Buying a car, owner out of the country. Scam ?

Has the guy admitted that he is a dealer? Lots of one-man-bands don't want to advertise that they are dealers as there could be recourse if things were to go wrong post-sale.

Also, guy is a dealer who is out of the country. His mate is showing the car. Cash sale. Presumably no receipt.

That would be more than enough red flags for me to keep walking.

I had one of my mates sell a few cars for me while I was away travelling for a couple of months. None of the cars were registered in my mates name. As long as the logbook matches the car you are good to go IMO. Logbook name is pretty much irrelevant.

There are enough legitimate cars for sale best to avoid

I think it kind of depends on the source of the cars. I import over 90% of my cars, so its not like I’m taking a car off the market and reselling it for a higher price. I’m adding cars to the marke that weren’t previously available. Same with lads buying trade ins from auctions and local dealers. These are trade cars which wouldn’t have been accessible by the public anyway.

But there are a lot of lads who are constantly refreshing Donedeal buying from private sellers and flipping for a profit. I even notice it when I am trying to buy cars. Its mostly just part time dealers selling cars.

I bought my current car 4 years ago from a private seller with a sob story about his father that gave me the keys with dealer tags and a receipt 😂 it was cheap so I didn't ask questions

It's the trying to avoid the legal protection that you get from buying from a dealer that's the problem with people flipping cars, you are in the trade so should be standing over your product not pretending to be a private seller.

As for them buying up cars that wouldn't be available to the public. The only cars that aren't available to the public are the ones going to Authorized Vehicle End of Life facilities, every other car traded in is available to the public. All the part time trader does is remove the rights of the buyers by pretending to be a private seller. It's easy to make money when you are ignoring the law.

I usually sell cars in the €7k to €13k price range and I always price them at least €2k below dealers. I know consumer law states that this is a disguised business sale and I should be giving warranty etc etc but I think what I do is fair enough considering I sell the cars for a price that is in line with private sellers who obviously do not provide warranty.

I disagree that all cars are available to the public tho. Main dealers will not sell most of their trade ins to the public, a lot of smaller dealers will not sell their trade ins to the public either, car auctions are designed for the motor trade although they do allow private bidders. And for the likes of me importing cars these are new to the market and wouldn’t have been purchased by private buyers either

Personally I am happy to tell anyone that I sell cars. I have never lied to someone about that and feel like its much better to be honest from the start. Meet them at my home address, have all the cars registered to me etc etc