Careful - my old car

[SimonsMerc]

I wasn't sure where to put this, mods please move if there is a more appropriate section.

A friend of mine gave me a call today saying that they'd seen my old car on Autotrader. I took a look and found it...and I'm quite amazed at some of the lies in the ad. For example:

1 Owner previous - this is a lie, I explained to the dealer that it was bought used from a company in Croydon and had previously been a company car. I am listed on the V5 logbook as the second owner, the first is a leasing company. And yet the dealer lists it as a "1 owner car"

We sold this car new in 2000 and 2004 - no, they didn't. This is an out and out lie.

Single older chap - what? I'm Married, and 36!

no kids - we have three children. We've had this car since before the twins (now 7) were born.

The chap has now bought another Mercedes from us - no, I bought a Land Rover Discovery, and traded in the Merc, to a different dealer not these guys.

Delivered new car to Wembley-drove this vehicle back - another lie: I drove the car to the dealer and left it there as part exchange

No rust - while it's certainly better than some W210's, it certainly does have some rust - they all do. I documented this in my for sale thread.

How terribly frustrating. While I still think it's a good car, I'd recommend forum users think very carefully before buying it from a dealer willing to lie like this!

For the record: I actually traded the Merc in to a different dealer, not the one that's lying in the advert. The dealer I traded to from said he was going to pass the car on to a friend of his - although I've had various problems with the Discovery and wouldn't be surprised to find a closer link. I don't want to name the dealer I bought from at this time, because they are trying to resolve some of the problems (after I explained exactly what rights the Sale of Goods act gives me with a three year old car).

Here is the autotrader advert: 2000 Mercedes-Benz E Class E320 CDi Elegance 5dr Tip Auto Diesel Estate 3.2

Here is my original thread: http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/clas...w210-e320cdi-seven-seater-real-forum-car.html

By the way, the trade-in I got was £2000, plus a further £500 towards a better warranty (mechanical breakdown insurance) on my new car. I think the £500 cost the dealer nothing (it was a negotiating gambit more than anything else - it had value to me). So if anyone *does* want to buy from such a dishonest dealer, hopefully that knowledge will help you negotiate down.

If the new owner ends up on MBClub - welcome, the car's great but I wouldn't be trusting that dealer again

-simon

 

[brucemillar]

Sadly this is all too common. Athur Daley types with absolutely no humor. The cheeky chappy flogging motors "would you buy a second hand car from this guy - nudge nudge, wink wink" image stilll prevails. It is not funny when you are on the receiving end of these lies.

I have fallen from the "I bought the car of her she is a grreat customer of ours" We sold her a new car in PX on this.

When I contacted the previous owner it was a bloke who had never heard of the dealer. Not only that he lived several hundred miles away. The car had been passed through the trade.

 

[mb320cdi]

Honest car dealers are as scarse as hens teeth, as past 2 vechiles I've bought from private sellers.

 

[W2--]

Can we have an honest/ dishonest dealers tread?

But seems now a days, people believe lies and buys into it, and won't believe a good honest dealer (just because it's too good to be true).

 

[neilz]

I recommend you link the seller to this page!

 

[MOCAŠ]

Well done for spotting and posting about this.

1 Owner previous - this is a lie, I explained to the dealer that it was bought used from a company in Croydon and had previously been a company car. I am listed on the V5 logbook as the second owner, the first is a leasing company. And yet the dealer lists it as a "1 owner car"

This is an all-too-common ploy by used car dealers. They justify it by saying that they were referring to the fact that the V5C shows one previous owner (to the one that had it at the time it was traded in) but they know that most people will take it to mean that the car has only had one owner - and probably won't check until after the deal has been done.

 

[trapperjohn]

Thank you very much for all the info.

True forum spirit shown here.

 

[artyman]

A dealer telling lies, who would have thought

 

[nullogik]

He's a used car dealer what do you expect!

 

[wemorgan]

Are you a Doctor or Dentist? - amazing how many cars for sale have them as a previous owner - even more amazing that some people care.

 

[Deleted member 11979]

Are you a Doctor or Dentist? - amazing how many cars for sale have them as a previous owner - even more amazing that some people care.

My wife is a doctor, a horrendous driver that can scuff all four wheels in one go and never cleans the interior out! Our kids have kicked the air vents off in the back of her 4 month old golf and stained the seats with food, mud, fruit shoots and who knows what. I would go out of my way not to buy a car from my wife or any of her colleagues - not one of them has the slightest interest in cars and treat them as such.

 

[mct_cars]

Report it to trading standards - just send them what you wrote above. Like every other trade there are food and bad sellers. Lying however is misrepresenting fact and could be a very serious offence.

Saying that, he's not asking a fortune for your old car. I'd not be suprised if the dealer and this one are connected, there's a lot more money to be made out of a three year old car - break even on the PX and the dealer will be quids in.

 

[John]

My wife is a doctor, a horrendous driver that can scuff all four wheels in one go and never cleans the interior out! Our kids have kicked the air vents off in the back of her 4 month old golf and stained the seats with food, mud, fruit shoots and who knows what. I would go out of my way not to buy a car from my wife or any of her colleagues - not one of them has the slightest interest in cars and treat them as such.

To be fair, I think we'd all avoid cars that looked like they were in this condition...

When we traded our Jazz, I noticed in the subequent advert for it that it suddenly had an alarm fitted, even though it only ever had an immobiliser, and the mileage started at what it was on (early 80s) and then conveniently dropped just below 80k. That latter fraud meant I doubt they'd bothered to have an alarm installed in the interim.

I've known the odd good one...

 

[robgosty]

I always know when traders are lying, their lips are moving

 

[neilrr]

Honest car dealers are as scarse as hens teeth, as past 2 vechiles I've bought from private sellers.

In my experience private sellers are, on the whole, worse than dealers.

 

[SimonsMerc]

My wife is a doctor, a horrendous driver that can scuff all four wheels in one go and never cleans the interior out! Our kids have kicked the air vents off in the back of her 4 month old golf and stained the seats with food, mud, fruit shoots and who knows what. I would go out of my way not to buy a car from my wife or any of her colleagues - not one of them has the slightest interest in cars and treat them as such.

Ironically enough, my wife is also a doctor . She's a good driver (I taught her), but she doesn't have time to tidy up the interior more than once a year, and if the car gets to a car wash once a quarter that's above average. We have three kids, and they can make a mess of *anything* (we always have black leather because anything else gets destroyed in months!). Before selling the car, we had it properly cleaned and valeted - we had to, else no-one would have touched it with a barge pole...

 

[Deleted member 37751]

I always know when traders are lying, their lips are moving

I've been on both sides of the fence (I trade commercial vehicles now) and I can certainly tell you that punters are worse liars than traders.

I describe all my vans to the best of my knowledge, I used to be a tradesman, so I know how important it is to keep on the road or you can't earn.

The amount of part exchanges that I get in where the buyer will look me in the eyes and tell me that there's nothing wrong with it when there is, is unbelievable.

Like the man who didn't tell me about the SAM that cost me £250, or the bloke that didn't tell me about the head gasket on its way out on an Astravan (I found out through a mechanic friend that he'd took it into a garage who diagnosed this fault yet he went on to part ex it in to me)

The list is endless...

 

[John]

The bottom line is there are turdy unscupulous twuntards in all walks of life.

The fact they walk amongst us means you end up meeting them sooner or later for whatever reason e.g. they part ex something duff to you or work in your local MB dealer in the "customer" "service" department or they end up as your local MP.

 

[TDE1]

Great thread, SimonsMerc. Hope a prospective buyer stumbles across this and uses it to their advantage.

 

[SimonsMerc]

Well, it's vanished. Looks like it sold. Hope the new owner makes it here!