How do you actually buy a private car

Hi everyone not sure if this fits in to the 996 section but I'm trying to buy a 996tt so it sort of makes sense. My question is to all those that have bought from a private seller:how do you actually exchange the money and once you have the keys and V5c is the car as good as yours. I've only ever bought one car (my first one a £500 clio) from a private seller but with the much larger sums involved here I obviously don't want to be going anywhere with 5 figures in cash and a bank transfer feels like it could take all day to go through. Thanks all for your help any insight would be great.

A bank transfer is almost instant and you just check their/your money has been deposited into the bank account and then the car is yours to drive away. Letting your bank know in advance will help the transaction go through due to all sorts of fraud checks nowadays.

AND check what's your daily limit. I had a nasty surprise when buying my car, apparently my account wasn't allowed to send more than 10k a day! it was a fun afternoon that's for sure...

I know how you feel, from the age of 20 I had company vans and then cars. Once I progressed I got a good £500 a month car allowance and I purchased a car on PCP. Still no large out lay of cash. It wasn't until the age of 43 I actually parted with a large sum of monies in one go, although mine was to an auction house buying a known lemon. At some point you have to take that leap of faith. You won't regret it, hopefully, I've loved every minute in the last 18 months. As above via bank transfer.

Thanks guys. I'll try and check my limit. So you just did a normal 'faster payments' bank transfer nothing fancy like a CHAPS transfer? I just had a bad experience when putting down the deposit for my flat faster payments took a whole day as it can sometimes..

I've bought a few cars in the UK and I have done it via bank transfer from Ireland. With prior notice the money can be moved in a few hours. When I had my engine rebuild done in Hartech I used my online REVOLUT account Which is UK based and the money was in their account in an hour. I couldn't believe it. And for that transaction I executed it from the app on my phone so no bank involved per say. I have sold cars into Europe from Ireland and I have used bank transfer. You just need to be sure you know that you are transferring it into a real account. When I am selling a car I always provide passport ID to the buyer when they are prepared to pay a deposit and I ask them for ID too. When I am buying I always ask for ID and proof of ownership and do a search on google maps to see if I can see the car at the address. Never do the transaction at a third party location. Do it at the address the car is registered too where possible. Always draft up a Transaction receipt with both parties details and the details about the car e.g. silver 996 TT chassis number, ref number, both parties passport number and photocopy the V5 and attach it. This is good for both buyer and seller and if the seller doesn't want to do this, there is something dodgey. You need to do your due diligence. Do a finance check - it will cost £30 but it is worth it. Get a PPI done. There are plenty of scams out there. If the seller is in any way cagey, be careful. Most honest sellers will be transparent. Best of luck

Not necessarily - just having your name (or theirs) on the logbook does not confirm legal ownership of the car. I'm sure you've got it covered but just in case you've overlooked it - get the car fully HPI'd. If there's outstanding finance then you'll want to get confirmation from the finance company that it's been settled before paying the seller (or you may be able to settle directly with them and pay the seller any balance owed - get the agreement in writing BEFORE parting with any money though, otherwise you're basically paying off their finance for them). Although as a private sale you'll have little to no recourse in the event of an issue or failure you should still always get a signed receipt (contract) showing the consideration paid for the item purchased and the names of both parties (however this will mean nothing in the event that there is outstanding finance as the item was not the seller's property to sell). And it's always worth checking the seller's id and that it matches the name and address on the V5 - loads of traders are advertising as private sellers (and thus avoiding their obligations as a dealer) with the old "oh I bought it for my wife but she doesn't like it so we didn't register it.." etc. On the whole, people are honest and it's a case of a seller wants to swap their car for your money and you want to swap your money for their car, BUT I'm cynical and have spent a career writing "glass half empty" contracts preparing for the worst. Sorry if I've stated the obvious at all. Good luck with your purchase and we look forward to hearing about and seeing your new car soon!

:agree: I'm just in the process of trying to do a deal with an Eastern European who I think is related to George Eaton :what: The metadata on the pics and video he sent me of the 'car' placed it over 1500 miles and in another country from where he said it was. Slowly, slowly, catchy monkey :hand:

Hi Internet bank transfers can be very quick. Especially if it is the same bank. I have transferred money to my daughter while she was standing in a checkout queue before now. My Boxster I bought recently was also almost instantaneous. What I did was set the seller up as a payee then transferred one pound to make sure it went to the right account. Saw it on his phone, then did the balance. Best of luck Berni

Just sold my Ftype & the money was in my account within 5 minutes. Tip for transferring is to do an initial say£10 transfer to ensure it goes to the correct account. You don't want to make a mistake inputting account numbers & a large sum vanishes into the ether. Once the other party says the £10 has arrived, then you can send the balance. As said above find out if you have a daily limit.

My last 6 cars or so (inc 996) have all been private. Largest sum was for the 996, went to bank with the seller, transferred the money in branch, he got a lift home I drove home. Very quickly. Recently bought a T5 in London for a daily, the 13k odd I paid was transferred in 2 transactions as my daily limit was/is 10k. Appeared in sellers account almost instantly. As others have said, check ID, address etc etc if something doesn't feel right it generally isn't. :?:

Some things I've done in past, Asked seller if they had any problem with me taking their pic, then take their pic. Also only view at address on v5 then knock on a couple of neighbours doors and ask them how long the car and seller have been at address.

thanks all. I've done the obvious HPI check and getting a full PPI from 9e as suggested by a few of you guys. Some of the suggestions like knocking on the neighbours' doors I hadn't even thought of (and must say make me cringe a bit but when it's a decent sum needs must..) A basic contract is also a good idea I'll try and put something together.

I once bought a 930 (my first 911) and transferred the 51k (10k at a time) the day before. When to pick her up (a garage was doing a top-end rebuild as part of the sale) and it wasnt ready... so he transferred it back, 10k at a time. 3 weeks later pick-up time arrived again... 51k ->10k,10,10,10,10,1. Still not right, 51k <- 10,10,10,10,10,1. another 6 weeks and its all good to go. 51 -> Im sure you get the pattern now. Anyway - ran like a dog until I got my local porsche mechanic to overhaul the fuelling/mass sensor thing. Kind of shows that you can trust most people. For the last few cars I've transferred a deposit (1k usually) and then transferred the rest while sitting in their house. I'd recommend something like this and not my 51k >> << >> << >> Todd.

Thanks Todd I think that's important to bear in mind especially since the internet seems to fixate on the 0.1% who are fraudsters . The person I'm buying it off seems like a reasonable guy but it's definitely a lot of money for me (though considerably less than your 930) so you can't be too careful! He hasn't asked for a deposit so far but I've spent £300 on the PPI and so I'm clearly invested in the car