On Sun, 04 Dec 2005 05:00:29 GMT, "Sergiy Migdalskiy"
<
[email protected]> wrote:
>Hi,
>
>I don't want to provide any direct links, but I found a guy at
>autos.yahoo.com that sells 3 practically new Toyota Corollas for 8500, 9500
>and 10500. They're all '05 Corollas in excellent condition, the one for 8500
>had only 700 miles, the others are also under 4000 miles.
>
>Can anyone tell me if it can be some kind of scam? It sound suspiciously
>fishy to me - selling a new car for almost half of the cost and claiming
>there are no problems with it. The guy says it's his business to sell cars.
>Can they be stolen cars, or maybe cars after non reported accidents with
>major internal repairs? Or is it the market condition now that an almost new
>car goes for half the cost?
If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
The VIN is supposed to be in the listing if the cars. Search around
for the Insurance Company lists of flooded cars from Katrina or Rita.
One is at
www.nicb.org, but there's probably others. And run it
through Carfax also.
I tried to repeat the same search you did - I punched in '05
Corolla, $1K to $10K, within 100 miles of 91367' and got 4 cars back,
though all are apparently different sellers. The first three list the
VIN and they came back clean from the NICB check. The fourth car was
listed in Pico Rivera, CA with no VIN posted - and the last two words
in the description before the price: salvage title.
Bada-Boom. Gee, wonder why they didn't want to list the VIN?
If you go to look at the car, check inside the trunk and under the
hood, bring a flashlight. They can't clean back in all the recesses
that you can see into with a flashlight and mirror. If the car was in
a flood, it'll probably have a visible water ring of dirt just like
the soap scum ring around the bathtub...
And if the person selling the car objects to your checking for damp
(or missing) insulation under the floor mats, or looking in the deep
corners of the trunk that closely, or won't let you take it to an
independent mechanic to be checked over, RUN AWAY.
There are going to be a LOT of cars for sale out there that were
submerged to the dashboard or higher, and some might have been brand
new sitting on the showroom floor with 10 miles or less on them. Or a
near-new car that was out on lease. When they are totaled out by an
insurance company the cars are all supposed to be sold for scrap only,
but...
The crooks can buy them from the wrecking yard, dry them out and
get them running long enough to launder the titles through another
state and sell them as 'used', but in a few months (more or less) a
flood damaged car can become the biggest box of headaches you've ever
dealt with.
--<< Bruce >>--
--
Bruce L. Bergman, Woodland Hills (Los Angeles) CA - Desktop
Electrician for Westend Electric - CA726700
5737 Kanan Rd. #359, Agoura CA 91301 (818) 889-9545
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