Firstly, I must state that the whole idea behind this series is not to "spoil business" as most dubious sellers will allege, or demarket existing dealers. The whole idea is to offer better services as sellers and for the buyers to be better informed and get value for their money as should.
INTRO
I'm sure many online car shoppers have seen cars they like, made contact but most often got frustrated by the seller or even got outrightly scammed. To avoid this situation the following are some basic heads ups to determine if you should go ahead to make contact, travel down or even make payment (though I strongly advise against paying for any product that the cost runs in tens or hundreds of thousands not to mention millions without satisfactory physical inspection)
CAR LOOKS SHARP.
Remember smartphone cameras this days are incredibly advanced hence can make anything taken a shot of with it look amazing. Same goes with car pictures. Some dealers have high-end phones with sophisticated cameras. Also, some have photo editing apps to perfect the images. So don't fall for how sparkling the car looks in pictures because it may look otherwise in reality. Go physically inspect the car if its closeby or contract someone, in the location of the car who is knowledgeable about cars, inspect for you before you decide.
DISPLAYED PICTURES OR VIDEOS
Some sellers show you only pictures of the part of the cars that are good and leave out the parts that aren't. For example, some dubious sellers will deliberately leave out posting the engine or post only pictures of the engine part from an angle that will leave out details that could make you not consider making contact. For example, if there are many bypassing wiring and relays, oil leaking and accident impacted parts, they won't post such pictures. And they will count on the fact that you may not ask them about those parts or that once you've spent time and resources to arrive the location of the car you won't mind.
And if you remember enough to ask they either feign ignorance, tell you they're not with the car at the moment or become downright rude saying you're asking irrelevant questions or that you should come physically to inspect it yourself to your heart content if you're serious, which, on the norm, is best but then the car isn't in same location as you so you need this basic information before determining if its worth the trouble of taking a trip to the location.
So to avoid this, if car is at a location far away from you that could take hours of travelling time and cost, demand the following pictures and/or videos: 1-pictures/video of all the seat in close shot angles,
2- the doormats and windows controls,
3- the roof,
4- the dashboard in full,
5- the instruments cluster that includes the odometer to know the actual mileage, error lights and the rpm needle. Make sure to insist the pictures are taken as the car is on.
6- Video of the engine revved to determine the sound if healthy or cranky,
7- sides of the engine to determine if its been opened and worked on-though not all engine that have been opened portends serious issues (reason is cars gasket have time they are supposed to be replaced at certain thousand kilometres to avoid their overheating. Same with timing belt replacement for timing belt engines- a topic for another day. but many Nigerians hardly know this and rarely adhere to manufacturers recommendations hence conclude such as proof of serious engine issues which its not usually is)
8- underneath the car for possible rust and oil leakages. Rust because flooded cars etc
9- tyres
10- booth. Under the booth mat to ascertain if it has been hit from behind. A serious impact should deform it enough to tell.
11- video of the exhaust as they rev the car to see if the car is smoking or not as some won't tell you until you arrive the location.
12- windscreens for cracks. Those buying for Uber or Bolt use will need this as the car won't pass their inspection with a cracked windscreen.
All or some of these information can be provided for you by a serious seller who, sometimes, own the car or in whose care the car is. Meaning the person should considerably know about the car to give such information.
However, it still had to be said a sincere person may still not be pleased with such requests and could get turned off but then you should be encouraged by the fact you're about to part with hundreds of thousands or millions of your hard earned money to pay for it hence deserve whatever information about it to decide if its worth your buying. So if the person is not too pleased that is enough red flag on its own. Your communication skills or tact will also determine the response you get. So do well to speak responsibly to the seller as, from experience, most buyers can be ill mannered.
Personally, as a reputable dealer, I will avail anyone such information of any car I'm selling that is in my possession or not mine or in my possession but have verified.
WHEN SELLER HAS MORE THAN A CAR LISTED .
Some sellers don't own the cars the list. Never seen it or, if more than one, them. Have no direct access to the actual owner or car.
So they post pictures or videos likely downloaded or cropped from pictures posted in a car whatsapp or Facebook group etc or downloaded pictures and information from another seller from online buying and selling platforms like Nairaland, Facebook, . Or sourced directly from the owner who listed in either of or all of the platforms and whom some would have contacted to ask for the price etc.
This sellers I classify as car sales agent. And they are the majority. A legit hustle engaged in by all sorts as with any other business.
Usually, they markup and sell. Meaning they will offer the price more than the what the owner offered to sell or intends to sell as last price (this is the primary reason car prices keeps going up. A topic for another day).
They also will sometimes demand commission from the sellers for bringing a buyer to the seller as well as, sometimes, demand the buyer to pay them for linking them to the seller.
In situations where either the owner and selling agent or buyer and selling agent don't agree they won't connect you the buyer to the actual owner or seller or you the seller to the interested buyer and will rather you don't buy or sell no matter how badly you want to buy or sell the car if their demands aren't met.
HOW TO DIFFERENTIATE A SINGLE CAR SELLER OR OWNER, A SALES AGENT AND AN ACTUAL CAR DEALER WITH A CAR LOT LICENCED OR OTHERWISE
on for example, click on the profile pictures, on Facebook marketplace click on sellers detail etc.
For other platforms not mentioned I'm sure those will have their own design.
Point is you will see either other cars or different products listed by the person if a sales agent or a dealer. Or you will see just a car and sometimes other stuff the person put up for sale that will give you an idea if the person is a regular seller or a dealer or not.
Either way, for a Nigeria used car, its best to buy from sellers who are in possession of the car and have driven it because they are more likely going to know the condition better having used it so should tell you more about it depending on length of their usage.
For sales agent selling on behalf of someone, the serious ones with proper marketing etiquette, may be sincere enough to tell you they will revert to you while they seek the information about the true conditions from the actual owners.
The rude, dubious and unserious ones will tell you everything is good even as they are not sure. You can deduce this from talking with them.
Another way of knowing the unserious, dubious or rude ones is they will most likely not provide you any of the information you request. Examples as stated earlier. Could be reluctant in providing you needed information. Won't be courteous. Won't call back. Won't respond to messages for days. Will read your message and not respond. Etc
You can also tell apart the liars by demanding a video of themselves with the car or their car lot and your guess is as good as mine what their reaction or result will be.
SCAMMERS
Aside the fact that they state prices one third of the actual value of the car, they usually post cars stating locations that are discouraging for anyone to travel down togo for physical inspection. Usually border towns.
For example, they could post a car at the extreme or far parts of a State or city. Eg Sokoto, Zamfara, Taraba, Cross River, Ogun with the notorious Idiroko border, Borno, Niger etc. Reason is so you're hard pressed or hassled to pay a commitment fee for the car to be kept for you or pay some few thousands for it to be transported to you.
On , when you contact them via message they will send you a number to call. This is because they don't want to chat on the in-app message inbox as that will be evidence to expose them to the admin and earn them a block.
They also understate the actual year models of the said cars so as to justify putting a ridiculously low price without the app AI flagging it as scam. This is true on . Sometimes i spend my free time reporting them to jiji but not always do they get banned. And reason is because they usually post paid ads.
Also, I understand most will say anyone greedy enough to want to pay such low price less than an actual value of a car is greedy and deserves to be scammed. However, greed is a factor but there are genuinely naive people who think others cannot be that evil and trust the platform as a place where such could never happen. Some also do not know the actual market value of cars and out if ignorance won't bother asking those in the field for expert opinions.
I'm currently involved in tracking a scammer who used the amateurish "Custom Auction" basic format to scam a friend to a friend of mine and the person is by nature a trusting person as he is trustworthy himself so he didn't expect he will be that scammed. There are millions like him reason that basic scam formats still thrive till date.
Another format is the "RELOCATION" lie. That is supposed to make you believe they're desperate to sell hence selling as per distress.
However, distress or not, a car value should not sell below 70% of its actual worth. Except of course its totaled in an accident or some of its parts canabalized and will require enormous amount of money to fix.
How to avoid this is to simply don't bother. But if you're still excited at the prospects that it could be genuine, ask the person to send you a picture or video of him/herself with the car, send you a physical address, send you a WhatsApp location, send you anything at all that proves they are genuine before you proceed. But DON'T EVER SEND MONEY FIRST!
Some scammers will also put a cheaper price tag on a car they don't have but saw on another dealer profile or car stand. When you contact them they will encourage you to go for physical inspection first then if you like the car you come back to them so you both conclude the deal. But before you arrive at the supposed car location they would have called the actual dealer or owner that they have a buyer coming for inspection. You will inspect and perhaps get satisfied but unknown to the actual owner or dealer, you will leave to go conclude with the person and possibly convinced to make payment after which he or she will tell you to go pick up the car that they will call the person you saw and inspected it with to release to you. Only that when you return to the car stand you won't be picking any car without being asked to pay again. Then the person you paid to would've disappeared with your money.
How to avoid this is to simply insist on knowing the seller to his home address, know his or her name from government issued identity card, confirm the vehicle documentation is in the person's name, confirm from the person who is with the car he or she know the person who directed you actually own the said car and you can only insist on paying into the account and signing agreement only with who have his name on the car Proof of ownership document or previous sales agreement if the person isn't the first and only user in Nigeria.
REVIEWS
Always read and take reviews seriously.
Put it at the back of your mind if you must contact the person depending on the type of review whether negative or positive.
However, it is instructive to note that some leave bad review because their feelings were hurt. Some dubious dealers, as described at the earliest part of this post, familiar with navigating the platform can also, out of spite, drop a negative review just to spite and demarket you for writing a deserved review about them.
POINTS TO NOTE:
scammers, legitimate dealers, sales agent or individual owners can 'ghost you' (after they had assured you the availability of the car and answered all your questions and agreed on price) on arrival to the location they told you to come simply because they no longer have access to the car, have sold to another or a highest bidder, could not make it available, or simply couldn't get their intended gain from selling. Or car developed issues that wasn't existing prior to their contact with you or hoped to have fixed before your arrival.
These and many more I can't readily recall or know about are some of the challenges you need to know about before going online to shop for a car.
I'm open to an objective engagement, contributions, questions and criticism as that will advance more knowledge and throw up more information not captured here.
The end.
Next topic will be about VIN or chasis number. Its uses and how it is manipulated by some car sellers.
My name is Samuel Iyo. An ex soldier and your neighbourhood car dealer. I buy, sell and consult on security matters as well as buy cars on behalf of client with a professional scan tool for a small fee.
I'm based in Abuja. 07060940113 is my call contact number including WhatsApp.
Boss sir, WhatsApp me 07020505282 but 200k can't fly the machine sir. This is a 5G laptop that you just need to insert a sim and start browsing. Over 30hrs battery life.
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