Would you buy a car privately without seeing it?

CiniO

Would you buy a car privately if following was the case:
1. Car registered in Ireland but offered for sale abroad (within EU but over 2000km away from Ireland) by Irish person.
2. NCT expired by over a year. (car is 2006 year).
3. Described as good condition with list of items which were fixed recently, servicing, etc...
4. For very attractive price (IMO less than 50% of it's current market value in Ireland).
5. With option of car being delivered by seller to my friendly place in that country, where cash payment would take place (but me not present and person paying and picking up a car not able to verify condition of the car).

All this might sound bit unrealistic and very silly to go for, but there's one catch - seller is a boards.ie member...

So question is - would you go for it or not?

Kopparberg Strawberry and Lime

Only if i was a spanish sailor currently over seas looking to buy the car as a gift for someone


In which case its a trap.

Even boardsies can be bastards

YbFocus

Hello Sir YbFocus Sir,

I am many wealthy man from Togo looking to .....

Nope

FortySeven

Tempting, I bought a Polish car in Ireland in 2006 when I was moving to Poland for a fraction of what it was worth due to the reg. Worked out well for me.

Ask to see photos of receipts for work carried out, if the work was essential repair work only, walk away. If there is a history of general maintenance and cosmetic repairs/improvements then I would probably go for it.

I've bought rubbish cars that seemed like great deals and great cars that looked dodgy.

Second hand cars are a gamble at the best of times. 50% off to start with certainly gets you a head start on any repairs.

porsche boy

This is an old scam. Pay the money be western union or something and they'll ship you the car blah blah.
Don't do it OP.

CiniO

porsche boy wrote: »

This is an old scam. Pay the money be western union or something and they'll ship you the car blah blah.
Don't do it OP.

It's not a scam - cash payment.

Tony Beetroot

Ones persons good description can vary greatly to anothers. If its small money i.e less than a monkey worth the risk I guess.

power pants

being a member of forum does not mean anything towards your character

no, definitely not.

Atlantic Dawn

Perhaps it's a bait for you to have the cash and then they jump you for it?

Tony Beetroot

power pants wrote: »

being a member of forum does not mean anything towards your character

no, definitely not.

Maybe they are Facebook friends also.

FortySeven

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Perhaps it's a bait for you to have the cash and then they jump you for it?

Highly unlikely, it's a lot of work for the half value of a 2006 car surely? Also, how do they know who they'll be jumping? There are easier ways to forcibly remove larger amounts of cash from people, without leaving an internet trail.

Duke O Smiley

I want a very very detailed video (not photos) of the car inside and out etc etc

power pants

Tony Beetroot wrote: »

Maybe they are Facebook friends also.

yes, maybe.

Hachiko

I got a Honda Jazz for my ma without even seeing it, or driving it.

Passed a MOT once I paid for it with no advisories.

have to use instinct sometimes.

K.Flyer

CiniO wrote: »

Would you buy a car privately if following was the case:
1. Car registered in Ireland but offered for sale abroad (within EU but over 2000km away from Ireland) by Irish person.
2. NCT expired by over a year. (car is 2006 year).
3. Described as good condition with list of items which were fixed recently, servicing, etc...
4. For very attractive price (IMO less than 50% of it's current market value in Ireland).
5. With option of car being delivered by seller to my friendly place in that country, where cash payment would take place (but me not present and person paying and picking up a car not able to verify condition of the car).

All this might sound bit unrealistic and very silly to go for, but there's one catch - seller is a boards.ie member...

So question is - would you go for it or not?

No,
Cheap and all as it might be, you will have to be prepared to have bought a pile of rubbish and thrown your money away.
However, if your friend who is doing the transaction for you can find a mechanic to give it the once over for a nominal fee, and he gives it the thumbs up then it might be worth considering.
But then you have to consider the cost of getting it to Ireland and would that "saving" you made if you did buy it, cover that cost of getting it home and any work that you might have to do to it when you do get it back.

bbsrs

What brand and model ? What price? Easier to decide if it's worth the risk if we know what car it is.

Red Kev

Been there and done that. Saw a Dutch car for sale in Spain, rang him, he delivered it to a friend of mine near Granada, he checked it out and I sent on the money. Flew over a couple of weeks later and drove it to Germany where another friend sold it for me there.

It was a BMW E28 M5, seriously rare and hard to find in the condition it was in. After costs, commissions etc I cleared about €2500 and myself and herself had a few days off as well.

Granada to Munich is about 2,300 km, we had over 3000 done by the time we got there. Took the long way home.

bbsrs

Red Kev wrote: »

Been there and done that. Saw a Dutch car for sale in Spain, rang him, he delivered it to a friend of mine near Granada, he checked it out and I sent on the money. Flew over a couple of weeks later and drove it to Germany where another friend sold it for me there.

It was a BMW E28 M5, seriously rare and hard to find in the condition it was in. After costs, commissions etc I cleared about €2500 and myself and herself had a few days off as well.

Granada to Munich is about 2,300 km, we had over 3000 done by the time we got there. Took the long way home.

When did you do that?

Red Kev

bbsrs wrote: »

When did you do that?

September 2012. Owner of the car was an elderly Dutch man, living permanently in Spain and had issues with some family members who were trying to get the car off him, so he decided to sell it.

I heard about it from a mate who was interested in buying it and as he knew I had owned a few E28's and he rang looking for advice. When he decided not to buy I essentially bought it over the phone.

Prices in Germany for clean, accident free M5's were starting to go very high at the time (still are) so I took a chance.

bbsrs

Red Kev wrote: »

September 2012. Owner of the car was an elderly Dutch man, living permanently in Spain and had issues with some family members who were trying to get the car off him, so he decided to sell it.

I heard about it from a mate who was interested in buying it and as he knew I had owned a few E28's and he rang looking for advice. When he decided not to buy I essentially bought it over the phone.

Prices in Germany for clean, accident free M5's were starting to go very high at the time (still are) so I took a chance.

Still rocketing upwards , uk rhd M5s now upwards from £20k . Nice cars. What colour was the one you bought?

MicraBoy

I nearly did this once, but I paid for an AA car check on it. The guy who did the check warned me off, said there was lads wrong it. Nice from afar, far from nice.

Asmooh

CiniO wrote: »

Would you buy a car privately if following was the case:
1. Car registered in Ireland but offered for sale abroad (within EU but over 2000km away from Ireland) by Irish person.
2. NCT expired by over a year. (car is 2006 year).
3. Described as good condition with list of items which were fixed recently, servicing, etc...
4. For very attractive price (IMO less than 50% of it's current market value in Ireland).
5. With option of car being delivered by seller to my friendly place in that country, where cash payment would take place (but me not present and person paying and picking up a car not able to verify condition of the car).

All this might sound bit unrealistic and very silly to go for, but there's one catch - seller is a boards.ie member...

So question is - would you go for it or not?

I actually did with my current MX-5, I was in Ireland.
Car in the Netherlands, car had issues but had no clue what no check for 3 years, was standing still for years.


Price was very good.


Paid, got it delivered in my garage.

Pov06

I would.

It would be a fun adventure repairing it if anything is wrong

Red Kev

bbsrs wrote: »

Still rocketing upwards , uk rhd M5s now upwards from £20k . Nice cars. What colour was the one you bought?

Same colour as this: black Buffalo hide interior, fully loaded, fully serviced with BMW or M independents in NL or Belgium (owner lived in Breda).



The colour might not be the best in a photo, or the most desirable for the M5 but I think it works really well on an E28, looks way better in the flesh anyway.

Story behind it was that the owner was in his earlly 70's and wanted an Auto due to hip issues. His sons said they'd take the car to Holland to sell but he reckoned they'd shaft him for the money if the car even made it back to Holland. So that'd why he was prepared to get below asking rather than chance it.

He also said that it would be expensive to register the car in Spain (no idea how much), his Spanish wasn't good enough to do all the paperwork without a notary or intermediary and the handiest solution was to sell it to me. There was a certain amount of trust on my side as well as the car had to be deregistered in Holland and after I sent the cash over, he left the car with my mate but kept the paperwork for a week or two. But we had a good feeling about the guy and it worked out at the end. Great car on mountain roads BTW, did the Veleta in Spain as well as a fair bit of the French and Italian Alps on the way back, didn't chance Switzerland as the car wasn't fully in my name, drove through Austria on the minor roads to avoid their pain in the arse cops.

Prices are rising for all 80's classics but I think it's a bit of a bubble tbh. There's a few for sale on mobile.de from €55,000-€75,000 which is just laughable.

CianDon

I did this last year. Got wind of an Irish reg 3 series in Switzerland. Car had never been nct'd so we were taking a risk but flew over, collected the car and took off across France and brought her home on the ferry. Sold it on a few months later with all our cost covered and about a grand profit. Dodgiest part of the whole thing for me was getting pulled coming through Waterford for speeding but the Garda never checked the completely blank front screen

FortySeven

CianDon wrote: »

I did this last year. Got wind of an Irish reg 3 series in Switzerland. Car had never been nct'd so we were taking a risk but flew over, collected the car and took off across France and brought her home on the ferry. Sold it on a few months later with all our cost covered and about a grand profit. Dodgiest part of the whole thing for me was getting pulled coming through Waterford for speeding but the Garda never checked the completely blank front screen

Same thing happened to me in the Polish 5 series estate I bought here. Pulled in the last mile heading for the ferry in Rosslare, was the first clear bit of road I could give it a bit. Drove that car all the way to Poland after buying it unseen. And back, and back again. It was 13 years old and had 300,000km + Still managed 142MPH (GPS) on the autobahn with a full load in the back.

Granted, most people would say I was mad but you have to take risks in life.

StereoSound

I wouldn't buy a car without seeing it. Don't care how desirable it is. Met many smiley characters over the years trying to flog pig sh!te.

I'd have to know the person on a personal level but even then I'd be cautious. Even friends will do you when money is concerned.

bbsrs

Red Kev wrote: »

Same colour as this: black Buffalo hide interior, fully loaded, fully serviced with BMW or M independents in NL or Belgium (owner lived in Breda).




Prices are rising for all 80's classics but I think it's a bit of a bubble tbh. There's a few for sale on mobile.de from €55,000-€75,000 which is just laughable.

A bubble for the low miler garage Queens I think as £100k stg for an E30 sport evo M3 is mental considering how little difference there is between it and a standard M3 for about £25k stg same with the E28 M5s ,useable M classics should be worth in or around £30K for a long time to come. 911s also gone mental. Anyways way off topic for this thread, thanks for sharing your M5 experience.

bf

wherever it is could you not get the equivalent of an AA check done before committing to a friend looking/bringing cash? Could save a lot of hassle

audi12

CiniO wrote: »

Would you buy a car privately if following was the case:
1. Car registered in Ireland but offered for sale abroad (within EU but over 2000km away from Ireland) by Irish person.
2. NCT expired by over a year. (car is 2006 year).
3. Described as good condition with list of items which were fixed recently, servicing, etc...
4. For very attractive price (IMO less than 50% of it's current market value in Ireland).
5. With option of car being delivered by seller to my friendly place in that country, where cash payment would take place (but me not present and person paying and picking up a car not able to verify condition of the car).

All this might sound bit unrealistic and very silly to go for, but there's one catch - seller is a boards.ie member...

So question is - would you go for it or not?

Your not serious this has to be a joke I am reminded everyday why we had a housing crash in ireland when i see some of these posts

FortySeven

audi12 wrote: »

Your not serious this has to be a joke I am reminded everyday why we had a housing crash in ireland when i see some of these posts

Must be missing something, seems perfectly logical to me.

Clearly someone has gone abroad with their car, now that car has to be re-registered in that country or he has to bring it back to Ireland. He just wants rid, probably bought a local car, doesn't want the hassle of bringing it back just to sell it so offers it cheap to get rid.

Comparisons to the celtic tiger? Who was looking for bargains then?

audi12

FortySeven wrote: »

Must be missing something, seems perfectly logical to me.

Clearly someone has gone abroad with their car, now that car has to be re-registered in that country or he has to bring it back to Ireland. He just wants rid, probably bought a local car, doesn't want the hassle of bringing it back just to sell it so offers it cheap to get rid.

Comparisons to the celtic tiger? Who was looking for bargains then?

Buying a car without getting to sit in it seems logical to you not to me ... celtic tiger reference relates to when you forget how stupid some people were during that period you are reminded when you read a post on boards.

you can just imagine some of these same people back in 2006 buying a three bed house for 400,000 and asking people on boards do you think it is a good idea that worked out well didnt it ha.

CiniO

All right so a bit of update.
Question in this thread was pretty much rhetorical, as I've already done that nearly 2 months ago. Car is purchased. I just wanted to find out what people think about it, and I'm fairly surprised, as I expected everyone to say - 100% scam run as fast as you can, but that wasn't really the case.
Plenty of posts here saying it might actually be a good idea.

Anyway - car was bought 2 months ago. Seller sent me some pictures and description. He drove a car to my parent's place 200km (in Poland) and left it with them. They paid him cash. They don't know much about cars, so except from fact that car looks allright and drives they couldn't say much more. It's been parked since.
No problems with paperwork as well, as ownership was transferred to my name by now on the logbook.

I'm only curious though, as tomorrow I'm heading there to Poland and that's going to be first time I'll see this car, and what it's worth.
But I have really good feeling about it - I'm sure car is grand.

It's 2006 family saloon car, which cost me €1000.

I'll report back in few days.

audi12

CiniO wrote: »

All right so a bit of update.
Question in this thread was pretty much rhetorical, as I've already done that nearly 2 months ago. Car is purchased. I just wanted to find out what people think about it, and I'm fairly surprised, as I expected everyone to say - 100% scam run as fast as you can, but that wasn't really the case.
Plenty of posts here saying it might actually be a good idea.

Anyway - car was bought 2 months ago. Seller sent me some pictures and description. He drove a car to my parent's place 200km (in Poland) and left it with them. They paid him cash. They don't know much about cars, so except from fact that car looks allright and drives they couldn't say much more. It's been parked since.
No problems with paperwork as well, as ownership was transferred to my name by now on the logbook.

I'm only curious though, as tomorrow I'm heading there to Poland and that's going to be first time I'll see this car, and what it's worth.
But I have really good feeling about it - I'm sure car is grand.

It's 2006 family saloon car, which cost me €1000.

I'll report back in few days.

Probaly get sized by the cops for being stolen or if from another country they prob wont have a clue so you will prob get lucky

CiniO

audi12 wrote: »

Probaly get sized by the cops for being stolen or if from another country they prob wont have a clue so you will prob get lucky

Is the chance of it being stolen not exactly the same as when buying privately in Ireland?
Beside would Shannon not realise it was stolen during change of ownership?

the_syco

CiniO wrote: »

1. Car registered in Ireland but offered for sale abroad (within EU but over 2000km away from Ireland) by Irish person.

People still pulling this scam?

CiniO wrote: »

Beside would Shannon not realise it was stolen during change of ownership?

By which time you have less a few thousand.

CiniO

the_syco wrote: »

People still pulling this scam?


By which time you have less a few thousand.

Did you read the thread?
How can I have less a few thousand if car cost me €1000 and change of ownership already went through Shannon and car is in my name now

The_Honeybadger

Haven't read the full thread but in response to the op, not a hope!!

It's possible you could get lucky and get a great motor for a song but just as likely you'll buy a complete Turkey. Seller being a boards.ie member is totally irrelevant IMO

the_syco

CiniO wrote: »

Did you read the thread?
How can I have less a few thousand if car cost me €1000 and change of ownership already went through Shannon and car is in my name now

You'll find that the left hand doesn't talk to the right hand here in Ireland. Data protection laws. It's the reason why you could try around with no tax, insurance, NCT, but without a bit of paper saying otherwise the Garda wouldn't know otherwise.

If it's stolen, someone will let you know. Just hope they don't think you're the one who nicked it!

audi12

CiniO wrote: »

Did you read the thread?
How can I have less a few thousand if car cost me €1000 and change of ownership already went through Shannon and car is in my name now

you are so shrewd will you buy me a car and also an investment property i dont need to see either before i buy them ha ha..Just when you think you have seen it all you see a thread like this unreal

pcardin

audi12 wrote: »

you are so shrewd will you buy me a car and also an investment property i dont need to see either before i buy them ha ha..Just when you think you have seen it all you see a thread like this unreal

Your life must be so gray and so church-right that quite simple stuff like this amazes you.

audi12

pcardin wrote: »

Your life must be so gray and so church-right that quite simple stuff like this amazes you.

what amazes me is how some people can make such stupid decisions but then again I am intelligent not everyone is but you would think they would have some common sense

Bio Mech

audi12 wrote: »

what amazes me is how some people can make such stupid decisions but then again I am intelligent not everyone is but you would think they would have some common sense

He only paid a grand FFS sake, hardly a massive gamble.

Bio Mech

audi12 wrote: »

you are so shrewd will you buy me a car and also an investment property i dont need to see either before i buy them ha ha..Just when you think you have seen it all you see a thread like this unreal

Did you get burned with an investment property or did you just read an article in the Sun?

audi12

Bio Mech wrote: »

He only paid a grand FFS sake, hardly a massive gamble.

Im out dont know why I bothered commenting cant talk sense to some people in this country

audi12

Bio Mech wrote: »

Did you get burned with an investment property or did you just read an article in the Sun?

I didnt get burned with an investment property. I am not one of those mugs who did burned with buying overpriced property sorry to disappoint you oh and i dont read the sun or any tabloids.

pcardin

audi12 wrote: »

Im out dont know why I bothered commenting cant talk sense to some people in this country

Must br freaking hard to realize that not everyone thinks and acts the same way as you, huh?
Risks is what makes life more colorful. :rolleyes:

And your reference about intelligence...

audi12

pcardin wrote: »

Must br freaking hard to realize that not everyone thinks and acts the same way as you, huh?
Risks is what makes life more colorful. :rolleyes:

And your reference about intelligence...

risks make life more colorful where did you get that from?? I take risks but then there is just plain stupid i dont care what others do i was only trying to help but you cant help somepeople.

pcardin

audi12 wrote: »

risks make life more colorful where did you get that from?? I take risks but then there is just plain stupid i dont care what others do i was only trying to help but you cant help somepeople.

Hey, you said you're out, that's cheating!! :D

CiniO

audi12 wrote: »

risks make life more colorful where did you get that from?? I take risks but then there is just plain stupid i dont care what others do i was only trying to help but you cant help somepeople.

Well in short I bought a car for €1k. If car is grand and if I take it to Ireland, nct it, I'll possibly be able to sell it for about 2.5k to 3k. That's an easy money.
Possibly I might be able to sell it with profit also in Poland (where the car is now), but that not certain yet.
And if the car reveals to be crap, engine and gearbox die the first day I drive it, I still will be able to sell it there and then for parts for more than €500.
So I'm not really risking much and that's the reason I decided to go for it.

I'm 99.99% sure seller was genuine, ans it makes me laugh a bit when people generalise like here that every irish car for sale abroad at good price must be a scam.

Bio Mech

audi12 wrote: »

Im out dont know why I bothered commenting cant talk sense to some people in this country

I guess everybody is stupid except you. Its tough at the top.