Don’t test drive a car and then steal that car. Okay?

Duh, but apparently there are sub-humans that do steal cars during test drives that didn’t get the memo.

So I wanted to clue you in on what Clive, a reader of The Lazy Way To Buy And Sell Cars For Profit, went through recently…

Clive from the UK wrote to tell me about one of his used car deals that went bad.

In Clives own words, here’s the email he sent me…

Hi Steve,

Many thanks – I took the approach of listing the High Mileage, and slightly lowered the price, the car was sold a couple of days after your reply.

Thank you for your help,

JUST A WORD ON TEST DRIVES

I am still in a state of shock because of what happened recently. I received call from prospective purchasers to view the car I had for sale, they arranged to view during the middle of the day – they witheld their mobile phone number.

I was pleased to meet at my house an attractive, smartly-dressed and well spoken young couple. We had a short friendly chat about cars and it transpired that the young girl was looking for a Ford KA to replace her faulty Vauxhall. She seemed very excited about mine.

I ALWAYS go with the customer on a test drive, as my trade insurance covers them. Most private individual Insurance Policies in England cover one named car. I also go to stop them driving for a long time or miles on motorways – which has happened to me in the past.

I explained that I will be coming on the test drive for insurance reasons, that I will drive off first, during the drive we will change and she can drive back.

He said that the girl was fully insured and that they would like to get the feel of the car alone, they would just take it up they road and be just a few minutes, I asked whether the girl had a driving licence as she looked so young, she said that she was 21 years old, had a Vauxhall Corsa and had been driving for years. She offered me a bunch of car & house keys as security and said that her car was parked just around the corner.

I reluctantly agreed and asked that they be back in a few minutes.

She dove the car away and out of sight with him as a passenger.

I waited for an hour but no sign of them or the car, I then went looking for them in case they had broken down. I eventually had to phone the police.

The police to date have not yet found the thieves or the car. She would be the last person I would expect to be a car thief – she seemed so genuine, young and innocent.

The car was worth £1500 it seems I have lost this as my trade insurance is Third Party Only. I still have her bunch of keys but cannot open any car nearby.

I strongly suggest that the seller ALWAYS attends on a test drive.

It seems car theft is very rare in my area – I have been driving for 35 years and never had a car stolen.

Kind regards

Clive R Ashford

Cheltenham

England

Steve here again…

LESSON TO LEARN: Go with people on the test drive.

Many thanks and aloha to Clive for taking the time to write that email. 8-)

Stay tuned for Part 2 because I’ll be posting updates here about the theft of the car Clive was trying to sell.

Please leave your comments below.

Steve