Buying a car on DoneDeal/Adverts

rawn

Hi all. Will be looking to buy a car later in the year, I'm considering buying one on Adverts or DoneDeal but to be honest after reading some horror stories here I'm really nervous! My dad will be with me to check out the car itself, but what can I do to ensure I'm not being scammed? What are the main warning signs? If at all possible, can someone outline what a legit, safe transaction should go like?

Thanks!

Atlantic Dawn

The basics...

• Only buy a car that is on sale from the owner listed in the logbook for the car, avoid anyone with multiple cars for sale as they will usually have got hold of wrecks that dealers are offloading knowing there's issues. Confirm seller is the person in the logbook with photo ID.
• Check if ownership of the car changed recently, this will show if it has in the last 3 months https://www.motortax.ie/PSE A car with recent ownership change could indicate a car with serious problems
• Put the reg in to https://www.ncts.ie to confirm NCT date matches with official record and is not fake NCT.
• It's best to meet the seller at their house if possible
• Running a history check on the car is a good idea to see if it has been written off, www.cartell.ie or similar
• Confirm with your insurance company that they will provide a quote for the car, ideally do this before you put purchase.
• If your talking about €5k plus as a purchase price it might be better to deposit in to the sellers bank account rather then go bringing that amount of cash to their house.

SCOOP 64

i always put the reg of car in here first before a trip, just to see if any recent change of owner, if so would ask why saleling it so soon after purchase if there is.

https://www.motortax.ie/PSE/start.do;jsessionid=0aa0114730d85dad6d72b62f4d1fb49fd35355e46e4c.e38PaNaSbh0RaO0NchmQe0?page=welcome

Sorry above in before me.

dudara

Moved to the Motors forum - you'll get the best advice there

dudara

colm_mcm

Read this
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056198864

JohnBoy26

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

The basics...

• Only buy a car that is on sale from the owner listed in the logbook for the car, avoid anyone with multiple cars for sale as they will usually have got hold of wrecks that dealers are offloading knowing there's issues. Confirm seller is the person in the logbook with photo ID.
• Check if ownership of the car changed recently, this will show if it has in the last 3 months https://www.motortax.ie/PSE A car with recent ownership change could indicate a car with serious problems
• Put the reg in to https://www.ncts.ie to confirm NCT date matches with official record and is not fake NCT.
• It's best to meet the seller at their house if possible
• Running a history check on the car is a good idea to see if it has been written off, www.cartell.ie or similar
• Confirm with your insurance company that they will provide a quote for the car, ideally do this before you put purchase.
• If your talking about €5k plus as a purchase price it might be better to deposit in to the sellers bank account rather then go bringing that amount of cash to their house.

This is not a given. I have bought numerous perfectly fine cars of people doing a bit of wheeling and dealing on the side. You have to go in with your eyes open no matter who you buy off of, weather they are the registered keeper or not.

colm_mcm

For an unseasoned buyer though, it's not bad advice.

JohnBoy26

colm_mcm wrote: »

For an unseasoned buyer though, it's not bad advice.

Indeed its not but it doesn't gaurantee anything. I've seen plenty of rough cars for sale by their owners too, some of them even one owner cars so just be careful is all I will say.

NIMAN

I know it's easy to allow the scare stories to override your thoughts, but also bear in mind that a lot of sellers are likely very genuine too.

I have a car up for sale myself at present, and I have shown photos of the bad points as well as the good.

We aren't all crooks.

colm_mcm

JohnBoy26 wrote: »

Indeed its not but it doesn't gaurantee anything. I've seen plenty of rough cars for sale by their owners too, some of them even one owner cars so just be careful is all I will say.

Oh yeah, but I'm always a believer on being on some sort of level with the seller, if they're a professional 'term used loosely' seller and you're a green buyer, they'll go to town on you. Grand if you're buying retail and there's some sort of protection for you, but not so good when you have someone who knows all the spiel to talk their way around the cars faults.

rawn

Thanks all, really great advice! I'll have a read through the linked thread tomorrow and pop back if I have any questions

SmartinMartin

Does your dad have any mechanical experience?

I upgraded my own wheels last week, and I used Done Deal to do it. Eventually, I found a gent of a private seller, Green verified seller, and I really believe I got a very good car from him and at a good price too. So far, about 300 km done, I'm loving it.

Before meeting him though, I had been through a bit of a mill with some professional sellers on DD who were selling multiple cars. It took some time and a little perseverance. Between garage listings and lone tradesmen, there are a lot of sellers on DD who aren't your regular average person looking to sell their own car. Just be mindful of that OP.

No harm to the 'pros', but I got the run around a few times from them...

- One seller in the Dublin area cancelled a meet-up on me twice, on two consecutive days, to go and source other cars. When he cancelled on me the second time and tried to arrange a meeting for the third day, I said "I've made arrangements to meet you twice now, and both times you've cancelled last minute. What's to say that won't happen again tomorrow?" He actually said that I had a fair point, and we bid each other good luck.

- Then there was a guy selling a nice car according to the ad and the photos, and his ad was linked to a garage in the West area of the city. I just couldn't get him to arrange a time to meet over a five day period, even with me being quite flexible with my time.

- Another seller, a dealer/garage in North Dublin, told me the car was still available when I phoned him. I told him I'd be there in an hour to look at it and was a serious buyer and he told me to come on ahead. I got there an hour later, saw the car on the forecourt, and went in to ask for a test drive. The minute I mentioned the car and told him who I was, his expression changed to an awkward one. He then told me "I'm really sorry but I took a deposit on it 15 minutes ago. I went to look for your number in my phone to call you and let you know, but I've loads of numbers I don't recognise and I wasn't sure which one was yours". Fair point.

The first two sellers above, their reasons for not being able to meet me and/or having to cancel on me were because they had to go and look at a car or pick one up somewhere. These sounded to be like sellers on the move, flipping cars constantly. Just be wary of this when browsing the ads - You might see some nice cars, but good luck trying to arrange something soon with the guy selling it.

The third seller above, the garage in North Dublin, I was just unlucky. The car was on the forecourt. I saw it, it looked like a very nice example of what I was looking for and the price was good, but I was just too late.

After coming out of that garage, I was feeling a bit dejected after weeks of searching and went back onto Done Deal to see if there was anything else worth looking at in Dublin before I headed back home to the sticks. I saw that someone had just posted a new ad of the model I was looking for. It wasn't in Dublin but in my home county, a genuine private seller, and according to the ad it was a very good example of the car I was looking for.

I called him, and he was initially surprised as he had only just uploaded the ad. We arranged to meet that night at his place of work. I wouldn't normally agree to meet someone away from home/garage at night-time to view a car. However, the seller was a Guard and his place of work was a station in a town I was well familiar with. Suddenly, there was some light on the horizon.

So I met him with my OH. We took the car for a good test drive and had a look at it. I'm not an autos expert, but from years of owning and maintaining cars (plus being well researched on the car model I was looking for) I knew by the time we got back to the station that I was going to make the seller an offer.

And after asking some questions about the car and getting satisfactory answers, I made an offer and he accepted. He delivered the car to me the following morning, along with two keys and the logbook. We completed the transaction in my own sitting room.

I've since had a friend who is a mechanic take the car for a drive and have a proper look at it, and he's more than happy. He thinks I did quite well with the price too. I've done about 300kms myself in it over the weekend and it really is a lovely car.

OP, others will rightfully tell you to try and have an expert look at any car before parting with your money. I would agree. However, in this instance and for the money I was spending (within €3k) I was more than happy to shake hands on a purchase after driving and viewing the car myself, and getting answers from the seller.

He was using it as a second car for a growing family, and now it was time to get something bigger. The ten year old car had genuine low mileage and two owners from new. He told me this, and so did a car check which was well worth the few quid. It came with two keys, some tax, a year's NCT and I got it for about 9% less than the price listed in the advert.

TL:DR - Done Deal is worth the time and perseverance. Be wary of wheeler-dealers who may be selling decent cars (or may not), it can just be very hard to tie them down to a meeting.

Private sellers can be bargained with. If you are meeting them, do it in a place they can be found should you need to go looking for them. Ideally their home, but in my case I was more than happy to meet at their place of work which was a Garda station. Not everyone will have that option, just don't meet in a LIDL carpark or somewhere random.

My post is long, but is for immersion purposes to give you the feeling of what it was like for me sourcing a car on DD :pac: However, considering the outcome, I wouldn't hesitate to use Done Deal again for buying a car in future. DD or not, finding a new car is something which should take a bit of time and research, that wasn't DD's fault. Good luck OP.