Selling my Volvo! But buying another!!
 

Well any of you reading here for a while may well recall I was having a fair bit of grief with my s40 T4 and there are still a number of other expensive things that need doing.

For one reason and another, it turns out that I am now faced with the situation of not having any money available for the forseeable. The upshot is, I've decided to "cut my losses" and get rid of the car, and buy a cheaper one.

In fact, as it turned out, it seems I've been duped when buying the car. I was a bit desperate when I bought it (because of the problems with the previous one I put a deposit down on - this is all documented in now ancient posts!). Anyway I didn't do any checks, because the car was "RAC inspected" and as the selling dealership kept telling me, "why bother doing any of your own stuff, the RAC have already inspected it".

Why indeed, given the RAC's "10 million point check", or whatever, would have covered it. However, discovered some small print the other day. The RAC inspection was nothing more than a "visual and external" check: i.e probably some bloke looked round the car and said "errr, it's a volvo mate and it's got 4 wheels"!!! Yes, I might as well have turned up wearing a blindfold and bought it! You don't need an honours degree in ethics to work out that the garage was being rather less than honest with what they told me.

So, the car will be going. But I don't feel I can be dishonest enough to flog it to some private punter, and I don't want the hassle, so I'm going to flog it to some dealership and just pretend all the losses never happened. What I need right now is dosh in my pocket, and selling the car will give me that.

But I have to confess I really do like the S40 T4, and I now know lots about them, so I have decided that my "older, cheaper" car is going to be.... another S40 T4!!!!

There's another advantage in this. I can keep all the "upgrade" type bits I've fitted to mine, like the air filter, locking wheel nuts & mats, and also swap any (compatible) bits which might be dodgy on any new purchase. I'm sure that the trade-in value will not suffer as much as I would be able to knock off for any knackered bits on a new (to me) car. So, I will use my credit card to buy a "new" car, swap any bits quick smart and then flog mine.

And this, in fact, is what is happening! "Stage 1" is now complete. I have agreed an offer for a blue 1999 S40 T4 (late phase 1 type), which has done 126k miles. It has even less 'extras' than mine, i.e no half leather seats, but that's ok. Apart from a couple of expected scrathes and things like worn interior buttons, the only things wrong seem to be the (dreaded) rear suspension top and bottom links on one side (they creak), and the brake fluid is v. dark so needs a change (no bits of seal etc. in it though!). There are signs of a little oil around the back of the sump (sump liquid gasket failing I guess) and under the clutch (but - totally unlike my current volvo shed! - clutch feels smooth, no slip or judder). It's had 1 owner from new, serviced with volvo main dealer up to 70k and then local independant volvo specialist from then on. We factored the worn suspension etc. problems into the agreed price, and after getting the money together I'm going back there early next week to hand over the bank draft. To be honest, I think that perhaps this high mileage option could have its advantages. Anything likely to go wrong and drop off is, in my opinion and experience, going to happen between about 70k and 100k miles (i.e it'll last past the warranty period but then go wrong). After that, either stuff ain't faulty but will just wear, or some other poor s*d has had to spend a fortune getting it fixed, so you won't have to!

Incidentally, it is time to name and shame the dealer who sold me my current S40. They are called Richardson's of Hampshire, this is their website: http://www.richardsonsofhampshire.co.uk. They are very close to the A3 just a bit north of Portsmouth. If you are down that way then my advice to you is to steer clear of their gaff.... unless you fancy chucking a brick through their window on my behalf, not that I'm condoning violence or vandalism or anything of course, but they do have a very nice red ferrari inside their showroom which would look 'interesting' with a splash of yellow paint all over it ;)

Thanks for reading,
Pete

Hi,

Lets hope you have better luck with this "new" car than you had with the other...

A ferrari and an astra in the same showroom? Who are they kidding?!?

Des. . . ;)

shocking!

Check the Volvo? out in the animated bit towards the top of the front page.
It is a Volvo? And the mistake is.....?

Tsk...

Good luck with your new car mate.

The grill badge is wrong.Bob

Is this odd?
 

Cheers all for the comments.

But it's one thing after another with me! Now there is an "issue" buying the "new" car!

The seller seems to be either a very distrusting person, or just plain odd, or something a bit dodgy is going on. Yesterday we agreed on a price, and today I contacted (text messaged) him to tell him I was about to order a bank draft.

He replied and said his bank told him to get the draft paid in before releasing the car.

I thought he was just one of those people who don't understand bank drafts, so in the end I got cash (just over £2,000) and replied to tell him I'd now got it in cash.

But he then said he STILL wants to get the money to his bank before accepting it, so they can "validate" it and because he "doesn't like to carry that amount of money around on him".

I replied and told him that would be ok, but we would then have to do the deal in the bank and hand over the keys there and then. I told him I'll ring him later to discuss further (haven't done that yet).

So what is it with this guy?! He seems to be very distrusting, but expects me to happily give him the cash BEFORE he gives me the car!!!

Do you think he is just a bit odd? I've been to his house a couple of times, he seemed a fairly normal bloke although wouldn't let me out of his sight when I inspected the car.

Other possibilities I thought of are that he wants to pull out of the deal for some reason, and thinks by messing me around I'll give up on it (after we agreed a price, I gave him £100 cheque as a refundable holding deposit).

Or could he be trying to pull a fast one somehow - trying to get his hands on my dosh before giving me the car and then running off, I dunno?!!

He has now got me feeling that I can't trust him, and that he's going to try something on. Not good feeling!

Anyway if he is around tomorrow, I am going to suggest:
- we meet at a bank in the morning
- I make the sure the car is there
- then the moment he hands the cash to the cashier he gives me both keys.

My Dad is coming along to give me a lift down there, so at least there'll be some 'backup'. I presume this seller won't have a gang of heavies waiting to mug me the moment I turn up - he seems quite a timid guy! - but his behaviour to me is really odd so I'm just not sure what's going to occur!

But do people think I actually have anything to worry about? Comments / opinions would be very helpful.

Thanks,
Pete

Probably been reading too many scare stories about dodgy bank drafts and counterfeit bank notes - both exist but very few people ever get given them. Some people are naturally suspicious..........

I considered the same course of action with my car but persevered and now it's running fine, though I know that the next service is not going to be anywhere near 12 months after the last one - my August work schedule will mean 3000 business miles - at this rate I might make christmas before the cambelt change!

Talking of suspicious - I'll never trust another FSH again................

Yeah, hopefully that's all it is. He does seem pretty inexperienced when it comes to buying and selling cars.

I rang him and said I didn't mind doing the deal in a bank, and he should bring the car and documents etc. I'm still pretty peeved at the way he expects me to trust him, by giving him the money to pay in and THEN we go back to his house to complete the paperwork / get car, but he won't trust me by believing if I give him a job lot of pieces of paper featuring the queen's head and the number fifty on them, then I haven't just made them earlier in the day!

I think if there are any more daft suggestions from him, I will just ask him bluntly if he actually wants to sell me the car or not and point out that I have gone out of my way to facilitate his daft requests and that I've reached my limit of stupidity. The worst that will happen is he loses out on the chance to flog his motor - for me, there are always more cars out there (in fact, there was another one in this week's auto trader that I was also interested in).

But hopefully it will all go silky smooth; I shall report back tomorrow.

Pete

In all fairness to the seller, there are many new laws around money laundering, and his mank would have to be suspicious of anyone bring large amounts of cash into an account, especially if it is not a business account.
Also there is the risk of counterfeit currency which he may not have been happy with.
Unfortunately, we live in an age where cash is not the ideal way to pay for something large and expensive.
Good luck with the new car, when you finally get it.

It may be of some comfort to know that when I recently purchased a selected one year old S40 from the local main Volvo dealer they would only accept payment by debit card (which is an immediate transaction). They would not accept a bankers draft unless it was cleared before release of the car to me. Nor would they accept credit card.

Exact same experience...
 

I agreed the purchase of my V40 and when I contact the seller the day before exchange to get the a meeting time he told me that I couldn't have the car unless it was cash despite not even listing it as a payment option.

We discussed it on the phone for a 1/2 hour that night! I offered to show the original paperwork from the bank, copies of photo identification and even to escort him to the bank so they could verify that it was a "genuine" bank draft.

The end result is a trip to my bank the next day to tell them the story and they were OK with returning the funds to my account and clearing it. I was pretty p!ssed at the time, as the seller had advised that only personal cheques would need time to clear.

The bloke was sound in the end and I am very happy with the car. My parting advice was that he should make his payment terms clear. Frustrating at the time.