2nice4me

As the title says, trying to sell my car privately and was wondering whether it is acceptable/common to agree on selling price before going for test drive?

Carsy

First, I would like to ascertain that the buyer has the cash & is genuine ,not a tyre kicker !.

If I was the buyer, I would wish to test drive before agreeing on price.

The buyer, if he had any sense would then have an mechanical inspection done, inspect closely the maintenance schedule & receipts & if all was well, pay the money.

blue00r6

I wouldn't agree on a price until I had driven the car - it would be a bit of a red flag if the seller insisted on agreeing on a price before allowing the car to be driven

2nice4me

thx, I know that most people would want to drive it first. From my point of view, why test drive if you aren't willing to pay the price. Like Carsy said, trying to eliminate the tire kickers.

It's listed, lets see what response I get.

black lavender

I wouldn't be too concerned about tire kickers. It comes with the territory of selling a vehicle.

I'd be more concerned about having my vehicle stolen. YES, it has happened to people.

I would collect some sort of collateral from the buyer, and not the keys to his 1990 Honda.

Carsy

There is no way I would let any prospective buyer take my MB on his/her own. That would be high risk.

2nice4me

So I received this offer from the other side of the country and the buyer want to purchase it sight unseen? Paying via paypal isn't really safe is it? I mean paypal has the ability to reverse deposits right?

"Thanks for the swift response. I'm buying this car for Dad and very okay with the price. I'm an aerospace engineer and a very busy person , So due to the nature of my job and location, I will not be able to come for inspection but this is exactly what i want and i'm very okay with it without checking.

I will like to pay for this and as for the payment , I can only pay via the fastest and secure way to pay online which is PayPal here. I have a private courier agent that will come for the pick up after the payment have been made . So no shipping is included. The transfer of ownership and signing of all paperwork will be done by the courier services company agent that will show up at your place , So you don't have to worry about that.

You can now send me your PayPal email so i can pay in right away,Kindly include your address in your reply. If you don't have a paypal account, you can easily set up one...log on to www.paypal.com and sign up its very easy...I would have loved to talk to you on phone but i work mainly offshore,I saw the advert from work , our phone is down on the rig right now due to bad weather, that was why i sent you a text,I can only communicate through these mailing channel & i'm sure we'll have a good deal.

I await your reply asap."

2nice4me

Just googled this which sounds so familiar to the email I received....scam

https://www.paypal-community.com/t5/...language=en-gb

davesc300

I have sold many vehicles to private parties with never a problem.

Two stories: Sold a BMW 7 series(unique example) to a buyer in the Bahamas. Advertised it in BMW Roundel, mechanic from Fla inspected and approved, buyer fedex'd cashier check to MA, when check cleared, gave car and title to transporter and never heard from him again. Suppose henna red 735i with cloth interior is still running around Nassau.

No 2: My Acura NSX lease was coming to an end, advertised 3 yr old NSX with 7000 miles online. Buyer flew east, loved the car, advanced payment to Honda leasing for buyout ($43,000 plus another $5000 to me). I dropped off the car at the local Acura dealer. End of story.

ilovemaui1

I would accept paypal for the deposit but would insist on cash or bank transfer for the balance.

I have purchased and sold several cars sight unseen. Not that uncommon. Sometimes you roll the dice.

Carsy

Cash on the knocker when the car leaves. Make sure you are not liable for any accidents/incidents once the car is out of your hands.

Yidney

Even if I thought Paypal and a "courier agent" were fine, you can tell this guy is a scam just from the way he writes. A real person would just say "can I pay with Paypal?" not "I can only pay with fastest and secure....." Stuff like "& I'm sure we'll have a good deal" and "I can pay in right away" are also not the way people really talk. But what really made me laugh is that he is an aerospace engineer on some sort of offshore rig. Maybe they put the oil directly on rockets for delivery.

ilovemaui1

The aerospace engineer working offshore is definitely pretty funny. So, he's out in the middle of the ocean and he hones in on your Mercedes.

I would also view the details of the email like the ip address where it originated. My bet is somewhere near Nigeria.

I would play with the ****er and pretend like you're all in. Give him a fake paypal account and tell him you're having a little bit of trouble with it due to some indiscretions. Tell him you paid for some strippers and they stole some money from you but your brother is an FBI agent and he should have it straightened out soon. Just throw some crap at him and see how it goes. I've played this game with these guys in the past and it can be quite entertaining.

Critter

Do not reply to this message to buy a car for DAD, report this to the police department. If you go through with any of this most likely the car will be out of the country under false VIN and other papers in a shipping crate. Cash in hand and face to face is the only way and of course no test drives, you drive the car with him in the passenger seat, take a good friend with you. In this part of Ontario we had a murder when two guys showed up for a test drive, the owner was driving and was overpowered by the two guys and murdered, all for a Dodge pickup. trust no one and always have some friends around when dealing with strangers. I had a similar LIE sent to me when selling car on autotrader, almost word for word I liked to offshore quip and the bad weather comment, In this day and age Skype is always available to workers to keep in touch with family from anywhere in the world.
Report this A**HOLE TO THE POLICE.

ilovemaui1

The police are not going to do anything. There is no crime yet and they don't have the man power to chase Nigerians.

Critter

It is called FRAUD, and usually in cities the police have a Fraud squad, if this is not reported then there will be no resolve. What do you propose, sell the car find out there is no money then call a friend? Or if you are computer savvy or know a good hacker, send them a virus to shutdown their computer.

ilovemaui1

It isn't fraud just because someone offers to buy the car via paypal. Unless you have a lot of cops sitting around doing nothing, they aren't going to get involved just because you received an email offering to buy a car. I have friends that are cops and I can assure you they have better things to do. In fact I used to have a vacation rental and once had someone use a stolen credit card to rent the house. I called the cops while the person was in the house and they refused to get involved. I think you're dreaming if you think a local police department is going to expend man hours over an email offer to buy a car. Honestly what the hell are they going to do? All they will do, if anything, is tell you not to follow through. I certainly don't recommend following through with the deal, but I would lead the perps on just for the comedy value.

Critter

If you look under Pay pal rules they do not repay or refund any monies when dealing with any motorized vehicles, this is why the perp wants you to use pay pal. There are dozens of references to this same scam most with cars. As far as the credit card issue you had that is identity theft and if the cops would not respond you might want to leave Mayberry and move to a place with more than 30 people living there.

Baja1ab

Scam - 100%

ilovemaui1

Last time I checked the population was a little over 600,000. Maybe in Canada they have more cops per capita and would follow up. In the States it has been an ongoing issue with police departments not responding. They typically do not even respond for theft. They send you a form to fill out and they will get to when they can.

I'm not trying to give you a hard time, just stating the facts. Like I said earlier, I have friends that are cops and they would laugh if I reported an attempted email fraud. You nailed it though, there are millions of these email frauds and police department budgets force them to prioritize what they can respond to. They would much rather set up a speed trap and collect revenue.

vipsa

You're NOT going to sell a car by insisting on agreeing price prior to test drive. That's not only a HUGE red flag, but also not a legally binding contract. From a legal perspective you're not gaining anything, as the buyer can always change his OFFER after the test drive.

The same applies with the scammer. There's no fraud in them making a fraudulent OFFER. It will only be a legal matter if you did take the bait and were scammed out of the money/car. So please don't waste the police's time with this.

Also, flip the sides. When have you ever agreed a price on a car you bought prior to a test drive. And even if you preorder a new car you can always renegotiate the price upon delivery.

I've both bought and sold many cars over the years and it really is not that difficult to do.

C0d3Sp4c3

Hmmm...very interesting! I learned a lot from the link the OP posted.
Bottom line, it is a Scam. They don't need your car! You keep your car, period! They are victimizing gullible car sellers of at least $600 for shipping.
Looks like the scammer is responding to all the car for sale ads in the internet