sale a and I am still in the market so i could reconsider it if everything was to checkout.

On the other hand if it doesn't check out then he was a crook, to what extent I do not know, but I came uncomfortablely close to handing over a significant amount of money to an illegitimate trader, I was at his house, I took members of my family with me. That is quite an uncomfortable position for me.

Then there is the more general point of maybe this happens again maybe I do end up being ripped off by someone next time, or maybe I'm over sensitive and walk away from another perfectly good deal, better to be more well informed to avoid either situation.

But it still boils down to whether you want to buy the car or not surely? Whether he’s a Del Boy character or used the car just to drive to church on a Sunday doesn’t matter, do your checks, it’s the car you’re buying not the seller’s personality.

But if a dealer is choosing to sell a car "privately" rather than through their business, what does that tell you about the car? it tells me that they haven't got confidence in it not coming back/needing warranty work in the near future, otherwise they would be selling it legit as a dealer for more money.

[PistonTim]

Sounds like the guy who tried to scam me for more cash after he bought my car, claimed the car was for his wife and when I looked he had another two for sale and had massively lied about the condition / owners / history etc of the one he'd bought from me.

He wasnt based in the South East near Uckfield was he?

[Richtea1970]

boyse7en said:

Richtea1970 said:

e-honda said:

Richtea1970 said:

What difference does it make to you, you either buy the car or you don’t?

It makes quite a big difference to me for several reasons.

Its still for sale a and I am still in the market so i could reconsider it if everything was to checkout.

On the other hand if it doesn't check out then he was a crook, to what extent I do not know, but I came uncomfortablely close to handing over a significant amount of money to an illegitimate trader, I was at his house, I took members of my family with me. That is quite an uncomfortable position for me.

Then there is the more general point of maybe this happens again maybe I do end up being ripped off by someone next time, or maybe I'm over sensitive and walk away from another perfectly good deal, better to be more well informed to avoid either situation.

But it still boils down to whether you want to buy the car or not surely? Whether he’s a Del Boy character or used the car just to drive to church on a Sunday doesn’t matter, do your checks, it’s the car you’re buying not the seller’s personality.

But if a dealer is choosing to sell a car "privately" rather than through their business, what does that tell you about the car? it tells me that they haven't got confidence in it not coming back/needing warranty work in the near future, otherwise they would be selling it legit as a dealer for more money.

But that’s what I’m saying, if you are buying a private car at (presumably) private prices, why would you expect a warranty ? If you want a dealers car with dealers warranty, buy it from a dealer and pay more. It’s not difficult.

[GeniusOfLove]

Richtea1970 said:

But that’s what I’m saying, if you are buying a private car at (presumably) private prices, why would you expect a warranty ? If you want a dealers car with dealers warranty, buy it from a dealer and pay more. It’s not difficult.

This.

He's probably selling it privately because it's presumably a cheap old car and the requirement to stand behind it like it's a 12 month old Lexus means that he needs too fat a margin on it to make it appealing.

I have a feeling a lot of the "private sellers" on eBay and AT and so on would better be described as hobbyist traders, picking up cars and adding value with some repairs and servicing before punting them on, they're probalby better than an actual private seller who just wants rid of his fault riddled WBAC chipped him down on because they're actually fixing and servicing and prepping the cars in a semi professional manner but you're paying private prices so they're 25% - 33% cheaper.

Selling cheap cars is an exercise in dealing with ridiculous expectations and total fkwits to be honest, it's actually helpful if you're selling to have fuss pots nope out because you didn't have a coffee machine and magazines to read while the car was prepped to approved used Bentley standards. I didn't really grasp what utter bellends some buyers were until I saw a bloke actually get out a paint thickness gauge to check out if a £1500 twenty year old base spec C class Mercedes had original paint. Good luck with that quest old chap.

If you're really not comfortable assessing a car (and seller!) for yourself then I really think avoiding private sales altogether is the best option.