[rant] 2nd car dealer/agency nightmare (scam?) in Taipei + looking for a second hand mini

Life Cars & Motorcycles
1

Hi,

I have been on the hunt for a second-hand car for my wife for some time before I move out of Taipei, and so far our experience has been quite underwhelming.

We’ve contacted many post owners from 8891 website, and we found the following patterns:

  • Agencies who don’t have any cars, but pretend they do… for some reason
  • Agencies that have other cars, but would post a nicer one online (bait&switch)
  • Agencies that don’t even sell cars, but would “look for you” as long as you pay them a first deposit…

The last one is the most fraudulent IMO… sounds like a scam if anything…

On that note, after seeing a few, we tried to check which is which on the phone, but most of the contact would blantantly lie about the nature of their business… our last attempt was at an agency in Neihu, we called them to check if they had the specific car they posted an offer for online, giving the reference of the offer, year of the car, model, number of km, color and price. Made them repeat 3 times on the phone, and checked that we could visit… they confirmed every point on the phone

… alas, when we arrived, the girl actually said they are an “agency that purchase cars in bulk, and would first collect a deposit before then looking for car for us”. It turned out, they obviously did not have the car they advertized at all, they had older & more expensive (at least they claimed they do, but we didn’t stay to check). The sales-lady would try to keep us there saying BS like “oh, but you need us to check the car before you can see it in case there is any issue” or the likes…

I really don’t get their business here… you call them, they confirm. You come to check on a car, they don’t have it, really what do they expect? happy customer? obviously we walked away on that one, calling it a waste of time…

Wondering what other forum mongers experience is on the subject, how do you guys find a reliable dealer in here? (is there such a thing?).

On the side, wife’s still looking for a mini 3 or 5 door in good condition to buy, if anyone has a clue, let me know :slight_smile:

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2

You tried Autocheckers? Very well-regarded.

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Are they selling cars? or only checking them?

I guess I would need to first find the car before I would have much use of a checking service :slight_smile:

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They have some good deals on stuff they have, but not always. Worth asking

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They also find the cars for you. I used it before, good.

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@sulavaca Jamie does sell cars, they usually get sold before they get on his website or even Facebook page. Let him know what you are looking for and he will inform you if he has or is getting one. He also has a sourcing service where he can help you decide what vehicle is best for your needs and then source a good one. Definitely not a scam!

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oh man — i know exactly what you went through.
i went through the exact same experience.
And finally got the car i was looking for.

here are the ONLY thing working on those website:
you absolutely need to find someone who sell his own car… there is this option on the page.
Moreover, you will need to check the page everyday so when the new available car appear, it will be easier for you to identify the real seller.
what these scammers do is to share the exact same pictures with 30-60K added or deducted so they can flood the websites, FB pages etc… in order for the buyers not to be able to identify the real seller.

the second option which worked for us is to go and see different sole agents dealers
They often have offers on used car from their brands.
The reason is that when you buy a new car they often have as an offer to bring back the old one and get a discount on the new one.
If the old car isnt that old or too bad, they resell it.
The advantage is that they will recertified it, do all the test etc… in their own official garage.
that’s what we have done.

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Thanks for the tip, we just called and he is arranging for checking a car in the next few days. That’s what I call efficient :slight_smile:

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To get back on the ranting track, I just don’t understand how these “agents” really stay in business… I mean, isn’t it obvious that most if not all potential customers would get pissed after this kind of experience?

You would expect that either this kind of fake agent would be outlawed, or at the very least, that the word would spread out quickly enough to put them out of business by natural food-chain selection… The fact that they still exist (and seem to be rampant no less…) is really what puzzles me… what the hell is wrong with the local market ? :confused:

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This is a failure by those platforms. They should verify a mobile number if an account wants to list. If a certain amount of users flag the seller as an agent and they did not mark it in the listings, then ban them.
Then there is image recognition that can flag listings with similar images. A mod can verify the original and ban the rest.

But they clearly don’t care.

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Not in Taiwan, people like to get scammed just by hearing they get a good deal, and probably most are to lazy/busy to drive around and look for a car.

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do you know if the used car dealerships are any good?

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Indeed, thanks.

Following your advices here, we just purchased a car from him. Fast, and efficient :slightly_smiling_face:

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