Wrong plates or what's going on?

Lellostag

Hi all,

Some of you might recall I'm on the look out for a good c209 Merc CLK and I came across this one on DD (where else?! :rolleyes:):

https://www.donedeal.co.uk/cars-for-sale/mercedes-benz-clk-class-clk-240-elegance/11434512

Also here: http://www.hwestmotors.ie/?page=content&id=21

It says it's a 240 CLK with the 2.6 litre petrol engine, but checking both motortax.ie and motorcheck.ie it comes up as a 2-litre Citroen C5 from 2002... https://www.motorcheck.ie/free-car-check/02d14438/

So what might be going on here, giving the dealer the benefit of doubt...?

Polo_Mint

Strange Alright

https://www.cartell.ie/ssl/servlet/beginStarLookup?registration=02D14438

shietpilot

The reg should be 02D14488

I thought the 3 looked strange alright.

https://www.motorcheck.ie/free-car-check/02d14488/

EDIT: I rang them out of interest and the guy said they printed the wrong set of plates for the car and he will change them :pac:

Testacalda

You would be surprised how regularly that can happen. I was once doing a first service on a VW Golf that was only a few months old. Out of curiosity was looking at the tax disc. The number on the disc had 2 consecutive number ones, the plate on the front had 3! The parts man had added the extra 1 by mistake when he was printing the plates for it!

Lellostag

Thanks guys!

I did not realise that these kind of mistakes existed, but you live and learn! Would've been handy for taxing the Merc saving us a good few bob each year!!

mickdw

Lellostag wrote: »

Thanks guys!

I did not realise that these kind of mistakes existed, but you live and learn! Would've been handy for taxing the Merc saving us a good few bob each year!!

I'd walk away. May be legit, may be a tactic to throw you off the scent.
Out of test since April 15 too with wrong nct date in ad. All very dodgy.

Lellostag

mickdw wrote: »

I'd walk away. May be legit, may be a tactic to throw you off the scent.
Out of test since April 15 too with wrong nct date in ad. All very dodgy.

Yeah, you're right. We're anyway looking primarily for either a CLK 200 Kompressor or then a CLK 220 CDI, so one with this size engine isn't really anything we'd consider.

coylemj

shietpilot wrote: »

The reg should be 02D14488

I thought the 3 looked strange alright.

https://www.motorcheck.ie/free-car-check/02d14488/

EDIT: I rang them out of interest and the guy said they printed the wrong set of plates for the car and he will change them :pac:

This is a 14 year old Irish car, not an import (so it wasn't being re-registered) and it's in pretty good shape. Did you ask him why they had to change both the front and rear plates considering that the body is in excellent shape and the car has clearly been well looked after with low mileage (<7,000 miles p.a.)?

And when they were swapping the new plates for the old ones, nobody noticed the numbers were different?

How does the the '3' look strange?

R.O.R

coylemj wrote: »

This is a 14 year old Irish car, not an import (so it wasn't being re-registered) and it's in pretty good shape. Did you ask him why they had to change both the front and rear plates considering that the body is in excellent shape and the car has clearly been well looked after with low mileage (<7,000 miles p.a.)?

And when they were swapping the new plates for the old ones, nobody noticed the numbers were different?

How does the the '3' look strange?

Hard to tell, but it looks like the new plates on the car have dealer advertising on a bottom lip. That means they've printed up their own new plates to keep with the branding on all the other vehicles.

Printing plates is usually done in pairs, so if they programmed the machine wrong for one, then it will be wrong when they run the second plate as well.

Probably just an honest mistake. May have removed the original plates when it came in and not compared the new plates against them when they put them on.

shietpilot

mickdw wrote: »

I'd walk away. May be legit, may be a tactic to throw you off the scent.
Out of test since April 15 too with wrong nct date in ad. All very dodgy.

When I rang the guy he told me the real reg straight away. He also told me it will come with a fresh NCT. (I was still pretending I'm interested in the car) :pac:

coylemj wrote: »

This is a 14 year old Irish car, not an import (so it wasn't being re-registered) and it's in pretty good shape. Did you ask him why they had to change both the front and rear plates considering that the body is in excellent shape and the car has clearly been well looked after with low mileage (<7,000 miles p.a.)?

And when they were swapping the new plates for the old ones, nobody noticed the numbers were different?

How does the the '3' look strange?

When I looked at the pictures the shape of the 3 threw me off and I thought it could be an 8. I checked the reg with the 8 and it was correct. I don't actually know if the 3 is meant to look like that though.

I'm not surprised the reg plates were changed though. I changed my plates on the Focus for example because they looked bad with a bit of letter fade.

coylemj

On the plus side, it's a 2.6L V6 so will be a very smooth runner.

On the negative side, it's a 2.6L V6 so it probably drinks petrol plus the annual tax is €710 and as it's getting close to 100,000 miles the maintenance bills will start to creep up. I'd look elsewhere but I think that's what you're going to do anyway.

R.O.R

coylemj wrote: »

On the plus side, it's a 2.6L V6 so will be a very smooth runner.

On the negative side, it's a 2.6L V6 so it probably drinks petrol plus the annual tax is €710 €1,294! and as it's getting close to 100,000 miles the maintenance bills will start to creep up. I'd look elsewhere but I think that's what you're going to do anyway.

FYP

Lellostag

coylemj wrote: »

I'd look elsewhere but I think that's what you're going to do anyway.

Exactly yeah, it'll be the smaller engine for sure, have to hold a bit back on the spending after all!

mickdw

shietpilot wrote: »

When I rang the guy he told me the real reg straight away. He also told me it will come with a fresh NCT. (I was still pretending I'm interested in the car) :pac:



When I looked at the pictures the shape of the 3 threw me off and I thought it could be an 8. I checked the reg with the 8 and it was correct. I don't actually know if the 3 is meant to look like that though.

I'm not surprised the reg plates were changed though. I changed my plates on the Focus for example because they looked bad with a bit of letter fade.

Was he not surprised at all when you pointed out the reg was wrong?
Being supplied with new test is not the same as having test which is what was advertised and anyway, the test date is wrong too.

rebel.ranter

mickdw wrote: »

Was he not surprised at all when you pointed out the reg was wrong?
Being supplied with new test is not the same as having test which is what was advertised and anyway, the test date is wrong too.

This kind of mistake with Reg plates happens all the time. I've come across it a few times in a previous job where there was a fleet of company cars, regs were frequently being printed incorrectly, heck 2 jeeps even had the same Reg for a whole year! Seen it with private cars too, numbers switched around and may not have been immediately obvious.
In some other countries you cannot just go printing up number plates at will in random suppliers, but you can here in Ireland.

I change the plates on my cars every few years as they get faded and make the car look tatty. They are a cheap item to replace and can make such a difference I tidying up,the loom of a car.
I love the boardsie conspiracy brigade, it's only a matter of time before someone posts that the car was used in a robbery!

shietpilot

mickdw wrote: »

Was he not surprised at all when you pointed out the reg was wrong?
Being supplied with new test is not the same as having test which is what was advertised and anyway, the test date is wrong too.

Nope, I told him I tried to do a motorcheck and he instantly apologised and said he printed the wrong plates and told me the real ones :pac:

mickdw

shietpilot wrote: »

Nope, I told him I tried to do a motorcheck and he instantly apologised and said he printed the wrong plates and told me the real ones :pac:

So he knew about it and left them on there. Nice way to lose the sale of a car. Its idiotic.
His nct renewal date is wrong also even if he does test it so that is 2 from 2 wrong that we can easily check from distance.

shietpilot

mickdw wrote: »

So he knew about it and left them on there. Nice way to lose the sale of a car. Its idiotic.
His nct renewal date is wrong also even if he does test it so that is 2 from 2 wrong that we can easily check from distance.

True but it happens. When I was getting my plates printed the guy typed it in wrong and almost printed it too.

You just have to be very careful with these things. I'd say it's easy for a trader to get lost in conversation with the parts guy while getting the plates done.

mickdw

shietpilot wrote: »

True but it happens. When I was getting my plates printed the guy typed it in wrong and almost printed it too.

You just have to be very careful with these things. I'd say it's easy for a trader to get lost in conversation with the parts guy while getting the plates done.

Yes no doubt can happen but if you knew about it, you would get them whipped off and replaced rather quickly instead of leaving them on there and putting off interested people.
To be honest these dealers who only test when sold are usually a shambles. They spend nothing till they have cash in hand. Get the thing tested and present it for sale properly is the only way to operate.

coylemj

mickdw wrote: »

To be honest these dealers who only test when sold are usually a shambles. They spend nothing till they have cash in hand. Get the thing tested and present it for sale properly is the only way to operate.

+1 I was looking at cars a few years ago, lost count of the number of times I rang indie dealers about a car they had for sale and on enquiring as to the status of the NCT got the stock reply: 'we guarantee the NCT'.

Clearly there's enough mugs out there to fall for this stunt that they're still at it - they expect you to buy the car without an NCT, submit it for the test and if it fails, they claim that they will pay to fix whatever faults have caused it to fail. Anyone who hands over the cash under that system deserves to be ripped off.

mickdw

coylemj wrote: »

+1 I was looking at cars a few years ago, lost count of the number of times I rang indie dealers about a car they had for sale and on enquiring as to the status of the NCT got the stock reply: 'we guarantee the NCT'.

Clearly there's enough mugs out there to fall for this stunt that they're still at it - they expect you to buy the car without an NCT, submit it for the test and if it fails, they claim that they will pay to fix whatever faults have caused it to fail. Anyone who hands over the cash under that system deserves to be ripped off.

Ah that is a joke completely. Only time that was acceptable was when you would be buying a car with a nice bit of test on it and in the days when you couldn't bring the car in for voluntary test.
But even these dealers who will put it through when they get a sale agreed. I don't like that. The car will be on display with worn tyres, missing bulbs, flat battery and you are expected to buy with the promise of a new test tomorrow.