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.
History Repeats Itself...
- Thread starter E55BOF
- Start date
ALFAitalia
MB Enthusiast
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2022
- Messages
- 8,963
- Location
- Bognor Regis
- Car
- 2010 Mercedes W212 E Class E350 CDI Sport, 2006 Mercedes W169 A Class A170.
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.
Last edited:
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
MB Enthusiast
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2022
- Messages
- 8,963
- Location
- Bognor Regis
- Car
- 2010 Mercedes W212 E Class E350 CDI Sport, 2006 Mercedes W169 A Class A170.
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.
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.
Ok it wasn’t a performance model but still a hassle free sale. Maybe I was lucky.
SpikyMikey
MB Enthusiast
- Joined
- Nov 4, 2020
- Messages
- 9,163
- Location
- The Sunny South Coast
- Car
- BMW F31 330i LCI M Sport Shadow Edition AMG Black Series Touring
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.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.
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
MB Enthusiast
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.
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
Sounds like a genuine car, genuine people and a genuine hassle free saleWe 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.
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.
Had a scammer a few years back when selling my daughter's first car - a 51 plate VW Polo 1.4 automatic , which she'd had for 3 or 4 years and generally been happy with - hence she'd upgraded to a 15 Plate Polo , which she still has .
Anyway , the car being sold was not pristine , but a fairly tidy used car , which we'd bought for £900 after haggling a little from the asking price of £950 . Over the years it had a new battery , a couple of tyres , and recently before selling two front springs ( one had broken and the other looked very rusty , ready to go , so I replaced both ) , brake pads , a washer bottle as the original one had started leaking , middle and rear exhaust sections ; knowing the car was going to be sold these were all 'budget' priced parts from eurocarparts , but still new parts nonetheless . I had also previously bought her a Sony CD radio to replace the original Blaupunkt cassette radio which had come with the car , and was still in the boot . We left the Sony in the car to help sell it as her new car came with an integrated system , to which I added the Garmin Sat-Nav module .
Before advertising , I'd looked at WBAC and Parkers , as well as similar cars advertised for sale . most of which were manual , the autos seemed to command a slight premium . There was one for sale at £1500 , another at £1300 , WBAC were offering £1000 , can't remember what Parkers said .
Anyway , I pitched it at £1250 , cheaper than the two other ones for sale locally , but still expecting to be haggled . A guy phoned up saying he was looking for a small automatic car for his sister ; turned up the next day , short test drive and commented one back brake seemed to be binding and might need a new caliper ; I had watched him keeping his left foot on the brake during the test drive ; he didn't know I'd just fitted the pads and knew the brakes were fine , but he was playing a game . I told him I knew a replacement caliper was about £10 or £15 but that he'd need to pay someone to fit it , so I said I'd give him £50 off , and we shook hands . I got what I expected for the car , my bottom line would have been £1K , and he felt he'd scored something .
My daughter was happy with the money towards her new car , which at the time she'd just paid about seven grand for - a one owner car from the VW dealership , with full VWSH , a service plan included , and IIRC 26K on the clock , we also felt we'd dodged a bullet because after a bit of research we found that the auto version of the Up! , which she'd fancied , had a bad rep , but the Polo had the DSG box which was solid , and 5 or 6 years on the car has been virtually faultless , now paid off and she remains happy with it .
Anyway , the car being sold was not pristine , but a fairly tidy used car , which we'd bought for £900 after haggling a little from the asking price of £950 . Over the years it had a new battery , a couple of tyres , and recently before selling two front springs ( one had broken and the other looked very rusty , ready to go , so I replaced both ) , brake pads , a washer bottle as the original one had started leaking , middle and rear exhaust sections ; knowing the car was going to be sold these were all 'budget' priced parts from eurocarparts , but still new parts nonetheless . I had also previously bought her a Sony CD radio to replace the original Blaupunkt cassette radio which had come with the car , and was still in the boot . We left the Sony in the car to help sell it as her new car came with an integrated system , to which I added the Garmin Sat-Nav module .
Before advertising , I'd looked at WBAC and Parkers , as well as similar cars advertised for sale . most of which were manual , the autos seemed to command a slight premium . There was one for sale at £1500 , another at £1300 , WBAC were offering £1000 , can't remember what Parkers said .
Anyway , I pitched it at £1250 , cheaper than the two other ones for sale locally , but still expecting to be haggled . A guy phoned up saying he was looking for a small automatic car for his sister ; turned up the next day , short test drive and commented one back brake seemed to be binding and might need a new caliper ; I had watched him keeping his left foot on the brake during the test drive ; he didn't know I'd just fitted the pads and knew the brakes were fine , but he was playing a game . I told him I knew a replacement caliper was about £10 or £15 but that he'd need to pay someone to fit it , so I said I'd give him £50 off , and we shook hands . I got what I expected for the car , my bottom line would have been £1K , and he felt he'd scored something .
My daughter was happy with the money towards her new car , which at the time she'd just paid about seven grand for - a one owner car from the VW dealership , with full VWSH , a service plan included , and IIRC 26K on the clock , we also felt we'd dodged a bullet because after a bit of research we found that the auto version of the Up! , which she'd fancied , had a bad rep , but the Polo had the DSG box which was solid , and 5 or 6 years on the car has been virtually faultless , now paid off and she remains happy with it .
Last edited:
Actually, I strongly suspect the two I had were Romanians, not Roma/gypsies; certainly Eastern Europeans.
Here we go again... I've put the CLK up for sale on Gumtree. I won't be saying anything in the ad to put off would-be oil-in-coolant scammers, though; let them have a wasted journey to find out that they won't get a chance to do it... 
