Motorists have been warned buyers may attempt to “distract the seller” while tampering with the car to damage it. Fraudsters will add engine oil to the water reservoir to make sure the car “breaks down” when it is driven.
The other customers distracted the seller by claiming there was an issue with the spare wheel inside the boot.
The dad was alerted to the issue by his wife who had been watching CCTV footage of the incident.
He said: “One of them was faffing around with the spare wheel and he said to me ‘this is broke, this is broke’.
There was nothing wrong with it, so I walked over to show him that everything was working alright.
However, during the test drive smoke started billowing out of the car with the prospective buyers demanding a reduction in cost.
They were offering to pay just £1.10 for a car which had been valued by the seller at £3,600.
It was only after he spotted oil on the driveway that he started to become suspicious this could be a scam.
Mr Browne said: “While one was looking at the engine, the other one wanted to look at the spare tyre so they got me around to the boot.
“That must have been when the young lad who was around the front put dirty oil in the coolant. I think they used a squeezy bottle.
“While I was looking at the engine, he must have put some in the exhaust pipe.”