Does someone asking to view a car with cold engine ring alarm bells?

[coldel]

how do you know its just an obd reader? there are so many different readers/programmers on the market, i have 4 myself, i dont think id let someone looking at my car plug in a reader/something into my obd port. Id happily supply my reader for them to read out any codes, but no sir, i don't think id let them plug whatever into my car, no Sir!.

I let a chap use a reader on my car when he bought it, no problem at all. He showed it to me (it was the autophix one very common on the market) and looked legitimate. I wouldn't be letting people plug in laptops and the like of course, or anything that car write to the car, but readers can only do that, read codes. I also had a code reader and took a reading of my car on it and photographed it before they arrived.

Its worth remembering that thousands of cars are sold daily, only a tiny number are bought with some sort of fraud in place. Dont freak out at every ask from a buyer (I used a code reader to check the Z4 before buying them both), just take it as a genuine ask but be vigilant and be sensible.