Con artists on donedeal..... lesson learned!

baalad

So yesterday i travelled from waterford to dublin to see a honda civic, fully intent on buying after a phone conversation with the dealer in which he said "when you see this car you wont believe how stunning it is"

Now i was well aware i was taking a risk travelling to dublin but this con man had me convinced!The ad itself stated this car was immaculate/stunning and when we arrived he even proceeded to tell us that he sold one last week that was nowhere near as good as this particular one!

Anyway, this guy (<SNIP> near newlands cross) decided to wait until we were in dublin to tell me that his premises was gone and that his cars were now being kept somewhere else so as a result he would pick us up and take us to where the car was (<SNIP>) i believe the place was called!!

On the way he started confusing us with the info regarding the full service history book and i knew immediately the guy was shady! When we finally saw the car in light it was extremely banged up with scratches and marks all over and when our disappointment was realised all he could say was "its a 07, what were ye expecting" I told him there was no way i would pay him the asking price for the car , in fact i wouldnt of even given him half , it was that bad! The amazing this is that he never even tried to haggle. He just said no bother and drove off haha

I forgot to mention that the car was advertised with low miles but the engine was filthy, it just did not look right and the oil was thicker then it should be.

I would strongly advise anyone to avoid this <SNIP>

Personally i dont think i will ever travel again to see a car. Anyone else have similar experiences or are these generally a once off? I thought buying from a dealer would be the safer option but clearly not with this con artist!

colm_mcm

Generally speaking, the Naas Road area is best avoided unless you need to go to Naas.

baalad

colm_mcm wrote: »

Generally speaking, the Naas Road area is best avoided unless you need to go to Naas.

haha thanks for the heads up , pity i didnt know this yesterday.

Steve

*inserting plug for adverts.ie*

I hope you reported it on DoneDeal, and the seller is now banned.. mm.. probably not..

Veloce

Buying a car in Ireland. It's a f***ing minefield.

baalad

Steve wrote: »

*inserting plug for adverts.ie*

I hope you reported it on DoneDeal, and the seller is now banned.. mm.. probably not..

Reported him but apparently donedeal cant do anything about it. He has to be reported to the competition and consumer protection commission who then investigate the complaint!!

The strange thing is that this guy has both a facebook business page and an adverts page and both are full of 5 star reviews ! There isnt one single bad review on either.

colm_mcm

Will you pm me a link to the ad?

baalad

colm_mcm wrote: »

Will you pm me a link to the ad?

No hassle. Dont be fooled by the pics by the way ;-)

pablo128

All I'm getting is that it had a few marks or dents, and the engine bay was dirty. First of all, I would be suspicious of a spotless engine bay, as I would think they had washed away evidence of a leak. The dents? A simple tool for reducing the price of the car.

I looked at the ad. It actually looks like a nice car.

Atlantic Dawn

colm_mcm wrote: »

Generally speaking, the Naas Road area is best avoided unless you need to go to Naas.

It's pretty much the Bermuda Triangle for buying a car, some good ones have been found but those are rare.

Sh1tbag OToole

baalad wrote: »

Reported him but apparently donedeal cant do anything about it. He has to be reported to the competition and consumer protection commission who then investigate the complaint!!

The strange thing is that this guy has both a facebook business page and an adverts page and both are full of 5 star reviews ! There isnt one single bad review on either.

I reported a lad before but had a .pdf from some UK site to prove the car yer man was trying to sell was clocked and in fairness they took down his ads fairly quick. I suppose if more complaints about him roll in they'll get rid of him

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

colm_mcm

Car looks great in the pics apart from the wing behind the wheel.
Just goes to show!

Markcheese

I f###ing hat that , travel a couple of hours and its shoite like ..
I went up to look at a c-max in limerick after being assured it was perfect.. nicely valeted in fairness, drove rough and clutch nearly gone..( ah no their all like that )

baalad

pablo128 wrote: »

All I'm getting is that it had a few marks or dents, and the engine bay was dirty. First of all, I would be suspicious of a spotless engine bay, as I would think they had washed away evidence of a leak. The dents? A simple tool for reducing the price of the car.

I looked at the ad. It actually looks like a nice car.

It looks like a different car all together when you see the actual car! The guy told me the car was "stunning" He lied! It was far more then a few dents and marks! I wasnt expecting a car in showroom condition but this car was badly scratched ALL OVER including the roof of the car! Whoever had the car must of been very rough with it! Also, i have seen the engine on a civic which actually had more miles on it and it was nowhere near as filthy as this was! You had to see it to understand! Iam aware a clean engine is a sign to look out for but this did not look like a an engine with only 50.000 miles on it!

I encourage you to view the car in person and come back and post then.

pablo128

baalad wrote: »

It looks like a different car all together when you see the actual car! The guy told me the car was "stunning" He lied! It was far more then a few dents and marks! I wasnt expecting a car in showroom condition but this car was badly scratched ALL OVER including the roof of the car! Whoever had the car must of been very rough with it! Also, i have seen the engine on a civic which actually had more miles on it and it was nowhere near as filthy as this was! You had to see it to understand! Iam aware a clean engine is a sign to look out for but this did not look like a an engine with only 50.000 miles on it!

I encourage you to view the car in person and come back and post then.

All I'm still getting is the marks, a dirty engine bay, plus now you think it's clocked, which it could very well be. Did you do a reg check with Cartell or similar? I'd have done that before I left my house. In fact I did it before I travelled to Wexford to buy my current car, and I only paid 1700 for that.

chilipepper

I had a similar experience last week. Traveled up to Mayo to look at a 07 petrol Subaru Legacy that's advertised on done deal.( <SNIP>)
Told me over the phone that the car was A1. Had a look at the car when I got there and it looked like the car had done a lot more miles then was on the clock.
I went for a spin in it and he was in my ear all the time telling me how good the car was.
I've owned a legacy before so straight away I noticed the car was down on power.
The car went fine above 3000 rpm, it was when the rpm was low that the car really started to struggle and after 20 minutes of driving it became very clear to me that there is a very serious problem with the engine in that car.
If anyone is thinking of buying that car don't go near it, and I would strongly advise people to be very careful buying a car from the con men working there.

colm_mcm

To be fair, dirt comes off, engines get dirty. Any 9 year old car you see with a clean engine bay has been cleaned, Unless it was oily in the engine bay it isn't anything to be concerned about. It's often better to see it dirty for this reason,

baalad

pablo128 wrote: »

All I'm still getting is the marks, a dirty engine bay, plus now you think it's clocked, which it could very well be. Did you do a reg check with Cartell or similar? I'd have done that before I left my house. In fact I did it before I travelled to Wexford to buy my current car, and I only paid 1700 for that.

What exactly are you trying to say? Have you seen the car? I would go as far to even question the pics he has used for donedeal because its astonishing the difference between the pics and the car in in person

colm_mcm

What he's saying is, if you're ever going halfway up the country to see a car, it's worth doing a history check on the car. If it turns up anything you've saved yourself a trip.


07d10571. Only one owner.

pablo128

baalad wrote: »

What exactly are you trying to say? Have you seen the car? I would go as far to even question the pics he has used for donedeal because its astonishing the difference between the pics and the car in in person

I'm not trying to say anything. I have made very clear what I am saying.

So did you do a reg check or not?

John_Rambo

I traveled to Sligo to see a 4x4 family SUV that was cleaned with a brillo pad. I don't mean it looked like a car that was cleaned with a brillo pad, it WAS actually cleaned with a brillo pad. The previous owner thought it would be a good idea to get the tar off the body work.

Edit - the seller/garage wasn't a con artist. Just trying to shift a decent car that got an unfortunate exfoliation.

baalad

colm_mcm wrote: »

To be fair, dirt comes off, engines get dirty. Any 9 year old car you see with a clean engine bay has been cleaned, Unless it was oily in the engine bay it isn't anything to be concerned about. It's often better to see it dirty for this reason,

I hear what your saying but the engine just did not look right for a car with such low mileage especially when i saw the same car with more miles and the engine looked as it should! Its one of those things you just cant explain over text! You would of had to of seen the car and then saw another to see the difference. The car was as shady as he was! He told me on the phone he had the full service history book for example but when we arrived said the garage he got the car from misplaced the book but that he could try get a print off for me if needed? Let alone the car is advertised as being sold from <snip> but the car <snip> doesnt seem to exist! We were brought a different place all together and then he told us "i dont like conducting business here" and he then drove to another garage called atlas i think it was called

colm_mcm

OP, You need to remove the garages names out of your post as you're putting boards in shady territory.

baalad

colm_mcm wrote: »

What he's saying is, if you're ever going halfway up the country to see a car, it's worth doing a history check on the car. If it turns up anything you've saved yourself a trip.


07d10571. Only one owner.

how did you get the reg?

Duke O Smiley

baalad wrote: »

I told him there was no way i would pay him the asking price for the car , in fact i wouldnt of even given him half , it was that bad! The amazing this is that he never even tried to haggle. He just said no bother and drove off haha

Would you have bought it if he offered it to you for less than half the asking?

goz83

I've had this happen a couple of times. Never trust the ads, always expect something to be wrong/hidden, because there usually is. I see it as an advantage, because if it's not mentioned, you use it to lower the price. But, sometimes, the car is just muck and you feel like choking the advertiser.

I drove from Dublin to Longford (or not far off) to look at a Mondeo Platinum back in 2014. The car looked great in the photos, but I hadn't noticed that the passenger side door hadn't been photographed. I asked the seller was there anything wrong with the car, or anything I should know before travelling. "no, it's in very good condition" she says. Well, how I didn't b1tch slap her when I arrived, I don't know. The passenger door had collision damage and was hard to open/close. The engine sounded like a bag of spanners and it took some serious force getting it into reverse. I got out of the car and asked why she wasn't upfront about the condition and she said it's "cosmetic" :mad: . I walked away, fuming. Luckily, I found and bought a lovely one in Louth a few hours later for much less money.

I think dealers are worse than private sellers. But not as bad as private dealers.

colm_mcm

baalad wrote: »

how did you get the reg?

It's on the front of the car

baalad

Duke O Smiley wrote: »

Would you have bought it if he offered it to you for less than half the asking?

Nope but expected him to acknowledge and know that the car was nowhere near worth the asking price! It was as if he knew the car was bad and didnt even wanna waist his time trying to force the sale as he knew it was impossible once the car was seen in daylight

pablo128

colm_mcm wrote: »

It's on the front of the car

LOL!

You can get half the reg from one side and half from the other side.;)

baalad

colm_mcm wrote: »

It's on the front of the car

I would have never known ha You cant see the front in the photos on donedeal! No photo shows the reg. thats why i asked

baalad

pablo128 wrote: »

LOL!

You can get half the reg from one side and half from the other side.;)

Jesus you two must have some eye sight because i couldnt make out the reg from those pics!!

JohnBoy26

baalad wrote: »

It looks like a different car all together when you see the actual car! The guy told me the car was "stunning" He lied! It was far more then a few dents and marks! I wasnt expecting a car in showroom condition but this car was badly scratched ALL OVER including the roof of the car! Whoever had the car must of been very rough with it! Also, i have seen the engine on a civic which actually had more miles on it and it was nowhere near as filthy as this was! You had to see it to understand! Iam aware a clean engine is a sign to look out for but this did not look like a an engine with only 50.000 miles on it!

I encourage you to view the car in person and come back and post then.

You cannot judge how many miles a car has done by the dirt on the engine. Just because you know of one with a cleaner engine is meaningless.

baalad

JohnBoy26 wrote: »

You cannot judge how many miles a car has done by the dirt on the engine. Just because you know of one with a cleaner engine is meaningless.

Fair enough! I understand that! I am just explaining it arse ways maybe! I had a guy with me who would know his stuff on cars and he immediately said to me after lifting the bonnet that he was weary about the way things looked under the hood as if to insinuate that the car was shady! All in all it was no doubt shady and thankfully i didnt buy the car!

Ill be more careful in future and will think twice before travelling again

turbostan

chilipepper wrote: »

I had a similar experience last week. Traveled up to Mayo to look at a 07 petrol Subaru Legacy that's advertised on done deal.( <SNIP> )
Told me over the phone that the car was A1. Had a look at the car when I got there and it looked like the car had done a lot more miles then was on the clock.
I went for a spin in it and he was in my ear all the time telling me how good the car was.
I've owned a legacy before so straight away I noticed the car was down on power.
The car went fine above 3000 rpm, it was when the rpm was low that the car really started to struggle and after 20 minutes of driving it became very clear to me that there is a very serious problem with the engine in that car.
If anyone is thinking of buying that car don't go near it, and I would strongly advise people to be very careful buying a car from the con men working there.

After 20minutes of driving, ok so what exactly was wrong with it?
What's the "serious problem with the engine" that you have discovered?
I'm curious to know how you came up with this.
Also, I think you are on dangerous ground naming a garage like you did and calling them con men just because you didn't like a car you test drove.
It'd be something if you bought it and it turned out to be a dud, but I really don't think you are in a position to be mouthing off like that, be very careful.

chilipepper

turbostan wrote: »

After 20minutes of driving, ok so what exactly was wrong with it?
What's the "serious problem with the engine" that you have discovered?
I'm curious to know how you came up with this.
Also, I think you are on dangerous ground naming a garage like you did and calling them con men just because you didn't like a car you test drove.
It'd be something if you bought it and it turned out to be a dud, but I really don't think you are in a position to be mouthing off like that, be very careful.

When you start driving it first it just seems a little down on power low down in the rev band. If you were on an open road you not notice it too much, it's only when I started driving it around the town going from 1th to 2nd the car would start spluttering and all most cut out a few times which is why it is recommended to drive the car for at a half hour before you buy it.

Del2005

pablo128 wrote: »

All I'm still getting is the marks, a dirty engine bay, plus now you think it's clocked, which it could very well be.

With so many cars for sale if the buyer doesn't feel right they should walk away, doesn't matter if it's clean or dodgy once you get the feeling in your gut that something is wrong you'll never be happy in it.

History checks are ok for finance owed and tax but till they get access to mileage from the NCT are not much use for older vehicles, and still say nothing about the condition of the vehicle.

pablo128

Del2005 wrote: »

With so many cars for sale if the buyer doesn't feel right they should walk away, doesn't matter if it's clean or dodgy once you get the feeling in your gut that something is wrong you'll never be happy in it.

History checks are ok for finance owed and tax but till they get access to mileage from the NCT are not much use for older vehicles, and still say nothing about the condition of the vehicle.

Both cars here are ex-english, and the history checks gave uk mileage via mot and Irish mileage via NCT. And NCT details too.

Obviously you need to actually view the car, but a tenner for a check, and if everything doesn't match up can save 30 euro worth of fuel at the very least. Not to mention your time that could be better spent viewing something else.

Dean12319

colm_mcm wrote: »

Generally speaking, the Naas Road area is best avoided unless you need to go to Naas.

We have road like that down here in Cork. Made the mistake of dealing with one never again will i go near that area.

166man

Steve wrote: »

*inserting plug for adverts.ie*

I hope you reported it on DoneDeal, and the seller is now banned.. mm.. probably not..

You get the same crap with people and silly swap offers and adverts so it's much of a muchness.

endacl

colm_mcm wrote: »

Generally speaking, the Naas Road area is best avoided unless you need to go to Naas.

Or escape from Naas.

tossy

I think you are confusung a con artist and a chancer, either way lesson learned.

millington

I had a similar experience last month aswell. And it was of all places, at Newlands Cross :eek::o

E60 530d Msport. Had a damaged bootlid which was clear in photos so I asked was the bumper marked below where the bootlid was hit and told "No it's perfect". Told the car had a years NCT, running fine no issues, and in his own words was in "showroom condition, absolutely flawless"

Front bumper didn't line up at all, dints in both drivers side doors and a massive dint in the passengers rear door, scratch (key mark possibly) on the drivers quarter and rear door, rear bumper damaged where I asked him was it damaged, towing eye covers missing, cupholders broke on interior, switches broke, not running right at all actually misfiring and not boosting right and to top it all off, no NCT just a fail sheet from the week before.

This took a maximum of 5 minutes to notice all this but God knows what else was wrong. I happened to be going that way anyway but if I had to have travelled a journey to see it, I'd be close to throttling him :mad:

Del2005

pablo128 wrote: »

Both cars here are ex-english, and the history checks gave uk mileage via mot and Irish mileage via NCT. And NCT details too.

Obviously you need to actually view the car, but a tenner for a check, and if everything doesn't match up can save 30 euro worth of fuel at the very least. Not to mention your time that could be better spent viewing something else.

Where are you getting milage checks for a tenner? Last time I checked, with the €35 check, NCT status was there but not the mileage, I thought that there was data protection issues with releasing NCT mileage.

bear1

Anyone have a link to the car?
Generally I found buying cars in the west of Ireland was more a stress free experience. Maybe I was lucky though.

JohnBoy26

baalad wrote: »

Fair enough! I understand that! I am just explaining it arse ways maybe! I had a guy with me who would know his stuff on cars and he immediately said to me after lifting the bonnet that he was weary about the way things looked under the hood as if to insinuate that the car was shady! All in all it was no doubt shady and thankfully i didnt buy the car!

Ill be more careful in future and will think twice before travelling again

Sorry my above post might of been a bit harsh. Still it's not really a way to judge how many miles a car has done. That car could of spent it's life been driven on dirty or dusty roads which would cause the engine to be dirty.

I understand where you are coming from though. Sometimes there is just something about a car that is off putting.

Cienciano

You can ignore the following words and phrases from donedeal:
immaculate/stunning/mint/showroom condition/first to see will buy

Meaningless, people think once they washed their car, it's showroom condition.

Stonedpilot

Veloce wrote: »

Buying a car in Ireland. It's a f***ing minefield.

Unfortunately true, lethal conmen out there. One lady owner my nuts!

bear1

Cienciano wrote: »

You can ignore the following words and phrases from donedeal:
immaculate/stunning/mint/showroom condition/first to see will buy

Meaningless, people think once they washed their car, it's showroom condition.

Add "not in a hurry to sell/testing the waters/only one like it in the country".

ironclaw

On the topic of this thread, I recently read of a start up in the US that pre-inspects a car i.e You want to sell, so you give these guys a call, they come out and give it a full look over (Similar to the sheets you see for Jap exports) They then upload the report and buyers can see it. The go a step further in the US by escrowing the payment if you do buy, so if you don't like it, you can hand it back. That particular part I can see ending very badly in Ireland given the legislative differences, but the first part I think is viable.

So, would people be willing to pay for an inspection before they sell their car? Or, would buyers insist (And likely pay for) the seller to have it done? I actually think its quite viable as if you have nothing to hide and for a nominal fee, it may greatly increase your chances of selling with the added benefit of consumer confidence.

inforfun

ironclaw wrote: »

On the topic of this thread, I recently read of a start up in the US that pre-inspects a car i.e You want to sell, so you give these guys a call, they come out and give it a full look over (Similar to the sheets you see for Jap exports) They then upload the report and buyers can see it. The go a step further in the US by escrowing the payment if you do buy, so if you don't like it, you can hand it back. That particular part I can see ending very badly in Ireland given the legislative differences, but the first part I think is viable.

So, would people be willing to pay for an inspection before they sell their car? Or, would buyers insist (And likely pay for) the seller to have it done? I actually think its quite viable as if you have nothing to hide and for a nominal fee, it may greatly increase your chances of selling with the added benefit of consumer confidence.

The Dutch AA (ANWB) provides this service for when you are buying a car. Just bring it there and it is tested and anything wrong with it, it will show.
Now, if you want to sell your car, you can of course go there as well and have a report to show for potential customers.

Bit pricey at €200 maybe but that also depends on how much you are goign to spend.