UK Car Imports
Above Board Cars

Taking the Pirate out of Private car sales.

Tell all your potential buyers on DoneDeal about the garage-like protection Above Board Cars offers — put this line in your ad:
“This private sale is supported by the Above Board Cars platform, offering a Stripe-provided escrow-like transfer account, a mechanical inspection and a 12-month warranty.”

Buying this car privately, safely

The seller you are talking to is a private owner, not a garage. Above Board Cars sits between you for the parts that normally make a private sale a leap of faith: the payment, the inspection and the warranty.

What Above Board Cars is. An intermediary providing an escrow-like payment facility, organising a mechanical inspection, and providing industry-standard warranties. Nothing more and nothing less — we never own the car and we never become the seller.

How it works

1
You agree the price with the seller

We are not the seller and we do not set the price. You deal with the owner directly, the way you would with any private sale.

2
The car is inspected independently

We organise a mechanical inspection by an independent garage, and you see the report. The seller has already answered a full written condition questionnaire, and that record travels with the car — so what you are told and what the inspection finds can be held side by side.

3
Your money is held, not handed over

You pay into an escrow-like facility rather than to the seller. The money is released once the car has changed hands properly and the paperwork is right. If the car is not as described, it does not get released.

4
The car comes with a warranty

An industry-standard warranty goes on the car — the kind of cover you would expect from a garage, on a car you are buying from a private owner.

The three things people actually worry about

“What if I pay and the car isn’t what they said?”

Your money sits in the escrow-like facility until the handover is done properly. It is not the seller’s money until then.

“What if something goes wrong next month?”

The car carries an industry-standard warranty. That is the cover a private sale normally has none of.

“How do I know the seller owns it?”

Before a car goes through Above Board Cars we check the registration certificate against the seller’s own identity documents. A car whose paperwork does not line up does not go through.

Who we are

Above Board Cars is run by ukcarimports.ie, an established Irish vehicle import business. If you want to talk to a person before you do anything, that is what we would prefer too.

Talk to us →

Above Board Cars does not sell you the car and does not set its price. The seller is the owner named on the vehicle registration certificate.