Their website is hosted offshore by shinjiru.com, who offer identity protection and anonymous payment. Something you'd do if you didn't want to be traced.

Companies House data doesn't shed much light either - https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/c...filing-history

I'd file in the too difficult/risky bin, personally...

I can not imagine any reason why they would then sell one of these for less than 30% of the market value. Bailiffs are not known for philanthropy.
On the other hand a price of less than 30% off the market value is a huge hook to engage the interest of someone, to the point where they can overcome their cynicism and fork out money to secure that 'bargain'.

Or. Look at this another way. If they are selling cars with significant discounts. Why would they waste time advertising or anything, when the motor trade will be queuing up to take them off their hands.

Setting up a company is easy. Is there anything to stop you registering a dozen or so, sitting on them for a few years, and then trading as though they have been around a while.

I completely 100% agree buddy, and I know your just stating the obvious ! Having said that, I just couldn't get my head around why the emails kept coming to the point of me booking a flight, so I could view the car and documents before buying. Had they given up contact the minute I told them I wouldn't buy before seeing the physical car, I could certainly understand the scam thing !!!!

It's called playing them at their own game. A couple of years ago I came across an Audi on Autotrader. As with these things, everything was too good to be true, but I decided to bite by sending the usual "I'm interested" email, but needing some additional information. Also dropped in that because I live in NI, I needed to be sure about things before jumping on a plane. Anyway, kept them going for about a week with fairly basic questions that you'd ask, without getting into the real important questions. In the end I gave up as they were refusing to answer some of the questions. I suspect that so long as they think they can finally reel you in, they will continue to respond.

A couple of other interesting facts as well to ponder. Matty mentioned about the identity protection. In addition to that, the domain name has only been in existence for 10 days. If you do a search on Google, you'll also get a couple of Facebook hits. Both of these seem to have been in existence for about the same time, and have links to the site. No other posts, friends, links or anything else.

I would strongly recommend you give this a very wide berth. If it looks like bullish!t, smells like bullish!t then it probably is. I would follow the advice of the local dealer you spoke to.
It may also be worth calling the local trading standards and asking if they have any knowledge of this company.

I'm not suggesting that it is the case, my view from the start on this was steer clear - but who is to say that the person you are talking to actually has anything to do with the company (or indeed the car)!?

Perhaps the companies house registration is legit and for an unrelated business, the details are very public and so very easy to use.

The car is likely a real car, just probably one that they don't actually own. VIN and registration plates are on display, find one that is HPI clear and finance free and you have all you need to ensure a clean HPI report.

Spin a line, gain a deposit, disappear and leave little but confusion and anger - rinse and repeat.

Edited to add: the only reason they didn't get away with it was they got greedy, if they had asked for a smaller deposit I suspect you would have deemed that more reasonable and possibly gone ahead. 40% was a joke, but if they asked for £1k refundable if you didn't like the car I suspect you (or someone else) would be much more likely to be looking for the non-existent building at the end of the road - and learning the hard way that faster payments can not be reversed!?

All the original emails, phone calls, in fact all communications to that point led me to believe this was legit. That coupled with the fact that I could view before handing over any money were enough to satisfy me to simply book my cheap £69 flight. Its only after I booked the flight and spent a number of nights investigating a little deeper that I am able to say what I have said in my post. No matter what the situation I would never put a deposit on any car no matter how much of a bargain it was without viewing !

So in brief, there is no way in the world that I am now going to pursue the car, but as Ray had mentioned details on this post I thought it wasn't fair to ask for help and then not tell others what the situation was, or indeed leave other members wondering what my post was all about.

I therefor simply put the post up as a warning to others and at the end of the day its a interesting one for various reasons so I thought others could benefit from hearing the story.

So to sum it all up, £69 lost but a little knowledge gained. No big deal from my point of view !

All replies and help appreciated guys !

I have no doubt you have hit the nail on the head with this post buddy !!!!

Yesterday the telephone number was :



http://img.photobucket.com/albums/10...psxuxmpo1p.png



Today their telephone number is :

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/10...psmtswverv.png