Even car buyers are now trying to swindle things with a cunning trick

Shady car buyers, they exist too

You hear enough about car salesmen trying to fake things, but it also happens the other way around. The Belgian Nieuwsblad writes about a trick that apparently is becoming more common. The purchasing party secretly sabotages the car during a test drive in order to negotiate a lot about the price.

A Belgian entrepreneur put his Mercedes Vito up for sale. A potential buyer wanted to buy the car sight unseen and even paid a deposit. When picking up the Vito, the buyer still wanted to take it for a test drive. The seller knew no better than that his Vito was technically in perfect order, but the buyer had suddenly spotted a problem.

The buyer showed under the hood that there is oil in the expansion tank. With a healthy engine there is no oil in the coolant (or vice versa). Repairing these types of defects is very expensive. The buyer still wanted to take the car, but some had to be deducted from the price to pay for the repairs.

10,000 euros off the asking price

'A discussion then arose and there were also threats because I allegedly wanted to sell a car that was technically not in order and that I had tried to conceal the problem. Ultimately, after a long discussion, I gave in and knocked about 10,000 euros off the price," says the selling party.

Only a day later - at the insistence of an employee - did the entrepreneur check the camera images. It showed how the buyer poured a bottle of oil into the expansion tank. Most likely the buyer removed the oil shortly after the purchase, otherwise the buyer really has a broken van.

The entrepreneur went to the police, but they give him little chance of getting money back. The police advise never allowing unknown people to take a test drive alone. So preferably ride along when they go around the block; advice that already applied before buyers poured oil into the coolant.

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