Buying a bmw beware!!!

[anile8-zn]

so , last week a spotted a black 2002 m coupe in the autotrader.
phoned up and asked the salesman to take a few pics
turns out its a SCHNITZER, e46m3 engine smiling back at me:excited:

on thursday i booked my tickets to collect the car today.

on friday morning i requested as a matter of formality to be told if the car is stolen and recovered or a code 3.

i was sent the natis and a transunion check .
all checks out fine.........
until i spot the colour despriction that transunion captured when the car was sold.
Oxford green:hammerhead:


so i call up my buddy at bmw and he confirms that yes the car was sold as an oxford green schnitzer!!!
he gives me the first owners details and i give the guy a call.

he says to me "yes the car was oxford green and i wrote it off in 2006":cursin::cursin:

WTF
he says the insurance paid him out and that was the last he saw of it.

obviously i cancelled the deal !!!
but hell the car was repainted black even with bmw colour codes on it
was very disheartening to say the least.

i thought i had found a clean car with on 63k mileage

this was from vw benoni a unitrans dealer.

so guys be careful , i only managed to pick this up at the very last minute .

 

[Sankekur]

Glad that you found out before you spent any money.

 

[Dr Evil]

Yoh, you vrek lucky, how much did they want for it if I may ask?

 

[Clownshoe]

Did you happen to get the vin number before the deal was cancelled?

 

[anile8-zn]

180k
i have the vin , the natis , and transunion docs

 

[Clownshoe]

Please post VIN here so in future people can track the car.

 

[anile8-zn]

Vin: WBSCN92040LC69001

as u wish

 

[Spy007]

CPA. got to love it

 

[Coisman]

imp:
"Skiet die bliksems!!!!"

 

[Twinz]

Unbelievable...damn... you prevented a mess of a story if this deal had gone through.

 

[Philip Foglar]

CPA. got to love it

Was going to say, wouldn't the consumer protection act cover one from this to an extent?

 

[Beast_Power]

CPA. got to love it

Was going to say, wouldn't the consumer protection act cover one from this to an extent?

Would be a sticky one, as the Dealer selling the car would not know if it was written of, as it was not registered as a Code 3.

What happens is, the car get's bought up be a third party from the insurance before deregistration takes place. The 3rd Party then fixes the vehicle and just does transfer of ownership, thus car is not Code 3. 3rd Party then sells the car and most probably has gone though a few owners before landing up at the current dealer, who is none the wiser (So you can not disclose what you do not know).

 

[Sith]

Unbelievable! So some poor sod out there is driving my totalled M5...and I am probably driving someone else's totalled M5 :dropjaw:

 

[i8am3]

Brand new cars FTW...LOL...I knew someone who went through the same ordeal, luckily he got his money back from the stealership...

 

[XMAX]

This was a tough situation.

Sorry you missed out on your Schnitzer. But not sorry that you missed out on a lemon.


Sometimes a write off is a more a technical issue than a physical damage issue. There may have been a little structural damage, but with the possibility of airbag deployment, it would easily become a write off.


This situation is a bit weird though. to do a total respray, the car was probably quite badly damaged.


@I8am3 - Brand new cars are nice. But I have personally seen brand new cars that have fallen off a delivery truck and was sent in for repair. The new owner would never have known.

Just have to be extra cautious when buying a second hand car. Do all the research. Check with the insurance companies (a fair amount of them are linked as they fit under a big umbrella like dial direct and auto & general and can give you a decent amount of information about the cars claims history), and of course the BMW Vin Check.

 

[Ricky318i]

Vin: WBSCN92040LC69001

as u wish

That car is production year 09/2000. Not 2002 as advertised. (according to the VIN)

 

[anile8-zn]

Well there u go , from bad to worse
also i have never seen an oxford green schnitzer , although the original owner says it was :thinker:

 

[SDP]

Could have been british racing green which sounds worse

 

[AshG108]

Thanks anile8. buying second hand is damn scary!

 

[zaleonardz]

Beast is 100% correct, you would have to prove that the dealer knew the car was a write off before hand.

The insurance companies however can make this so easy, simply give us access to their database of cars covered,