Car matching - don't get stung - Introduction

If you are trying to sell your car, beware of phone calls that start like this: 'Is your car still for sale? Yes? Okay, we have three buyers lined up who want your car. All you have to do is pay us £99 and they will contact you.'

Here's the truth - no, they won't. There are no buyers lined up. In fact there's no 'buyer interest' at all. Keep your money - it really is that simple.

A What Car? investigation has revealed that if you decide to go 'car dating' with companies claiming to have buyers chomping at the bit to buy your car you will, more often than not, be left with a broken heart.

There are scores of companies promising to match car buyers with car sellers. Of course, not all these companies are rip-off merchants, but you can easily spot the rogues. Any telephone canvasser claiming to have buyers 'lined up' or 'buyer interest' for your car is misleading you, so put the phone down.

What Car? goes car dating
As part of our investigation, we attempted to sell a bogus car - an Alfa 147 - at a competitive price. Initially, we advertised in Loot and Auto Trader in a bid to lure the 'dating' agencies.

Within hours, we were inundated with calls from companies trying to secure our business. Some were careful not to say they had buyers lined up for our car, whereas others gave us the impression that if we parted with our cash, we would have lots of buyers ready to call us.

After some consideration and receiving terms and conditions through the post, we decided to advertise with a selection of companies, including Cardata, Real Match and Vehicle Match.