Selling car privately - awkward situation with potential buyer, WWYD?

[spilttheteaagain]

We're trying to sell our 6 year old Fiat punto privately (ad in paper, poster in the car kind of thing, never done this before...).

A man phoned and said he was interested in it for his 89 year old father. So they both came over late on Friday to see the car. DH went out in it with them, letting the son drive initially. Then they stopped to let the father try it. The father is very deaf, could not hear the engine noise and so was revving it up to the max and timing the gear changes so badly, making DH really uncomfortable. DH had to say he wasn't happy and get him to stop driving.

They came back and parked on the driveway and the father sat in it again to just try the pedals, listen to the engine etc and try and get familiar with the car. Even with all the windows open he still couldn't hear that he was revving it to about 8000 revs and the car was screaming. (How much damage can this cause the engine, done repeatedly?)

They went away on holiday this weekend and are likely to be back in touch on Tuesday, re having a second go.

We are really uncomfortable about letting the father drive the car as he doesn't seem to be able to handle it properly. Also, he would only be insured third party (fully comp on his own car). So, if the worst happens and he crashes our car, we won't get a penny from the insurance, lose our asset and are stuffed.

We want to know:

1. Are they actually serious about making us an offer within about 10% of asking price? (We can't sell for much less)
2. Please can the chap take out fully comp day insurance if he wants another test drive because we aren't happy that he's safe, and don't want the risk to our property...

How do you say this politely, but firmly?

WWYD in this situation? Thanks!

He shouldn't be driving if he has hearing problems this bad, he's not safe.

Tell them that you are very uncomfortable selling him your car and suggest he goes and see's his GP. His licence is probably invalid so you are doing us all a favour by refusing to sell to him to be honest.

Well I'm sure that deaf people can drive. It seems to be more of an unawareness of how hard (or not) he needs to rev the engine which may well be mroe to do with a comination his age and and not being familiar with the car. If you're not happy then says its been sold or take him somewhere like an old airfield/very quiet industrial estate for him to drive it.

Surly you need to be able to hear for sirens etc?

I'd say it's been sold.

Exactly belle, I can't understand how you can safely drive if you can't hear much... car horns, traffic on blind corners, children/animal noises etc.

Seems dangerous to me.

I think we might have to say something, I fear for his safety, our car and all the other people out there if we let him drive it out again. Very awkward.

Deaf people tend to have better visual awareness than hearing people and are more likely to be aware of a fire engine earlier by spotting the flashing lights.

The snag about pretending it's sold, is that they first came across it because they walked past - only live about 2 streets away.

Though I suppose it could be agreed sold but the new person might not be paying collecting for a couple of weeks. Thinking aloud here.

Thanks though, input appreciated.

I think you can insist on fully comp insurance if he wants to have another test drive. And ask to see the certificate of insurance.

We had someone do this to us when we were buying, they ended up driving us to car park to let us have a test drive!

why not call your insurance company and see what they would suggest?

If anyone not fully insured wants to drive your car, you take them to an empty car park and let them have a go with nothing else around.
Your insurance company will say they are not covered.
The last two cars I sold, were without a test drive because the buyer was not insured. Instead i drove them around in it for a bit so they could see it had not funny noises etc.
The last car I bought was from a dealer and I didn't test drive that because I hadn't got insurance for it. I didn't pick the car up till I had got my insurance for it.
I would just say 'sorry you can't test drive it as you are not covered fully comp to drive it'.
No need to get into discussions about his fathers driving capability. If they wanted the car they would have said so, if they are expecting you to keep it for them over the weekend then have another uninsured drive, then they are messing you about.

If he's already driven the car, why would he need to again?

If he wants to, just say what Flibberty said, there really is no need to discussion his driving skills.