History Repeats Itself...

[E55BOF]

You would not be selling me a car! I want to buy a car.... not join the secret service. No way I'd put up with all that nonsense!
You can't live your life assuming everyone is a villain.... because 99 percent aren't. That just makes the world more "terrible".

I suspect you (or I...) would not be likely buyers for a car that would justify that level of caution. It rather depends on what the car is, surely? If it is the current hot surefire magnet for thieves, possibly including violent robbers, or very desirable and expensive, those precautions don't seem all that much OTT.

 

[ALFAitalia]

I used to have nearly new cars and always had brand new bikes (I might do now if they weren't all crap!!).......you (well at least I) cant live life like everyone is out to get you. You will worry yourself to an early grave like that. Live life....and deal with it if something bad does actually happen. Most guys stealing your car wont ever be known to you...it will be taken from your drive or a public carpark without you ever seeing them.

 

[E55BOF]

It's the attraction of the car for thieves that matters. ISTR that not so long ago, it was almost impossible to insure Range Rovers in London except at exorbitant cost, because so many were being stolen. If you had had a Range Rover then, and it wasn't parked on the street, would you have wanted to advertise to a person or persons unknown that there was a Range Rover in your garage?

 

[ALFAitalia]

Fair point....but RRs were being stolen because it is so easy to do....literally a child with a laptop could do it...the ALFA Giulia had the same weakness. So basically any car is a target....it does not even need to be high value. Older cars were being stolen around here to go to Poland for spares.....they found about 50 of them hidden in farmland locally.

 

[HappytalkAgain]

We sold our 2017 C Class estate last month. Advertised on AT. a few time water enquires via email that never got back to me. Got a phone call on the Saturday, the lad turned up with his dad on the Sunday, I left them to look around it in the garage then took them for a drive. I got full asking price (he initially affected me £1£ below asking price but I told him I’d wait to see if there was other enquiries) and had a cuppa in our kitchen while we did the deal. They paid £1k deposit and collected the car on the Tuesday.

Ok it wasn’t a performance model but still a hassle free sale. Maybe I was lucky.

 

[SpikyMikey]

We sold our 2017 C Class estate last month. Advertised on AT. a few time water enquires via email that never got back to me. Got a phone call on the Saturday, the lad turned up with his dad on the Sunday, I left them to look around it in the garage then took them for a drive. I got full asking price (he initially affected me £1£ below asking price but I told him I’d wait to see if there was other enquiries) and had a cuppa in our kitchen while we did the deal. They paid £1k deposit and collected the car on the Tuesday.

Ok it wasn’t a performance model but still a hassle free sale. Maybe I was lucky.

I guess for every 1 sale that involves a scammer there's 1000's that go perfectly smoothly. It's just unfortunate that the scammers appear to be on the up.

 

[E55BOF]

Other than the three scammers this time and the one with the ML420 four or five years ago, I've never had a problem either.

 

[MCFastybloke]

You would not be selling me a car! I want to buy a car.... not join the secret service. No way I'd put up with all that nonsense!
You can't live your life assuming everyone is a villain.... because 99 percent aren't. That just makes the world more "terrible".

Fair enough, they had a choice too, i know some well dodgy folk, some truly horrible folk, a scrapman with half his ear missing from a fight over some copper bus bars among others. It just colours your view on life.

 

[Will]

It's the attraction of the car for thieves that matters. ISTR that not so long ago, it was almost impossible to insure Range Rovers in London except at exorbitant cost, because so many were being stolen. If you had had a Range Rover then, and it wasn't parked on the street, would you have wanted to advertise to a person or persons unknown that there was a Range Rover in your garage?

Why wouldn’t anyone bother to try and steal a Range Rover from a garage (and leave a trace of contact details in the process of enquiring) when you can literally find them every couple of minutes parked in residential streets or driveways all over the place?

That’s the attraction of modern keyless car theft - easy pickings and no break in required. Taken in the early hours with no trace once the vehicle has vanished

 

[Will]

We sold our 2017 C Class estate last month. Advertised on AT. a few time water enquires via email that never got back to me. Got a phone call on the Saturday, the lad turned up with his dad on the Sunday, I left them to look around it in the garage then took them for a drive. I got full asking price (he initially affected me £1£ below asking price but I told him I’d wait to see if there was other enquiries) and had a cuppa in our kitchen while we did the deal. They paid £1k deposit and collected the car on the Tuesday.

Ok it wasn’t a performance model but still a hassle free sale. Maybe I was lucky.

Sounds like a genuine car, genuine people and a genuine hassle free sale

 

[Will]

I sold a car, fast desirable, met the buyers at the local motorway services, in the wrong vehicle, observed there arrival. Walked out to meet, checked photo ID before proceeding, this was prearranged, Had them open all doors on the Range rover to ensure it was only the two of them. Only then did i allow a follow to my home. No test drive till they had paid in full but i did offer to drive till they had had enough. Its a terrible world we live in.

Tbh if I owned/was selling something that high value or high risk, I’d move it on through a dealer - and if I was a buyer I’d be more creeped out than reassured by that level or interrogation.