I thought it was hard to scam folks from the “Shoe Me” state.
When I was looking at used trucks last year, I found one where the mileage displayed on the odometer was like 150,000 but when I did a carfax, the maintenance record showed MUCH higher, like twice as much. When I pointed this out to the seller, he insisted that the odometer was correct. I passed.
Frye?... Frye?... Frye?
My father’s first job as a teenager was with a car dealer. One of his duties was to roll back the odometer on used cars.
These scams have been going on for decades in this area.
A car is totaled and the insurance company issues a “salvage” title, then sends the car to the scrappers in Missouri.
Instead of salvaging and scrapping the car they would find others of the same make with other damage, then combine them into one drivable car, run it through the auto auctions, then run it down into Arkansas where for forty five dollars they could obtain a clean new title.
Then park it on a lot with a FOR SALE sign, and some sucker would end up buying a car made of parts from other cars as an undamaged car.
Same for flood cars.
Yes, I’ve been bit several times till I found out how the scam works.
The company I worked for one day decided the big boss needed a new car, so they went to a local dealer and bought a brand new car with less than 60 miles on it.
As we did our own maintenance no one checked over the car very well as it was a brand new car.
One day I was walking by and I happened to notice that the trunk and right rear quarter was a shade different in color from the rest. On average you could not see the difference, but the sun hit it just right to show ME the difference in color. I then notified the supervisor of what I had seen.
A thorough investigation showed huge amounts of Bondo under the paint as the trunk and back had been wrecked at one time.
So even hot-shots like our plant manager can get scammed by car dealers.
I had a speed sensor go bad on a 2001 Mazda Tribute when it had 12,000 miles. The speedometer and odometer stopped working. Thought it would be expensive to fix, so I didn’t for about 4-5 years. Turns out that was an inexpensive part and fixed it myself.
Was involved in an accident a few years later and totaled. Probably got an extra $1,500 from the insurance company.
Those states that want to start charging vehicle registration tax based on mileage will learn that it isn’t a good idea.