Thetownend.com

I'm looking to buy a quality second hand estate - BMW, Merc etc.

Logged on to Auto Trader and came upon a site called Bucks Motors in High Wycombe.

There are a number of ads, each with a different personal email to contact if interested.

Well who wouldn't be when a low mileage 2008 BMW 320 is up for less than 2 grand.

All these ads are selling quality, low mileage cars for less than 2 grand.

Trying to think what the scam could be. All cars have their plates displayed, so am able to check

Does sound a wee bit "too good to be true" - surely should be closer to £4k than £2k.

Probably those cars aren't really available but because they are so cheap they go to first in the list when you are searching.

I know someone who thought they bought a caravan on autotader and lost £10,000, went on their website and clicked on a link (the caravan that is selling) displaying the company website. Phoned a number agreed the price and then decided to buy before actually seeing the caravan.
No address, and £10,000 out of pocket.

Be careful.

Be careful, or just use common sense.

Yeah common sense,

But it's easy for someone to get excited by a deal and make a rash decision.

im looking at you paolo

Gypos in my humble opinion.

Anyone who buys anything like a car or caravan without viewing is insane. Ebay is usually where the shit cars and caravans are sold due to cheap listings. Autotrader tends to be better but as always there are dodgy cunts using it,just not as many as Ebay.

When I advertised my car on there last year I found plenty of dodgy cunts trying to buy it!!  All asking me to confirm condition and mileage, then agreeing my price and asking me to forward my bank details so they could transfer the money in to my bank account and their agent would contact me to collect the car!!  I didn't even answer after the third one, and that cunt came back and said all seemed good, give me your bank details etc.  Be careful out there!!

And make sure if they are cheap they aren't insurance category write-offs, or at least know what you are buying if they are.

To be honest too cheap to be true, different email addresses, I think that would put me off enough to look no further.

I logged back on and, surprise surprise, all the cars I had been looking at were no longer advertised.

I'm off to Calne tomorrow to buy a BMW 520 estate

Very strange. The cars which all disappeared from Bucks Motors yesterday have now all reappeared on a website for Popeswood Garage in Binfield.

The 2 websites are visually different but the text used is exactly the same on both.

Neither sites actually had any cars for sale - just the ones with individual emails to contact if interested

Stinks for sure

These two websites look VERY VERY similar to me:

http://www.bucks-motors.co.uk/
http://www.popeswoodgarage.co.uk/

Could have co-incidentally used the same tool to create the sites I suppose. Both sites have been registered for a few years, but that doesn't make them genuine. They could have been hacked too I suppose.

Anyway, if it looks look poop, smells like poop it probably is poop.

The latter is a real garage, not very big mind.  You can see it on street view.  From their forecourt, more likely to find a 6 year old Corsa.

Kerry Red, you might be doing everybody a favour by reporting the facts to Auto Trader!!

if its too good to be true, then it probably is.

What would we do without you?

Autotrader get paid per ad, why would they give a fuck

Fair play!

I have had some dealings with the former.  Not enough dealings to be able to comment on whether they are legit or crooked mind.

Here's an email I got in response to an enquiry about one of the cars

Hi!
 
I still got the 2007 Audi A3 SE 1.9 TDI for sale at the price of £ 1800. The car is in excellent condition, garage kept, accident free and low mileage. We live in the Northern part of Scotland, in a beautiful sea-side town called Durness.
We are a nice couple of pensioners (I am 64 and my beloved wife is 63 years old) and don't use the car so often. Also we sold our properties and bought a nice farm here in Durness. If you are really interested we will be happy to meet you in person in a suitable place for both. You can take the car for a test-drive and any kind of inspection are welcomed.
Please let me know where are you based because I am sure that we can find a nice city in England to arrange a meeting.

The main reason for this sacrifice is that I have to pay urgently the notice of a final deposit for a new boat or I will lose £11500.

Cracker, eh!!!
 
Thank you and let me know,

Jake Abbott
   

Yeah right, meet me in a lay-by on the A643, you can trust me Guv, I'm old, retired and therefore trustworthy. Honest.

Am I being thick? You see a car advertised, you call to see if it's still for sale. You arrange to view it, you can pay to get a report on it, you check all the documents are there, you can even get a recognised body to check it's roadworthy. If it's a heap of shit or owned by a lease company then you walk away.

A too cheap to be true car car that was seemingly advertised by two different fairly local garages, but that had personal email contact details and is now claimed to be in Scotland...

Erm, surely that sets some alarm bells ringing.

This is because they will kindly agree to meet you half way to save you travelling all the way to Scotland to view the car... Or even arrange to have it delivered to you on a 'if you don't like it you can return it' basis - once of course you have transferred your money via western union...

A garage would take it off their hands and sell for a profit if they really wanted.

I pretty sure you're steering well clear by now KR. I can't help wondering if either of those garages even knows they're "selling" those cars just to make the ad sound a little more creditable.