Possible Scam? Opinions? Please Help

M

merchantofmenace

New member
Forum Sponsor
Hello, i'm in the market for a motorcycle. I saw an ad for a 2008 Suzuki M50 with about 500kms on it so it is pretty much brand new. It appears to have been customized into a bobber with a single seat, after market exhaust pipes and the rear fender chopped. My concern is that the bike is being sold for only $3500 - $4000. That seems a little too good to be true. I checked the Used vehicle information package and it states that the bike is unfit and a safety certificate needs to be provided in order for the bike to be plated. The people at the ministry said that the unfit message could appear because when ownership was transferred previously and no safety certificate was provided which is consistent with the sellers story. He claims he received the bike as payment for work he did for a customer of his (he is a mover). He is willing to do the safety certification before the sale and i can check out the bike in person which i have not done yet as he lives a little far away. The seller is really nice, almost too nice and appears to be desperate to sell as he dropped the price $500 bucks over the phone at our very first conversation. These are all red flags....but if i check out the bike and it appears okay and passes the safety, i am thinking this could be a good deal...what are your thoughts....i have attached a picture of the bike M50.JPG
 
Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't see how this is a scam. It's not saftied, he's going to safety it, and you can see the bike in person rather than it being shipped here from the Ivory Coast. What am I missing?
 
If the guy is going to safety it than I don't see the problem either. He probably is desperate to sell it seeing as it is his paycheck and he obviously has no use for it. Check it out, have him safety it and you might have a deal on your hands. They do happen from time to time.
 
omg....nice rear fender. Yell us how it all works out?
 
I'm not sure about price points for this particular type of bike but I can honestly tell you that if the price is too good to be true - it generally is.

I've been burned before and know people who have been. If you're in bed the night before checking it out contemplating the purchase and something about it just doesn't seem right and are thinking "I better get there ASAP before someone else snatches it".. chances are 9/10 it's a scam of some sort and to some degree.

Tread cautiously.
 
yeah e90...that was exactly what i was thinking.....i do think the deal is too good to be true.....i'm going to check out the bike next week and we'll see......
 
merchantofmenace said:
yeah e90...that was exactly what i was thinking.....i do think the deal is too good to be true.....i'm going to check out the bike next week and we'll see......
Click to expand...

Brand new that bike is $8-9K, so asking half that for a 5 year old bike isn't much of a stretch. The owner sounds like he isn't a bike guy and kinda took this bike in lieu of payment for a job, so probably just trying to get some $$ out of all this. If the UVIP is ok, and he can get it safetied, then I don't really see an issue.

Couple grand more gets you a slightly used 2012 M50: http://ontario.kijiji.ca/c-cars-veh...-2012-Suzuki-Boulevard-M50-W0QQAdIdZ433858297
 
alright....so i checked out the bike today....unfortunately i will be walking away from it...the bike is great until you get to the rear end....the frame has been cut at the back, the seller said that this was done in order to bob the bike by the original owner, but the welding work was really shoddy, huge welds and it looked like it was clearly done by an amateur. It makes no sense that the original owner bought this bike brand new but didn't pay enough to get proper welding done....my buddy who knows a lot more about bikes than i do said that to him it looked like the rear of the bike was repaired. There were other things that turned me off from the deal but i won't get into them. Maybe this could be a deal for someone who really knows their stuff when it comes to the structural integrity of bikes. I'd rather pay a couple grand more and buy worry free from a dealer.....
 
merchantofmenace said:
alright....so i checked out the bike today....unfortunately i will be walking away from it...the bike is great until you get to the rear end....the frame has been cut at the back, the seller said that this was done in order to bob the bike by the original owner, but the welding work was really shoddy, huge welds and it looked like it was clearly done by an amateur. It makes no sense that the original owner bought this bike brand new but didn't pay enough to get proper welding done....my buddy who knows a lot more about bikes than i do said that to him it looked like the rear of the bike was repaired. There were other things that turned me off from the deal but i won't get into them. Maybe this could be a deal for someone who really knows their stuff when it comes to the structural integrity of bikes. I'd rather pay a couple grand more and buy worry free from a dealer.....
Click to expand...

If it helps at all... who is the bike registered to?

When I bought my bike, it was registered to the original owner, not the guy i was buying it from. Turns out he owned it for a brief period, never registered it and was riding around without insurance. My bill of sale had my seller's name on it, not the original owner obviously. The ministry refused to register it in my name as I needed the document signed by the legal owner (original owner). I showed up my seller's house and he luckily found the bill of sale from the previous owner to him still intact (scribbled on a piece of paper) - I dragged him to the Ministry.

So now the paper trail shows the bike exchanging hands from the original owner straight to me - no record of the guy in the middle. Although they did give him a stern warning that what he did was considered illegal (tax evasion).

I learned a good lesson that day and consider myself quite lucky.
Forum Sponsor
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom