So I've had an interesting afternoon – Abuse content!

Someone mention a former police car. A cop I know said never buy one, think of the heroin addicts bleeding and puking on the back seat. Oh, and don’t they* spend most of their lives either ticking over or flat out?

*The cop cars that is, but it probably applies to the addicts as well.

do you think we should all reply on mass to view the car,

Got the keys, had a look inside. Hmmmm… Seats are ok condition, but plastics are scuffed a bit more than you’d expect. Couple of holes in some of them too. Then get the history to have a look at… Ah, an ex police car!
OK, so not a problem, History is A1 perfect and I know police car get looked after mechanically, but it was certainly scruffy. Also, ex police cars go for a lot less than private cars do 2nd hand, so immediately this ain’t worth anything like the asking price.

No, seriously, they don’t. They get thrashed to buggery, repaired only when they break to the point of unusable and rarely serviced at the correct intervals. Unless its a force driving school car I would advise to steer very well clear of any ex police car.

Ask him for his niece’s phone number

Well ignoring him seems to have worked! 🙂

OP I have to say the guy has a point, you’re buying a shitbox old 600 quid banger.

randomjeremy – Member

OP I have to say the guy has a point, you’re buying a shitbox old 600 quid banger.

His is, but the answers should be something like “yeah, there’s a small oil leak…nothing serious”…not trying to lie that it’s coolant.

I agree that the seller was clearly in the wrong, but as above, its a proper old banger – from a bloke who sounded half arsed on the phone – in a frankly dodgy part of london (googlemaps before leaving would’ve given a better idea)

It was doomed from the start.

Good story though.

OP I have to say the guy has a point, you’re buying a shitbox old 600 quid banger.

Texting “Fool”, “clown”, “pity the Girlfriend” – and you think he has a point??

No, seriously, they don’t. They get thrashed to buggery, repaired only when they break to the point of unusable and rarely serviced at the correct intervals.

+2
Have bought 2 cars privately off rozzers (1 traffic, 1 in some sort of fashionable diplomatic/armed/escort group) and would never EVER go near them again. “serviced” at work, my arse.

Yeah, ask him for some pics of the niece.

Cars can be a pain. I had an arguement at a maindealer last year where they wouldn’t sell me a car when I made it plain that I didn’t want finance/GAP insurance/pain protection/etc……. I didn’t even have a trade in and I’d made a offer close to the asking price. No commission for the sales person who doesn’t sell all the add on’s I suppose.

If anyone’s feeling particularly nasty, we could arrange to view the car and never turn up…

Presumably you also know his address as you went there to look at the car?

Put him on loads of mailing lists, order some catalogues, porn freebies etc….did it to one of my mates when he first moved to his own place….for the first few weeks the postie was having to make two trips to his front door from the van….and the junk mail was still coming (far less frequently though) about 18 months later….the joke that keeps on giving….i remember going round to see him and there were about 20 of those massive phone book sized mail order catalogues piled up on his coffee table, he couldnt work out why he got so much junk mail living in his new flat!?….

….i’d also phone loads of those numbers in the back of magazines relating to male baldness, impotence etc and ask for callbacks on his number.

Immature but very funny.

On the flip side, I sold a car about 8 or 9 years ago. Decent runner, full service history, MOT for 6 months. It was a Daewoo (I know) and getting on a bit but reasonable mileage. I had a new car coming the following week so needed shot quickly so was asking 500 quid, 250 quid less than the others on Autotrader.

Bloke turned up, drove it a bit and tried to bargain me down. I told him it was the full price or nothing as there were 3 other people locally waiting for calls back if he didn’t want it (and there even WERE 3 other people). He agreed. Then said he only had 490 quid and would I mind accepting that. I said no and drove him to the bank. Finally he refused to give me his name and address for the DVLA docs until I told him he could have his money back and sod off.

Took probably 30-45 mins longer than it needed to all because he tried it on constantly. Despite the OP being entirely reasonable, some people ARE piss takers and need reminding of it.

OP I have to say the guy has a point, you’re buying a shitbox old 600 quid banger.

No. He doesn’t. He has no point at all.

I had a very specific set of parameters for buying a cheap car. Hence the tyre gauge. I need it to last 2 months of long journeys, probably 500 miles/week or more with no bills at all. After that it can blow up. I need an automatic as I’ve busted my leg, I need a radio or I’ll get bored.
Due to busted leg and lack of time I CANNOT be working on it AT ALL.

Cars like this are available.

The thing with this bloke is that he is an arsehole. He was trying to walk all over me to force me to buy it. I don’t take that sort of shit from anyone, and I was firm and polite when I declined to believe him. (Because he was talking bollocks)

You don’t believe me? Go and take a viewing of the car and point the faults out.

PeterPoddy, is the car in the south?…i’m a day off tomorrow and could do with a laugh.

Muppets like that are everywhere. I got called a time waster on here for asking to see pics of a potential purchase. This is because pictures are a hassle apparently…..despite the fact said muppet was emailing from his iPhone.

You did the right thing.

Deviant, London, Wimbledon ‘village’ as he insisted to me.

His niece should come on here and answer some of the car problem threads 🙂

Sounds like you need to lower your expectations or raise your budget

Sounds like you need to lower your expectations or raise your budget

Not really. I had to get a car sharpish and cheap for my Girlfriend a couple of years back. Eventually we settled on getting a Golf, and I started looking for one – a car about 10 years old, but needed to be in good nick.

I was looking in my lunch hours at work (!) and so every time I rang a seller it was “I’m only after a car that’s in good nick with no / very little rust”. I must have seen 5 or 6 cars that were described as being in good nick with very litle rust, including one white Golf that had no sills…

I eventually ended up ringing a trader that had a decent looking Golf advertised and saying something along the lines of “I’ve got the cash to take that car off your hands today, but it needs to be X Y and Z. If it’s not as you say it is, there’s no chance of me buying it”. The bloke was honest and the car was absolutely spot on. 80k, full VW history, drove perfect and absolutely immaculate for under a grand.

I can only assume that there are people who will turn up and go “Well, it looks like it’s been in a lake for three months, and it sounds like a washing machine full of nails, but the man does keep insisting what a good car it is, so we might as well buy it”. There must be, otherwise these people wouldn’t keep insisting that crap cars are immaculate…

I think you are asking for a lot. For peanuts you want a car that has nothing significantly wrong with it and is capable of doing lots of miles (even if it is for a short period of time). You are not going to find a car thats perfect for exactly 2 months, and then falls to bits.

The seller is totally out of order, and clearly an ass, but it’s not THAT surprising that someone got annoyed with you for wanting something for nothing and ‘wasting his time’. Not defending the sellers actions in any way though, still inexcusable, and he deserved to be wound up if he reacted like that.

I think you are asking for a lot. For peanuts you want a car that has nothing significantly wrong with it and is capable of doing lots of miles (even if it is for a short period of time). You are not going to find a car thats perfect for exactly 2 months, and then falls to bits.

There are lots of sub £1K cars that are perfectly usable and have no faults . You just have to put in some time and effort to find them .
They really do exist, its just sorting out the turds from the gems.
Personally I would be looking at a Saab 95 /9000, but thats me.

I think you are asking for a lot. For peanuts you want a car that has nothing significantly wrong with it and is capable of doing lots of miles (even if it is for a short period of time). You are not going to find a car thats perfect for exactly 2 months, and then falls to bits.

The seller is totally out of order, and clearly an ass, but it’s not THAT surprising that someone got annoyed with you for wanting something for nothing and ‘wasting his time’.

Poppycock, you need to get out more.

Every car I’ve ever owned and sold had been in full working order with good bodywork. Good (& matching) tyres, full windscreen washer bottle (with windscreen washer fluid no less), and everything working as it should. Most of them were high mileage cars worth little.

Some of us actually look after our possessions, specially ones we risk our lives (and the lives of our loved ones) in.

Your not his niece by any chance?

You won’t have to dig very deep to find things that are either already broken, on there way out, or could potentially go wrong at any time on any 15 year old, sub £1K car. It’s the reason you are paying peanuts.

Sellers describing such cars as ‘perfect etc’ are a different matter :-).

‘Every car I’ve ever owned and sold had been in full working order with good bodywork. Good (& matching) tyres, full windscreen washer bottle (with windscreen washer fluid no less), and everything working as it should. Most of them were high mileage cars worth little.

Some of us actually look after our possessions, specially ones we risk our lives (and the lives of our loved ones) in.’

So, if those cars were so good why were they effectively worthless when you sold them? Could it be because the older the car and the higher the milage the higher the chance there is of something going wrong? Hence its perceived value. Funnily enough, that’s one of the reasons most cars go down in value as they age, not up.

‘Every car I’ve ever owned and sold…Most of them were high mileage cars worth little.’

So, I’m guessing you feel insecure because you have only ever owned cheap cars? Relax, theres nothing wrong with that. However you look like a dick if you get defensive about it :roll:. You get what you pay for, even if it is on some weird sliding scale.

post a free ad selling ‘specialist magazines’ & ‘associated equipment’

to ensure he gets a few dodgy phonecalls. 😈

Angledust . Grow up.

Just re-read the OP, and yes the guy does have a point. OP you sound like an awful person.

Sounds like a failed Jedi mind trick.

“There is nothing wrong with this car, the oil is not oil, its coolant, £1400 is a fair price, you will buy this car………”

The text messages are just icing on the cake, I’m frankly amazed you managed to resist! 😉

OP you sound like an awful person.

Do you hear that Mr Poddy ? How dare you not buy a car which you don’t like, when the owner has clearly stated that the first to see will buy !

🙂

OP you sound like an awful person.

I’m not. There’s plenty of STWers know me well enough that I don’t need to respond any more to you now though.

Cheers Ernie. I think. 😕
😉

Angledust . Grow up.

+1, it’s almost like your astroturfing!

The seller is totally out of order, and clearly an ass, but it’s not THAT surprising that someone got annoyed with you for wanting something for nothing and ‘wasting his time’. Not defending the sellers actions in any way though, still inexcusable, and he deserved to be wound up if he reacted like that.

I wasn’t wasting his time. If anything he wasted MINE. Also to be fair, I would have made him an offer but he was such a pompous prick and he kept trying to batter me down by telling me how good this that and the other were. He lied about the condition. Simple. And when I proved I was no fool by quietly pointing out the faults he just became worse. If he had been nice and polite I would have made him an offer. But he was an ass. So I walked away. I know how to sell stuff, cars especially.

And if you don’t believe that ask Solamanda off here. He bought our last car off us. 2001 DTi Vectra estate 3.5 years ago. 100k miles, history, virtually faultless, used but immaculately clean. I know he drove to the alps in it and did at least 20k because he told me!
£800

What I’m looking for is a car like one I would sell myself.

EDIT
Also ask DrP s mate who bought my Ducati and the other guy (forget who but he’s a STW regular) who bought Mrs PPs Ducati and still posts pics of it sometimes. 🙂

I don’t think you did anything wrong, I’m just not suprised you managed to find and hack off an idiot by being fussy about a cheap car.

I’m just not suprised you managed to find and hack off an idiot by being fussy about a cheap car.

Even if a car was better than I expected, I would be seriously put off buying it if the seller was being pushy and pretty much demanding that I bought it. Many people don’t like being bounced into a sale believing that it’s their decision – not the sellers.

Nothing wrong with being thorough. Think you should send him a message though, maybe something simple like ‘thinking of you’. I may be bored but it would amuse me

A few years back I was after a megane 1.4 diesel estate, and finally one came up for sale, it was over book, over miles and bottom spec, but still for some daft reason I wanted it.

was on a used car forecourt that was meant to be quite good and generally priced very competitively. Asked about the one they had on forecourt, gave me ‘the’ key, only one, no tags or anything, no history, but I’m assured it’ll turn up.
Drive it and its fine, but its right on time for cambelt/timing chain change, and they are never cheap to do.
Go back a week later, expecting history to have turned up. Guy instantly turns nasty and literally ousts me from his garage because I was digging into his garages business and it was none of mine…..

Essentially he was buying cars from auction cheap up in northern Scotland (best place to get them really), and if any had anything suspect in service history he was just chucking it. As it happens I found out from my local garage that a red megane 1.4d estate came in about a month later with epic cambelt failure. So yeah, someone got burn’t there.

Wouldn’t bother replying to his text, sounds like someone with more time on their hands than is good for them.