Seen an ad for a car on the Auto Trader that seems to good to be true.
Response from seller is that car is on UK plates RHD
2 years old, but now in germany.
He says Car needs to registered in UK and just taxes associated with registering it in UK need to be paid. Also offering to ship and isure to UK and use autotrader and square trade PURCHASE PROTECTION & REFUND PLAN.
My head says walk away but we all like a bargain!
My main worry is that car is stolen, but if it is out of UK sysytem how can I check?
Would the autotrader and square trade PURCHASE PROTECTION & REFUND PLAN provide me any protection in this case?
Anybody out their seen this sort of possible con before or am I just to suspicious.
PS car is advertsied at around 1/4 of UK price.
MOTORMARK
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"PS car is advertsied at around 1/4 of UK price"
If it sounds too good to be true it almost certainly is.. Steer clear.
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If it needs registering in the UK, why is it currently on UK plates?
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You'll have to pay Road Tax and VAT. What % is that?
It may not meet UK specs? You may have to get it tested..
madf
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I don't know about walking away, I'd be running at a high rate of knots!!!
"needs to be registered in the UK" but "is on UK plates"?? that doesn't make any sense at all, unless I missed something?
"is a quarter of the UK price".....that'll be all he wants to get a plane ticket out of the country!
I'd be following head not heart on this one but that is just my opinion.................................
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Do you mind if I ask what the car is?
What is the car?
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Adam
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Is he in the armed forces? they get a massive discount off cars if they are posted in Germany, they keep them for a year or two then sell them on. My mate had some corking cars in the 3 years he was posted there.
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hi there,
I think I have uncoverec something.
Was looking at a golf gt tdi also at quarter of the price on autotrader, has similar number and ad to guy selling the M3,
snipurl.com/gpyi
look at the two golfs same pic similar description, both ver cheap, one a gti ones a gt tdi
snipurl.com/gpyk
also on this one the M3 is a similar style.
The mobile numbers are very similar?
whats going on? all german cars
{Links to the Autotrader website shortened with snipurl as were screwing up the pagewidth. DD}
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Probably advance fee fraud.
Pay for the car (or part) in the UK, get yourself to Germany, and find that there's no car and seller has disappeared and his pay as you go mobile chucked long ago.
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My cousin's based in Germany and gets some nice 3 Series but there's no way he gets them cheap enough to sell them at 1/4 price.
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Adam
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Did you also notice that all the cars around it in the pictures are american!!!! Looks like you could have some pretty heavey import costs??? Time to run and keep running.
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I remember reading a very similar sounding story a few mths ago about an Audi TT for sale in Italy (of course I can't find it now). From memory, it had allegedly been exported from UK to Italy and then its owner decided to stay there so was trying to sell it (very cheap!) on the basis that someone from UK would go and collect it. Turned out the car didn?t exist.
The clue again was that the price was ludicrously low.
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You'll probably find that some idiot goes & " buys it" though - a fool & his money !!
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Thanks to all who replied.
I had kind of convinced myself it was a con hence the title of the thread, but as I said I love a bargain and am always on look out for a good and or interesting buy.
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Go with your gut feeling.
In 1999, I saw an ad for an Alfa GTV 3.0 V6 24v with Aero pack. 1998 model, 11,000km in the clock.. LHD. UK price was IRO £32,000. I called and spoke to the guy, was in the forces. Asking price was £12,000. Too good to be true.
Three weeks later, he brought it over, it all checked out, and it was the fastest (but not best!) Alfa I ever owned.
Some cons were: LHD and dials in KM, but I really wanted one.
After actually talking to the guy and assessing his character, and speaking to the selling dealer (important!) did I go ahead. No dosh up front though. And, before the Interweb opened it's portals to various nefarious characters..
As always, Caveat Emptor.
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25% off an M3 would be too good to be true. 75% off is the stuff of imagination. You're either buyng an M3 that's too hot to handle, or one that deoesn't exist.
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One thing that occurs to me is that if I had a right hand drive M3 in Germany and wanted rid (and it was legitimate) I'd do one of three things:
1. Easiest option - flog it to a local trader but might only get £15k if I'm unlucky for a car that's £30k retail. Local trader then does option #2;
2. Next easiest option - pay for someone to ship it to a UK auction (e.g. TopCar at Blackbushe) and have it put through there. Even with minimal effort and knowledge I'd have £22.5k in my pocket, easily.
3. Put an ad in the Trader or wherever and see who bit. Expensive and time consuming - I've got to pay for the ad and handle the buyer and the shipping. Potentially also risky so there is no way I would even vaguely contemplate this until I'd worked out that 1. and 2. weren't enough cash for me. At £7,500 or whatever there is no way it could be in my own interest - I'd want at least the option #1 price above, which is probably what happened with that Alfa.
Therefore the car must be fictional or stolen. If there are US images being used then the odds shorten on fictional. Of course, by pricing it at 75% off you are increasing the number of potential purchasers who have the money, and the reward if by some miracle the car were genuine. In the unlikely event that the car does exist, what are the odds that the seller's associates will be back round shortly afterwards with a key?
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There has to be a Nigerian connection!!
There must be some way(trading standards?) that these people can be traced and brought to justice.
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Interestingly I have noticed a couple of silly low price 'buy it now' prices on flash cars on ebay recently - but the ones I saw had all had the auctions pulled - which suggests that something was up.
(eg boxster for 4K)
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