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Keen buyers of Porsche 911, Boxster, Cayenne & 944 / 968 in all their various guises.

Where have all the decent 993 coupes gone? Currently very short on stock of these.

You would be amazed at the number of times we get asked the question, "do you buy cars as well as sell them." Of course we do, it`s either that or steal them!    We work in one of two ways, we buy outright (our preferred method), or we can sell the car on your behalf. 

There is a lot to read here, put the kettle on and settle down if nothing else it might save you from being the victim of crime.

 Ultimately yes, we want to persuade you to sell us your car and as such there will be those who accuse us of scare mongering. We have learnt some of this page from bitter experience, the rest we know because we`ve met victims from each of the other scams .

Now a lot of people have an aversion to selling their car to a dealer, and to be honest when you see the way most dealers work we`re not surprised. A lot of dealers spend their time telling you why your car is no good or "wrong" and why they shouldn`t buy it before patronising you with an offer. We are looking for reasons to buy your car from you rather than reasons not to buy it.  The main problem people have selling to a dealer is they are convinced their car will make more money on a private sale. Certainly you do see cars advertised privately for good money. Whether they make it or not is a different matter entirely. We purchase a lot cars from owners who have had them sitting in the papers waiting for a private buyer to no avail. 

Consider this - did you buy your car privately or from a trade source ? The vast majority of buyers want some form of assurance that they won`t get duped when buying their Porsche so they play safe and buy through the trade. The people who will buy privately are generally looking for a bargain, and a good bargain at that. So to sell privately the car will have to be priced less than the dealer would ask, and not just by a couple of hundred quid either!

Private sale

Let's assume you decide to pop the old girl in the Bognor Regis & District Evening News. What could possibly go wrong. Sadly car crime is a soft and very profitable alternative to robbing banks or peddling drugs, both of which attract very hefty prison sentences. Your average car criminal in the unlikely event of his getting caught, (the old bill have far more politically hot potatoes to investigate), is likely to get a very severe telling off, maybe even a few hours weeding the local village roundabout, they certainly won't be getting 15-20 years.

How on earth could anyone prise your beloved car from the vice like grip of your clammy hands? Well actually quite easily. Let us call our nasty criminal / car thief / "car buyer," Bob.  

Scam 1.  Were Bob a simple man he would simply arrange to view your car then listen intently as you described in detail the high security Überguard 9000 and Sattrack 750 locating device fitted to you motor. He would listen as you demonstrated that "secret" switch you fitted to fool the would be car thief. He would cast his eye around your lovely home as he slurped his cup of tea casing up the joint. He would then pop back that night and pinch it, he might even help himself to the rest of your biscuit tin just for good measure.

Scam 2.  Very similar to scam 1 only this time Bob doesn't show up to view the car as arranged. Luckily he knows where you and the car live so turns up at 3 in the morning to help himself. This is really handy when Bob is stealing to order, (essential if you're planning to ring a car), and it saves him masses of leg work trying to find a specific motor in blue with black leather and a sunroof. 

scam 3.  Were Bob a violent man he would simply invite you to step out of your car during the test drive allowing him to scoot away with your car. A nice touch here is for Bob to use violent means in persuading you. Bob knows where you live so go steady when you're describing him to the Law. A funny ending to this little scam is that your insurance company might argue you gave the keys away and refuse to pay out, though this is less likely if Bob has hospitalised you, so every cloud has a silver lining !

Scam 4.  This time Bob is a really nice bloke, he looks round your car, listens intently as you describe in detail the love you've bestowed upon it. He`s got a couple of others to see but thanks you for you time and promises to call you later. The next day Bob describes a couple of monsters he went to see after leaving you, their owners having totally neglected them. He now wishes to proceed with the purchase. A lovely touch here is for Bob to get the car inspected - totally throws you and puts you off guard - after all no criminal would get the AA out to check a car before they nick it would they !  Collection day arrives and Bob tips up with his bankers draft or other monetary offering then drives away in your car. Three days later the bank calls you up to let you know Bob's payment was hooky, (see method 2`s ending re: the insurance company's response). Another slightly annoying ending here is that if Bob has sold your car and the buyer bought it in good faith for market value, ( after all it had just been inspected by the AA !), you may well have the pleasure of seeing "your" car driving around and there is nothing you can do.

scam 5.   A peach - Bob not only gets your car but also covers his expenses as well ! Very similar to scam 4 only when Bob tips up with the payment the draft is for too much money, (an error at the bank, you know the sort of thing). Not a problem, you give Bob the difference and away he goes. Way-hey, your motor and some folding for a good celebratory night out. 

Assuming Bob doesn't pay you a visit you will still have to sit by the phone waiting for the calls. You will also have to prepare yourself for the fact that not everyone who makes an appointment to see the car shows up as arranged. If they do turn up then you'll have all the fun of a test drive to look forward to, (fingers crossed they're insured - virtually all full comp insurance only cover the driver third party in someone else's vehicle, it won't cover damage to your car). You will also find out that people can be incredibly rude and ignorant when looking at second hand cars. They can also be amazingly naive in their expectations for a given budget / age of car. 

Selling to a dealer

All right so you're not going to risk it in the small ad`s, you're going to play safe and sell to a dealer, that way nothing will go wrong. Seemingly one of the best options when dealing with the trade is to let them sell your car for you. They will shelter you from the risks and because they don't have to pay for your car they can work for a pittance and make sure you come out of the deal quids in. Every one's a winner. Be warned, the following happens - we haven't made it up. This time we'll call the dealer John. Honest John to his mates - his word is his bond !

John promises you the earth, he's got a man hot to trot on just your type of car, so confident is he that he hardly wants any wages off you for selling it, "there's so much commission coming from the finance company on this one mate I don't need your money". Sadly John's man comes to nothing but no worries, John will soldier on regardless trying to sell your car for you. It can go one of several ways from here :

1. You get bored and want the car back, it hasn't sold and you might have someone interested in it yourself or you simply want the car back to use. John breaks some bad news to you. He has incurred costs on your behalf trying to sell the car and you need to settle them before you can have the car back. Around £1,500 seems a favourite figure. 

2. You get bored waiting for it to sell and in desperation take John's bid, (or possibly John's "best bid I could get in the trade"), to buy the car outright. The sad thing is you were bid more as an outright purchase elsewhere when John first took the car 6 months ago but time has moved on and they no longer value the car.

3. John vanishes - once again, as with most deception ploys you gave the keys and or documents away so kiss goodbye to any help from the insurance company.

4. John sells the car but uses the money to make a quick turn, he gets one car out of sync, (ie he needs to sell someone else's car to pay you out), then two cars then three and so on until finally the walls come tumbling in and he goes bankrupt. See 3. re: the insurance.

5. Much the same as 4. only in this case John really is a cracking bloke who is trying hard to run an honest business, unfortunately costs are mounting up and our John is struggling to make ends meet, (possibly why he couldn't afford to buy the car outright in the first place). Eventually it all goes pear shaped and the bailiffs move in. Once the dust has settled it turns out he sold your car  2 months ago and the money  has gone.

 According to Glass`s Guide the trade valuation bible as of September `06 so far this year 161 motor traders had declared themselves insolvent. If your car was with one of those dealers and they sold it before paying you you would have lost the car and all chances of your money back.

6. You get your car back following it's failure to sell but strange things seem to be going on with the oily bits. Are you sure it's still got the same engine in it John, and was that rip in the driver's seat and / or crease in the front wing there when I dropped it off to you ?  There appear to be betting slips from the greyhound track and a pair of ladies knickers in the car, I do hope John hasn't been using  your car to smoke round in !

And so the list goes on. It's a hard world out there and our own view is that if a car is worth buying or is good enough value that it will find a new home and earn the dealer a crust then any trader worth his salt should be able to buy it outright from you. Surely if they really do own that lovely showroom then there must be enough in the pot to pay for some cars to fill it. If they are telling you they've already got a load of something in stock but will take your car sale or return what chance has your car got of selling ahead of their own stock that once sold will replenish their coffers.

There is an exception when sale or return can and that's when your car is a real odd-ball that is impossible to value. As a dealer we will fear the worst when guessing it's selling price prior to buying it in. Once we own it we will have a go at selling it for it's upper potential value and it might just make it. A typical example of this might be an older car that has been put away as an "investment" and never been used or a model where very few examples were made and possibly one has never previously come onto the market.

If you are interested in selling us your car then a few golden rules!!!

We simply can not value something we haven't seen accurately. If you are comparing dealer's bids then beware, many offer prices they know in their hearts will never be achieved as a hook, only to pick thousands of pounds worth of "faults" when you get there. There are a myriad of excuses you can use why a car why it isn't worth anything like the figure you quoted on the phone once you actually get to see it. There are also a lot of dealers who are giving you the price they think they can return on a sale or return basis. Sadly this turns out to be, at best an empty promise, at worst a hook to get you to sign up for their "selling program."  Sit down and decide how much you want for your car, that way whilst we can't value something we haven't seen we will have an idea whether or not it's worth arranging to see the vehicle. 

When deciding how much you want be sensible. You are selling to a dealer. When trying to gauge values don't just pick the 3 most expensive cars, as a buyer you would look at the cheapest cars on offer to gauge values. If you have spent loads of money on the car it probably doesn't add much value, at best it may be an inducement to purchase for the next owner but all cars are different (hence why we can't value something we haven`t seen). Finally do have a quick look at the stock page, you would be amazed how many people phone wanting more for their car than we have got the same thing advertised at !!!

To take things further

Call us on the phone, don't email photos, we know what the cars look like and we can't tell if the car is good bad or indifferent from the number on the speedometer !! 

We're easy to deal with and a lot of the people we buy off later go on to become good customers purchasing from us later on. We do sadly have to earn a living but want to part on good terms so you recommend us to others !

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