Tipperary car dealer slams young driver who tried 'scummy' haggle trick buying BMW

A busy Tipperary car dealership has hit out over "scummy" and "sleazy" ways some people haggle when attempted to shave a few grand of the price of a car.

Jack Martin from Jack Martin Motors in Clonmel took to social media where he has a large following to lift the lid on a recent exchange with a young would-be customer who seemingly attempted an underhanded trick to get €2,000 off the price of a BMW.

Jack began by explaining most people haggle and it's part and parcel of the job: "You can haggle, some people have to haggle and most people do it in a respectful manner. There is no harm in it, there's no maliciousness in it, they're just trying to get the best deal. Whether we can deal with them or not, that's their way of doing things, and it's all above board."

However, he quickly moved on to the recent unsettling exchange which left him a bit "flustered." He explained: "A couple of times people have tried to haggle with me in a really sleazy manner. A young guy came in looking at a BMW. Full history on the car, mileage was all verified on the history checks and the car was mint."

Jack went on to say the young customer drove the car, liked it, and then came back trying to do a deal. He said he was going to call his friend for advice.

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"He said he was going to go out and chat his friend who works in a BMW up the country and just ask his advice on it. He spent about ten minutes, came back in and he said, 'Jack, there is a mileage discrepancy on that car, I'm afraid it may have been clocked. He proceeded to offer me €2,000 below the asking price."

Jack went on to admit he was a little "flustered" and afraid he had made a mistake so he apologised to the guy and asked him to leave it with him to check out.

"I couldn't understand how I'd gone through the process we usually do and been stung with a clocked car," he said.

"Freaking out here, sweating, did a second history check on it. Lo and behold, when I did the second history check, there was a mileage discrepancy. How a mileage discrepancy flags on a history check is if someone in a dealer enters the mileage while doing the history check and it's less than a previous recording, it will appear the car may have been clocked and will then flag a discrepancy," Jack said.

He was wondering how the discrepancy appeared after not appearing during his initial history check so he phoned the history check company.

"When they looked into it, they were able to tell me the exact date and time that history check was done, and the exact time was the same time that guy was out on the phone to his friend in BMW. It clicked with me then that he was after getting his friend to do a history check with mileage less than what was currently on it so it would trigger a warning so he could try and devalue the car and give me a lesser offer.

"I rang him up, quizzed him about it, he stuttered and stammered and then I told him I wasn't going to deal with him moving forward. That is the wrong way to try and get a bit of value when buying a car," Jack concluded.

Followers were shocked by the actions of the prospective customer. One wrote: "Would you consider that haggling ? That’s fraud and I assume reported as same. Haggling is bit of banter back and forth."

A second mad added: "Jases that's mad, fair play to you for catching him out, ya couldn't be up to them."

A third said: "Jesus he was cute, at least you caught on, I'm betting a lot of people would have felt the need to cut their losses there and then and would be happy to part with it. Well done for sticking to your guns."