Does this look genuine?

thepharcyde

thepharcyde

thepharcyde

Soldato
Joined
17 Mar 2004
Posts
8,259
I have taken it upon myself to also look for a car to replace mine as the dealers frankly are hopeless.

I spotted this one on Autotrader which is still available. I have notified the dealers that I am interested. The dealers have called the owner who is a trader and requested the car reg. Guy gives a reg which was hand written for a X5. Dealer confused asked for the chassis number as the log book was not to hand would call back (currently where we are at). Either this is genuine what you recon, 13,995 seems very cheap or I am missing something

Opinions?

http://atsearch.autotrader.co.uk/www/CARS_popup.jsp?searchform=&modelexact=1&lid=search_used_cars_full&photo=1&state=block&sort=3&hassearched=Y&make=BMW&min_pr=13000&source=0&model=3%2BSERIES&max_pr=14000&miles=100&agerange=&mileage=&postcode=nw6+1pz&variant=330&bodyid=6&trim=sport&fuelid=0&colour=&transmissionid=0&keywords=&ukcarsearch_full.x=37&ukcarsearch_full.y=11&start=8&distance=34&adcategory=CARS&channel=CARS&id=200736294108551
 
check out the VIN and the reg, get on the phone to BMW. They should be able to tell you if its clocked. If it's genuine then buy it but take some beefy mates just in case of any nasty incidents.
 
btw it is curious that they are advertising as a private advertiser in the exchange and mart but claim to be dealers in other adverts!!
 
thepharcyde said:
BMW have already requested the VIN to be sure.
Click to expand...

You should really physically look at the plate to make sure they have not hacked something out and put a new one in its place!!! I smell a rat if you want my hunch. However....

I am always wary of dealers like this. Reason being I used to go to BCA auctions to look for my cars. I noticed the high mileage BMWs were going for sometimes well above trade value and wondered why this happened regularly. I then looked at autotrader in the following weeks for the same cars and found that they had been turned in to low mileage examples. Often they even claimed to have FSH. Anyone who tells you clocking doesn't happen in this day and age is sadly mistaken. Often now it seems cars are rolled back to 100-120k from 200k
 
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My other experience of cars that were advertised too cheap on autotrader is this..

Used to work for a guy who bought an Audi A4 Quattro. Paid about £12k for it. Book price was about £15k. Should have been a bargain. In the following year although the car had only done 60k he spent £5000 getting it repaired. Everything went wrong with it from wiring to random punctures, you name it, it broke. The dealer also said that the car appeared to be imported although nobody could be sure. :confused: The boss had figured that even if a few things went wrong, the saving he made would more than cover it. How wrong he was.. I think the final straw was the fuel pump dieing and he sold it in the end. God knows how and at what loss tho...
 
mattpc said:
I am always wary of dealers like this. Reason being I used to go to BCA auctions to look for my cars. I noticed the high mileage BMWs were going for sometimes well above trade value and wondered why this happened regularly. I then looked at autotrader in the following weeks for the same cars and found that they had been turned in to low mileage examples. Often they even claimed to have FSH. Anyone who tells you clocking doesn't happen in this day and age is sadly mistaken. Often now it seems cars are rolled back to 100-120k from 200k
Click to expand...

Bid on a 2001Y 530i Sport last year with 138k on it. Went for silly money in the end. Before bidding, I'd managed to build up the cars FBMWSH by calling BMW and various dealers to verify its mileage.

A month later, the same car appeared on Autotrader for £9k, with 80k on the clock.
 
My other story although at the other end of the market is a couple of years ago I bought a Pug 406 Estate 1.9TD on ebay. Supposedly 120k with FSH and all the old MOT's. I HPI'd it as a precaution even tho I'd only paid £2000 for it (this was a few years ago). Low and beyhold it had dealer service history past 180k. This was supposedly a main dealer sellling me this car and when I confronted him he was totally full of crap. I was livid and was going to report him but I was going on holiday the next day and decdied I wanted to have a nice time and not worry about that. Stay safe kids, always get your cars checked out properly however low or high the mileage is and whatever the price.
 
[TW]Fox;10033203 said:
Bid on a 2001Y 530i Sport last year with 138k on it. Went for silly money in the end. Before bidding, I'd managed to build up the cars FBMWSH by calling BMW and various dealers to verify its mileage.

A month later, the same car appeared on Autotrader for £9k, with 80k on the clock.
Click to expand...

:eek::eek::eek:

This type of thing worries me, sometimes you REALLY do have to do your research to make sure things are as they seem... You really shouldn't have to though :(
 
:)HPI check should bring up the discrepency since main dealer servicing shows up on an HPI check. (I am sure I will be corrected if I have not got this quite right)...
 
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