Its starting to bug me now, saw this nice forged sti forsale, I popped a bid on waiting for auction to end.

Then ad disappeared. Now its been relisted for a lot more by a dealer who's not a dealer, these people do my head in, selling loads of cars under a normal account, not registered as a dealer

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1998-SUBAR...3D111595343895

 

Never sell to a dealer, never buy from a dealer. Those be my motos

 

Only bought once of a car dealer that turned out find, 2nd time bought a car for my mum and it was a nightmare

 

Never had a problem buying privately, only ever had a problem when I was ripped off by 'Scoobybits' that crook in Cornwall. A car full of problems and made up history.

 

I don't play first dibs either, but I do tell them that on the phone, first one here with the money takes it, can't be arsed with time wasters, if it goes before someone else can get there then I would at least give them a call to tell them it's gone.

Tuff titty, been messed around by too many people in the past, money talks bullsh!t walks.

 

I do first dibs and all way have , some times you get ****ed around , but if the cars a good one it will sell

had my type r up 6 months , was ****ed around twice , lowered the price as I seen a car I wanted , got ****ed around two more times
, put the price up as wasnt botherd if it sold
one viewing and sold at the higher price :-)

like the t20 iv just sold got it stupidly cheap
stuck it up at 11k with in twenty mins 7 messages
with in 25 mins deposit payed , and picked up next day :-)

stu

 

A fool and his money are easily parted .......

 

It's happened to me again!

Car came up for sale and I agreed to pay the seller the full asking price pending viewing. He was out of the country, so we had an agreement to meet the day he was back.

I get a phone call two days later saying that a keen buyer has offered MORE than asking, is willing to pay a deposit immediately, and would I match? I replied absolutely not - we had a deal.

Lo and behold, car has appeared in the classifieds with a certain Cheshire dealer with a £4k markup.

Beware folks - C Performance is now gazumping private buyers.

 

I dont understand if a dealer was willing to pay MORE than the asking price why couldn't / wouldn't you. OK I understand you had a deal with the seller however the trader as you mention has put a £4k mark up so either he is asking stupid money for the car OR the car was cheap to begin with and possibly worth paying a little more for..??

Raf

 

It's like we live in a capitalist society or something

 

Call me old-fashioned, but I believe a deal is a deal. We had an agreement and I would have been there to do the deal right away if the seller had not been out of the country. The seller did not ask for a deposit - in hindsight my mistake was not offering one right away.

If the tables had been turned and I were the seller and the buyer was offering 100% of my asking price, I would have honoured the deal. Also, while I appreciate that this does not necessarily apply to others, I personally would rather sell directly to another enthusiast. It's my Subaru, not a fridge, and I want it to go to another enthusiast like me, not to a dealer and certainly not one whose trading practices have been called into question more than once on this forum and others.

Read my original post in this thread. I am not disputing dealers' right to do business in this way. I certainly don't think that they are necessarily pricing cars at market value on the basis that the likes of C Performance have a warehouse of dozens of cars, many of which have been sitting unsold for months and in some cases years. I do think it's a pity that they are making things difficult for private buyers, and am merely sharing my experiences so that others may take note.

 

just stop looking and buy my spec c
job done ;-)

 

Right.

If you're interested in a car, leave a deposit on the phone and go view it, it doesn't have to be huge, but £100 or so goes a long way to showing some sort of commitment. If you're not willing to leave anything at all then i too would just ignore you to be fair, if you turn up you turn up, if you dont' you don't, but i wouldn't be holding the car for you.

Hhaving bought and sold 17 cars in 3 years, i know the amount of ********* there are around with no intention of buying and have nothing better to do with their time than go testing cars they don't have the money for.

If you're hoping you can phone someone and say "i'm interested, i'll come check it out" and expect them to honour the word of a stranger they don't know from adam, and not sell the car to a potential buyer in the meantime, then you're going to be continually pissed off because it's going to take a fool to do that. If a buyer is there with money, they will take it.

Like the car? Deposit, go, pay & drive away.

It's that simple.

 

Yep, lesson learned - pay a deposit up front although that then transfers risk to the buyer in case the car is not as described.

However, read my post again for the mitigating circumstances. The seller was out of the country. We agreed that I would show up the day he was back. I even offered to come right away as the seller indicated a family member was able to show the car, but we agreed on this plan which the seller subsequently backed out of.

 

Thanks but not for a £1.5k markup after two weeks of ownership

 

I understand your point / frustration I am merely stating it must have been a cheap car for the trader to offer MORE than the asking price as that rarely occurs!

On a forum you will have half a chance of buying / selling to enthusiasts, out in the open your average Joe that has an Impreza and advertises on PH / Ebay etc and isnt aware / joined on forums he wouldn't be bothered who buys the car - Private or dealer, they just want a sale.

A deposit is a good idea however I dont think a £100 deposit would hold much value to someone that has been offered maybe £500-£1000 more than they had a car advertised for. You would probably get your £100 back and an extra £100 for getting pi55ed about and the seller is still getting more than the car was advertised for!

Eitherway goodluck in your search.

Raef

 

Rather £1500 profit to a member than £4k to dubious dealer :-)

 

1.5k is cheaper than the traders
and least you know if a deal is done it's a done deal ;-)

iv spent money on the car , and prept it so it's looking nice and fresh
so a 1.5k mark up turns in to 6/700 as my time ain't free

good job you didn't buy my type 20 as that was a 100% mark up ;-)

 

I think the original asking price was fair, but the price being asked by C Performance is far too high. I will be interested to observe how long it stays in stock.

The car was advertised on this forum. In fact it wasn't even formally advertised - the seller posted up "I may be selling" and I responded immediately, followed shortly by C Performance.

 

That is a bit of a bummer then tbh...!!

 

What happens when noone buys from clives performance or cheshire performance... Eventually they will run out of money, claim bankruptcy and have loads of cars they cant sell! They cant just go round buying all the imprezas worth buying... It will screw them up in the end !

 

The problem is, they DO sell them. And will continue to do so. Not everyone searches google about a dealer, is a member of a specialist forum like this, or in some instances, even care what they read.

Unfortunately, che****e performance will continue to sell their cars.

 

Well heres hoping their bad name keeps spreading to the point they are widely known as dodgy traders. OR they quickly turn themselves around and try become a sensible well respected trader such as Hurst Cars.
Why wouldnt you want a good name?

 

So Clives Performance are members on here? Really?

 

The dealers may mark the price up £2-3k.

But I would never dream of buying a car from a dealer at the window price. I may be repeating my comments on other threads, but there are dozens of free car valuation websites out there ( www.autotrader.co.uk/car-valuation , www.glass.co.uk , www.parkers.co.uk/cars/prices/used/ , www.whatcar.com/valuations ).

Put the reg numbers in and they will give you a good idea of how much the trader has paid if they got it at trade price or from a private sale. It will also show you what price you can expect to pay at a dealer.

No, they won't sell it to you for what they paid. That wouldn't be good business practice. But if you have an idea what they paid and can meet them somewhere in the middle, you're doing ok.

I find it annoying, same as you. Only way to get the bargains before the dealers if you're interested in a particular model is to contact someone with the car you want before they consider selling it. Let them know you'd be interested in buying it. You never know.

 

Thought I'd revive this thread to add a note that after six months the car I was gazumped on is still advertised for sale at the same dealer. Along with many others, some of which have been on sale for even longer.

Interesting business model - tying up capital in cars that languish unsold in a warehouse for months or even years. Can't help wondering if it's a front of some kind.

 

Like the WR1 that's for sale in KT Green for £18k?

 

Hopefully it stays that way and prices come down. There's plenty more being imported with better spec and cheaper.

 

I've just looked at that. It's a minter to be fair. 12k on the clock and it looks like it rolled out the factory yesterday. I would say 18k isn't that far off the mark really, especially from a main dealer.

 

The WR1 is gorgeous, but 2 owners. Some might not like that for that sort of money.