A fair share of my stock comes from privates. Sooner or later I suppose I was bound to find one.
Done all the usual Hpi checks, car was MOT’d 3 weeks ago. The seller sounded on the border of being iffy but I didn’t let my prejudice get the better of me despite him being named after a particular god. Not Jesus Christ.
He picks me up from the station (not in the car I was interested in at my request as it’s a diesel and I want to see/hear a cold start) we chat, he’s an accountant, baby on the way.
We arrive at the car, I check the oil cap, coolant, all fine. He starts it, no smoke, sounds a little on the rough side but it’s a 83,000 mile diesel, it won’t ever sound like a Prius on startup.
I check the nearside front tyre. Slick. The opposite. Slick. I ask him if the tyres have been changed, as there’s no way that it passed an mot. He starts mumbling about the tyre place was supposed to do it, he didn’t take it for its mot, his friend did. I check the V5. Yellow slip missing, he says before i’ve had a chance to even look at it that he never got the name transferred to his name as he wasn’t planning to keep the car blah blah.
I tell him at this point, you’re a trader aren’t you. No no, why would i lie, if I were a trader I would have said so. I said ok, let me rephrase that. I’m a trader, so I know what time it is. Just tell me the truth, I ain’t buying the car from you so you may as well tell me but he still denies it, saying he’s not.
Luckily it’s only 3 hours of my life wasted but next time, I WILL let prejudice get in the way.