Thought I would share this story of a dodgyregistered usedcar sales yard I encountered yesturday.
A mate brought a cheapy car on TM by hitting by now.Discription and new WOF seemed good and feedback not that bad.We go up to Auckland to pick it up and are greeted by the Indian mechanic who asks "is this the car we wanted!are we sure! are you sure it wasnt the other one like this! My mate says no this is definitely the one in the auction.So we start looking it over and find a leaking near empty power steering reserviour mor body damage than in the pics,and the vehicle id tag bent at the top and bottom like its been pulled off at some stage.
Thinking its a cheap car and all we take it for a test drive after meeting the cars sales owner,car seem great mechanically apart from the leaking PS fluid.But still find it dodgy that the car had a new WOF.Looking over the car I found a current WOF check sheet with all the fails on it from VTNZ that the previous owner had got a few weeks ago.Every fail on the car had not been fixed apart from a new muffler that got fixed the day before we got there,as we were to pick it the day earlier but the salesman had "found that it had to have a new muffler".
Yet the car had a new WOF but still had cracked tail light,2 reflectors missing,water in one indicator,leaking oil and PS fluid and a bad wheel bearing that had been listed on the fails.The new WOF on the car was from another WOF check place.
Obviously my mate didnt buy it.And we are picking that there was another wagon that they did an id swap on to get the WOF,and that is why the "mechanic" was confused as to what wagon was really for sale.
bex25388,
Aug 29, 4:43pm
Cool story but i have one important question, where are the dragons and sword fighting!
supernova2,
Aug 29, 4:45pm
So report the WOF place to NZTA.If its that bad they should have their authority revoked.A WOF is a saftey inspection after all.
lordv81,
Aug 29, 5:04pm
They can be written into the story if you need!Or would you like fairies and unicorns!
lordv81,
Aug 29, 5:09pm
This only happened yesturday so my mate may follow up on it,but was happy just to not have to buy it after the seller agreed that the sale didnt need to go through.If the WOF was off an identical car then it was a genuine WOF but just not to that car.I said the place should be reported to MTA or who ever deals with that.Kaz would know.
studio1,
Aug 29, 5:19pm
Mate, Auckland is full of dodgy automotive outfits. Dozens of spare parts places all run by Indians and other people not of NZ origin. I'm not racist - just saying how it is. If you look at various car parts auctions on here, same scenario.
I bought some parts for my car off TM a couple of years ago and I had to go to a place in Henderson to pick them up. It was pretty obvious they'd just rented a warehouse and filled it with cars (where from I have no idea) and were stripping them all for parts. The two guys I first saw could not speak English at all, the next guy didn't seem interested in helping me, and the last guy pointed at where the car was and gestured that I needed to remove them myself.
In terms of your experience it doesn't surprise me at all. I think they get away with a lot of things using the supposed 'language barrier'. It's funny how they say "I no understand" yet you can tell they know English very well. Most of the time they don't know what's going on, the guy who does the TM sales probably works there part time and doesn't communicate with the others. I have noticed whenever I've been to these outfits to buy stuff there is always a lot of talking going on about the situation in a foreign language, some of it quite animated.
As for the dodgy WOF, report it, as suggested above.
lordv81,
Aug 29, 5:32pm
This guy was a white NZer who spoke great english infact he had the slimeball gift of the gab.This place was in Onehunga!230 Neilson street.Looking on google its been a car yard or you sell etc for a long time.Now its crammed full of rough cars and light commercials.
kazbanz,
Aug 29, 5:34pm
Hmm hang on guys . The OP is suggesting a "new" twist on the old story here. What ITHINK he is implying/saying is that the sales crowdswapped Rego plates and vin tag
jcwholesale,
Aug 29, 6:21pm
BUT, the VIN number tag on a Commodore is under the windscreen on the left hand lower corner and without removing the windscreen it can't be tampered with. Did you bother to check that!
lordv81,
Aug 29, 6:39pm
Yep after owning dozens of commodores I did BOTHER to check that,it didnt "look" like it was tampered with or the windscreen removed but did look very shiny and clean,and they can be removed without taken the windscreen out.Just as camaro ones can.
phillip.weston,
Aug 29, 6:41pm
that username is very familiar - he's been selling dodgy cars for a while. He had a previously de-reg Corolla wagon advertised as having low kms, but once you carjammed it, it was obvious it had done much more kms as reported. His pictures are always over-exposed and the colours super-exaggerated. I am sure that we had also previously exposed him to be shill bidding too.
lordv81,
Aug 29, 6:54pm
Thats one thing we couldnt get over was the paint jobs looked good in the pics of the cars he was selling,but when we looked at them in the yard they looked like utter crap.He is opposite Waikeraka[sp] park so uses the features of the park to also enhance the cars.The cars in the yard are parked/packed almost door to door and looks more like a wreckers or repo yard than an actual car yard.
bitsy_boffin,
Aug 29, 7:39pm
So, are you saying that the faults that VTNZ failed it on, are all still there, or that they have been fixed!Not very clear from your description.
lordv81,
Aug 29, 8:49pm
Yep the VTNZ listed faults are still there.Even the broken muffler was still there after the purchase but was fixed a day after the auction was won. The VTNZ found these faults on the 3rd of August 1-cracked rear tail lamp 2-l/f wheel bearing play 3-l/f indicator fail {its half full of water] 4-l/r reflector missing 5-p/steering fluid leak 6-engine oil leak 7-muffler/exhaust leak -fail Either the car was given a WOF by a dodgy place after going to VTNZ or another car was taken in its place with this cars id.Im thinking the later after the mechanic asking if this car was the one mate were buying and not the other commodore wagon.
hopie,
Aug 29, 8:58pm
should have taken the other commodore wagon then lol
lordv81,
Aug 29, 9:09pm
Hhaha yea probly was quite a good one,but the mechanic wasnt sure where it had gone.but he was sure that the one we were looking at cant be the one we were there to pick up lol.
tgray,
Aug 29, 11:48pm
Some of the things listed would not automatically fail a WOF. Just curious, were all the items you mentioned actual failed items or were some of them listed as cautions!
horsygirl,
Aug 29, 11:57pm
Trade Me is full of shonky traders.with red faces on feedback.
thejazzpianoma,
Aug 30, 12:07am
I wonder what happens if you do a full carjam report. If the tags were swopped the km's recorded would likely be wrong would they not!
lordv81,
Aug 30, 12:17am
Pretty sure all of them were on the list as fail from the VTNZ.In the pics on the auction you can just see the WOF check sheet on the floor at the rear under the drivers seat.The previous owner must have taken it through then thought it too much to do and sold it to this car dealer.
lordv81,
Aug 30, 12:19am
Thats true.If there is any WOF guys on here they could also check the fail items as they would be listed on the computer wouldnt they!
kcc55a,
Aug 30, 4:12am
Fancy buying a cheapie off TM by hitting Buy Now when you havent even seen it.
lordv81,
Aug 30, 4:59am
I have brought more than 20 cars sight unseen the latest was saturday,and I have sold probly twice that amount to people who havnt viewed first.One buyer was in Antartica and quite a few in the south island,so its quite common as far as Im concerned.My mate thought the car would be reasonable seeing as it was a registered motor vehicle dealer selling it,but I guess that dont mean much these days.
ema1,
Aug 30, 5:16am
The last 4 cars I have bought have been sight unseen off trade Me auctions and I have never had one single problem with any of them .Perhaps I've been lucky, I don't know.
therafter1,
Aug 30, 5:22am
You don't need any WOF guy's to be here, you can check it yourself.
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