If you're selling a car (on ebay in this case) and an alleged would-be buyer asks (pretty early on in the auction) for the registration so they can do an HPI check, is there any good reason to withhold it? Can they do mischief if I give them the registration?
Well. If you start receiving speeding fines you'll have kept hold of his email address, I hope.
Vim Fuego ( snipped-for-privacy@fastmail.fm) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :
If you were to put a "For Sale" notice in the window of the car, would you put gaffer tape over the number plate?
Why not just walk down the road and make a note of a few registration numbers? - or next time you park in a car park?
You'd be surprised at the kind of money some students have to throw around.
The bloke who bought my Passat was a Chinese student at Pontypridd. Not a hugely expensive car (around £2k), but his girlfriend also had a fre grands worth of Passat as well.
Well, no, that thought did occur to me. But then it being for sale on eBay is not the same as being for sale at the roadside. Thinking about it, a good way to avoid speeding tickets would be: find a car identical to yours, get the registration, get plates made up (and I know at least one place that will make up plates without any documents or evidence of anything), attach plates, use public highway as racetrack while flicking the Vs at the cameras knowing that someone else will get the rap for it. So what's an easy way to fnd a car identical to yours? Ah. eBay. If you can find a mug who'll reveal the registration.
And it does seem a bit odd someone being prepared to shell out for an HPi check two days into a five-day auction. Especially when it's a luxury car and the would-be 'buyer' has a student email address at a polytechnic that likes to kid itself that it's a university. :-)
Vim Fuego ( snipped-for-privacy@fastmail.fm) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :
I can feel a "But..." coming on...
Ah, knew it.
Isn't it? Really? Why not...?
Is your car THAT unusual?
Besides - why's it need to be identical?
Mature student?
Besides, if you don't think he's likely to buy it, how come you think he's already got a hooky one that he wants to ring...?
Well, it isn't readily findable by anyone with internet access if it's just on my drive with a For Sale sign. See below.
Pretty much. Something you'd expect to see on the road once in a blue moon of normal driving.
Well, if I was going to pull a stunt like that, I'd prefer it to be identical.
I guess.
Could be blagging the number for a mate or maybe he's found some niche in supplying dodgy plates to someone. Seems far fetched but it's difficult to know these days.
Thinking about this, he may not even want to run a full HPI check at this stage - you can get a fair bit of information about a used car by looking at the RAC and DVLA sites.
Vim Fuego ( snipped-for-privacy@fastmail.fm) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :
You ain't going to sell it with marketing that s**te, then...
Go on, what is it...?
Yes, well, I think you may be missing the point there slightly...
Could be... Or could be interested in buying your car, but wants to make sure it's legit before he goes any further.
Your call.
In news:pOL1h.66158$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe2-gui.ntli.net, Vim Fuego wittered on forthwith;
Should you withhold it? No.
Do you cover the reg plates when you park to go shopping or in the work car park? Why not? If you're going to be that paranoid about your reg on ebay you may as well cover 'em when you park as well.
Not much point anyway. The majority of registration thefts are used to avoid paying for petrol and the scrotes nick the actual plates too.
Why?
Or just walk down any street or drive down any road.
--=20 Conor
I'm really a nice guy. If I had friends, they would tell you.
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