First time selling a car privately for twelve years

[nsa]

I put an advert for a car on PH a couple of hours ago and received five replies already. The price is fair, nothing special and the car isn't particularly exotic. I haven't bought or sold a car in the UK for twelve years; am I right in thinking these don't seem legit? What should I expect when responding?

I've hidden my mobile in the ad. The responses are all from different email addresses, some of the email addresses seem a bit off [e-mail] etc but others look genuine. The guy who says "BTW..." didn't send another message, that's his first one.


Lead message:
" Hey, your car looks great in the listing. How long have you owned it, and has it needed any work? "

Lead message:
" Hi, Hope you are good. I'm interested in it
Where are you located? Can you tell me a bit about its background and have you made any changes to it apart from the ad? "

Lead message:
" Btw, why are you selling it? Thank you for the information I’ve read the details in the description as well. I’d like to take a look at it in person. Are you available to meet on thursday? Also, where are you located? "

Lead message:
" Hi, I’m interested in the car and it looks like a good fit for what I’m after. Could you please provide a bit more information and let me know if it’s possible to arrange a viewing?
Many thanks, and I look forward to hearing from you. "

Lead message:
" Hi, Hope you are good. I'm interested in it
Where are you located? Can you tell me a bit about its background and have you made any changes to it apart from the ad? "

[brillomaster]

Well, two of those messages are exactly the same, so probably scams. And if anyone's asked you for any information thats already in the advert (like where you are) they probably haven't read the advert and its a scam.

Anyways, dead easy, the second anyone asks you to pay for a report or anything even remotely involving card details, just block them.

Also... if youve received replies within literally hours of posting, on a Tuesday afternoon, they're possibly ALL scams. Real people are generally working Tuesday daytime.

[brillomaster]

Also... have they all just said 'your car' rather than 'your hyundai/porsche/ferrari etc'

If so, also likely a generic scam email.

[skilly1]

I listed my car a month ago. The scam was: They ask all information about it, why selling, where located etc. They say would they would like to buy but can you do a quick £10 car check on XZY.com. Thats a scam site which takes your card details.
Luckily Auto-trader highlighted this to me when I put the ad on there, so was expecting it.

[PhilkSVR]

Yep, you will know when it’s genuine. If they ask you what’s your best price ignore. If they ask you questions that you have answered in the ad ignore. If you actually have somebody contact you who you sense is genuinely interested in the car first and the price second, then fair enough. I have just sold mine and I knew straight away the guy was serious. Like you I had a lot of nonsense enquiries prior to that though. Just make sure your ad has absolutely everything in there. As much detail as possible and loads of photos. Don’t conceal problems, if you want buyers to be straight with you be straight with them.

[essayer]

" Hello, I'm interested in this car. Is it still available? "
" Can I come to see it if it's available on Saturday? Have you made any recent repairs? "
" Thanks for the details, could you please obtain the report from <scam> for clarification? I'm interested in buying this car at the asking price, but I need to make sure everything is clear in the reports. and which payment method do you prefer? "

[Robertb]

brillomaster said:

Also... have they all just said 'your car' rather than 'your hyundai/porsche/ferrari etc'

If so, also likely a generic scam email.

To be fair, I was told to ask private sellers about "the car" as this weeds out traders masquerading as sellers, assuming they have more than one car for sale at a time.

[nsa]

Thanks everyone. No wonder people sell to WBAC etc.

[trickywoo]

nsa said:

Thanks everyone. No wonder people sell to WBAC etc.

This is also before 5 blokes come to see it together and one puts oil in the expansion tank while the others distract you.

If you are near a big town it’s likely to be worse than out in the sticks but it’s generally not fun selling privately now.

[Harrison-91xcg]

Wow that is pretty bad.

I've sold an E class, SLK, Ford Kuga, 2 Clio Sports, 1 Jaguar XFR all within the last 12 months, over Facebook marketplace and ebay. I need to stop changing cars. I've also bought the same amount via dealers and facebook market place.


Out of all those sales, not one person came to see the car before hand. In fact one of the Clio's someone just bought over Ebay and is having me ship it to Scotland. This is because buyers are well informed, and know what they want to spend - if either of those don't appear to be true they don't care enough about buying the car. Have all the detail in your ad, then whittle down to that conversation as quick as possible, and if you do get a genuine buyer make the extra effort (e.g. videos or whatever) because it helps then gain confidence in you - there are as many dodgy sellers as there are buyers.

[griffsomething]

skilly1 said:

I listed my car a month ago. The scam was: They ask all information about it, why selling, where located etc. They say would they would like to buy but can you do a quick £10 car check on XZY.com. Thats a scam site which takes your card details.
Luckily Auto-trader highlighted this to me when I put the ad on there, so was expecting it.

Does anyone really fall for that?!! If I was selling and someone asked me to pay for a survey for my own car, I think I’d politely decline…

[davek_964]

Robertb said:

brillomaster said:

Also... have they all just said 'your car' rather than 'your hyundai/porsche/ferrari etc'

If so, also likely a generic scam email.

To be fair, I was told to ask private sellers about "the car" as this weeds out traders masquerading as sellers, assuming they have more than one car for sale at a time.

+1

[paul_c123]

This message will probably be deleted but Pistonheads classifieds are a hot spot for scam leads. Personally I'd never use it, and try another platform (Auto Trader, eBay, Facebook Marketplace, Gumtree for example).

[brillomaster]

Robertb said:

To be fair, I was told to ask private sellers about "the car" as this weeds out traders masquerading as sellers, assuming they have more than one car for sale at a time.

This could be my naivety, but what does it really matter if the seller is a trader? Im buying the car, not the seller.

If im buying a car privately id expect no warranty, and the price is the price, im either happy with it or im not. So... I dont think id mind if I bought a car from a trader.

[paul_c123]

brillomaster said:

This could be my naivety, but what does it really matter if the seller is a trader? Im buying the car, not the seller.

If im buying a car privately id expect no warranty, and the price is the price, im either happy with it or im not. So... I dont think id mind if I bought a car from a trader.

The traditional answer is, that a trader avoids their legal responsibility and gets to sell a car "as is", just like a private seller can. Personally I don't understand why a trader would ever do that, because the retail price of a car vs the private sale price is quite a lot. But one suggestion might be that the car has some latent defect (which is expensive to repair - more expensive than the margin retail vs priivate) and they don't have any other way of doing a "trade disposal", ie sending it to auction themselves (eg for another trader to buy it).

[SZM]

If you call and enquire about "the car" that's fine. But if you message about "the car", it will be specific to that particular car whether PH, eBay, Autotrader etc and the seller will know which car you're asking about even if he has listed 10 cars.

[Sargeant Orange]

All of those messages would have my spidey senses tingling in some shape

[Sheepshanks]

Harrison-91xcg said:

Out of all those sales, not one person came to see the car before hand. In fact one of the Clio's someone just bought over Ebay and is having me ship it to Scotland.

Doesn't that ring all kinds of alarm bells?

[sixor8]

I sold a Fiat Tempra via an eBay classified listing to somebody in Northern Scotland in 2018, who paid for it and sent a courier recruited via Shiply to collect it, over 400 miles away. It wasn't big money, only £1250 but yes, it happens. He was a Fiat enthusiast, yes I know....

I use eBay regularly because you don't have to supply a phone number. I tend to write very long descriptions with lots of photos which negates any daft questions which you can ignore. You can upload a 150MB video too now, over 1 minute long, all for £19.99. Sold a motorcycle last week to a chap who came to collect it in a van. It had 51 watchers after 12 days but only 1 came to actually test it, and 1 other made an offer. I didn't even get offered a swap for a PS4 or an XL bully.

[Belle427]

I have been unlucky as I have never sold a car via Ebay but Facebook marketplace has been great to me.
Sure you have to deal with some silly questions but make it part of the fun with some silly responses.
Only gripe is the description writing on a phone is hard work so I usually break out the laptop.