Buying a car without see it?

Sterling Archer

Hi all, quick question

While every fibre of me strongly disagrees with this my father is looking at buying an Irish Reg'd car from Spain, apparently the guy is not coming back to Ireland.

The car isn't overly cheap and is just about classed as a"bargin", he says the shipping is paid for also and something about a delayed payment method.

Has anyone here had an experience doing this, any kind of financial protection?

Oh and if it's on interest the add was on gumtree (no longer up)

- Deal is dead in the water thankfully -

Toyotafanboi

smells terribly of a scam?

B00MSTICK

Shane_ef wrote:

he says the shipping is paid for also and something about a delayed payment method.

It cries scam to me at least.
To take the risk for what seems to be a small saving seems like lunacy.

How does the seller want to be paid? Whatever the method I wouldn't put any trust in the financial protection tbh.

beazee

Bargain. Owner and car abroad. Ad on Gumtree. All costs included in price. Paid through Western Union. so on...

Scam. Avoid.

colm_mcm

Sounds fishy tbh

fricatus

You'd wonder why the guy isn't coming back to Ireland as well - surely he could just drive the car back and have a mate sell it?

There's a smell of Love/Hate off this...

Cee-Jay-Cee

Total scam. There are countless of these type scams in existence where seller is in another country and car is here or abroad or where buyer wants to buy your car from abroad. Tell him to forget it and only buy sonething he can go and inspect and walk away from if it's not suitable.

Sterling Archer

Much obliged guys... I'm going to try to force him to avoid it... I'd rather fly out and drive a car home than buy it over the net

corktina

i'd say if he told the seller he was flying out to inspect it, the guy would suddenly be uncontactable.

marklazarcovic

dont try,stop him ..or goodbye money

Kenny Logins

What's so special about this car that he can't buy locally?

BTW, I have bought blind about half a dozen times, from as far as Bakersfield California, but I think I'm pretty good at spotting a scam.

Sterling Archer

Kenny Logins wrote: »

What's so special about this car that he can't buy locally?

BTW, I have bought blind about half a dozen times, from as far as Bakersfield California, but I think I'm pretty good at spotting a scam.

It's a 131 with low mileage for 6 grand

Thats about it from what I know

Alanstrainor

This is absolutely a scam. Please please stop him immediately.

And he now owes you a pint or 6, seeing the amount of money you've just saved him.

Kenny Logins

Shane_ef wrote: »

It's a 131 with low mileage for 6 grand

Thats about it from what I know

What's a 131?


I hope you mean an old Fiat, and not a car bearing a 131 plate, which could be anything from a Dacia to an Aston Martin!

DraganGTD

Just simply dont buy!

Sterling Archer

Done, I have firmly gotten him onto my side and he's not buying the car... Thanks everyone.. really just needed to here my opinion from other people..
Deal Ended

@Kenny... 131 Reg not sure on the car my spidey senses tingled the moment I heard Spain and shipping..

Anyway deal is dead in the water now thankfully

Henry Ford III

Could you please post a link to the car OP?

Sterling Archer

Henry Ford III wrote: »

Could you please post a link to the car OP?

Ad is gone off gumtree... i'm going to keep any eye out for it reappearing..
For reference it was a Hyundai Ix35 (or so i'm told)

cletus

There is no car, the scan is that you are asked to pay just the shipping first, then pay the rest when the car arrives.

However the shipping company is fictional, so they hold onto your €600 or whatever you paid, while you wait for a car that never arrives.

If you find the ad again, tell the guy you'vea holiday home in Spain, and you'd prefer to collect than ship, watch how quickly contact stops

corktina

cletus wrote: »

There is no car, the scan is that you are asked to pay just the shipping first, then pay the rest when the car arrives.

However the shipping company is fictional, so they hold onto your €600 or whatever you paid, while you wait for a car that never arrives.

If you find the ad again, tell the guy you'vea holiday home in Spain, and you'd prefer to collect than ship, watch how quickly contact stops

in fairness, that's not this scam....in this one the shipping is paid for allegedly

Possibly what they are after is the bank account details.

Cass

It's an old scam. I see you edited the OP to say the deal is dead, well you just saved yourself a serious amount of grief.

This first appeared a few years back. I was even enthralled myself. An Audi A4 at a "too good to pass up" price. The scam involves you paying 50% up front and the rest on delivery. Shipping included. Details of such scams here.

The other one i've seen was an advert were the seller said the car was a company car, he was moving back to their head office abroad, and could sell the car before leaving. That alone screams RUN to me, but the amount of people talking to him and genuinely interested was scary.

Once they have your "deposit" they're gone. Problem is the cars they advertise are real cars, but not owned by them.

JaMarcusHustle

When I got my new car, I put my old one up on DoneDeal. It was a 99 Hyundai Accent in decent condition. It was down in Kilkenny and I'm living in Dublin so my brother put it up for me as he'd be handling enquiries. Within a few hours, he had a buyer. He drove the car to where the guy lived (with my other brother behind him for a lift home). The guy answered his door, handed over the cash without so much as stepping outside the door or even looking at the car, and that was that. We thought it was very odd - car was in decent condition for it's age but the buyer wasn't to know that. No idea why he wouldn't at least look at it!

cletus

corktina wrote: »

in fairness, that's not this scam....in this one the shipping is paid for allegedly

Possibly what they are after is the bank account details.

Shipping, deposit, whatever, it usually involves you laying out assume cash that they then scarper with

bazz26

For the love of God, you cannot buy a 131 Hyundai ix35 for €6k. The cheapest one is asking €20k on carzone.

Thankfully OP you caught this in time and averted a disaster, some people really need protection from themselves. All common sense seems to go out the window with them when it comes to finding a bargain.