Auction title cleaning???????

[51dyno]

As more new car dealers are buying auction used cars for resale??? Are there states to avoid that are known for cleaning titles and odometer roll back??? I know it's supposed to be illigal. I have looked at cars with cafax and auto check that were quite questionable. Whom can we trust these days? THANKS DK

[auburnseeker]

My thoughts are trust no one get the car fax on newer vehicles. Saved my butt on atleast one truck I almost bought. If there are any descrepencies it will be right there. Then it's the sellers job to clear any suspicion.

[Steve Moskowitz]

There is a shortage of used cars on the market so dealers are not necessarily having an easy time buying product at auction. Fewer off lease lease cars and fewer rental cars then back in the day.

CarFax is a good tool. We provided it to our customers. There is no substitution for knowing who you are doing business with in my opinion. There are more honest dealers out there then many would believe and it would be rare that someone who owned a new car franchise would endanger his investment with knowingly selling a car with a mileage rollback. Sometimes these cars get washed around between states but a good dealer will stand behind the car if something is dtermined to be amiss. Just the viewpoint of a former new car dealer for 30 years.

[Guest Jim_Edwards]

Not even Carfax can be relied upon 100%. Their data comes largely from insurance companies and DMVs. A car could have been wrecked or even in a flood and without an accident report from the DMV or claim having been filed with an insurance company CarFax may know nothing.

Flood cars can in particular be a problem and there are times even quite legitimate used car dealers even get taken. Happened to an acquaintance of mine who called me to let me know he had just received a car that would be perfect for one of my daughters. I examined the car and on the surface it looked great. When I got under the hood I noticed fine silt in a place or two which made me suspicious. Removed the air cleaner to get a good look around the intake manifold, and found a even more silt trapped. This guy typically handles nothing but low and medium mileage cars directly from dealers who had taken them in trade, needless to say he was hot. As near as anyone could figure the original owner of the car had detailed out the interior including removing the carpeting to air it out and also the seats to kill any odor in the padding. Basically the dealer who had taken the car in trade got screwed. Needless to say I didn't buy the car and the dealer who had sold it to the lot got it back.

Moral.........regardless of what Carfax may report do a very, very close examination of any used vehicle regardless of how reputable the seller may be.

Jim

[Guest ken bogren]

Can a car that has just been wrecked and repaired have a clean CarFax for some period of time until the info gets reported to CarFax?

[elcamino72]

Most states are now running every VIN through the Department of Justice's National Motor Vehicle Title Information System (NMVTIS) - National Motor Vehicle Title Information System.

I recommend to all of my clients that they check every vehicle they buy through the NMVTIS and also through CARFAX ... you can never be too careful. Dealers should also be doing this so that they don't end up holding the bag or on the opposite end of a fraud suit or worse yet a federal investigation.

An issue that you will often run into with cars that have been wrecked and repaired, and do not show as such on CARFAX, is that they were owned by large self-insured entities (such as most rental car companies and alot of larger corporations). If the owner is self-insured, there is no reporting to CARFAX so there is no record of the repair. At this point, the seller and the buyer really must look over the car to (1. for the seller/dealer, know what they are selling) and (2. for the buyer, make sure what they are buying matches what the seller is telling them). The latter is often difficult because the average person does not know how to spot a repair, a dealer on the other hand should.

Edited March 9, 2011 by elcamino72 (see edit history)

[51dyno]

Thank you all who answered:What I am looking is what state auctions to avoid????????What i have been looking for is 2009 & up Suburban or Denaly XL with 6.2 motor and around here 90% plus came from auctions. I found the same thing with Buick Enclave. DK

[kevin1221]

Can a car that has just been wrecked and repaired have a clean CarFax for some period of time until the info gets reported to CarFax?

Absolutely...I am a new car dealer. We bought a car at a large, reputable auction. It had a clean carfax, and we had it printed in our file. About 30 days after we bought it, a customer questioned us about the accident. We said there was no accident, we had a clean carfax. We re-ran the carfax and sure enough, an accident that happened almost six months prior now showed up.

We had no recourse with Carfax. We eventually sold the car, and the buyer knew of the accident but was satisfied the repair was to industry standard.

Kevin

[kevin1221]

There is a shortage of used cars on the market so dealers are not necessarily having an easy time buying product at auction. Fewer off lease lease cars and fewer rental cars then back in the day.

CarFax is a good tool. We provided it to our customers. There is no substitution for knowing who you are doing business with in my opinion. There are more honest dealers out there then many would believe and it would be rare that someone who owned a new car franchise would endanger his investment with knowingly selling a car with a mileage rollback. Sometimes these cars get washed around between states but a good dealer will stand behind the car if something is dtermined to be amiss. Just the viewpoint of a former new car dealer for 30 years.

100% correct on all points. I've been in the car business 37 years, (new car franchise dealers), with 22 years at my current job.

I do not know of any new car dealer that would alter an odometer. Way too much investment in your business to risk it.

[Peter J.Heizmann]

As more new car dealers are buying auction used cars for resale??? Are there states to avoid that are known for cleaning titles and odometer roll back??? I know it's supposed to be illigal. I have looked at cars with cafax and auto check that were quite questionable. Whom can we trust these days? THANKS DK

51Dyno.

This AACA Website strives to be dedicated to vehicles 25 years old and older "as they left the factory". I would think it best to Google your query for late model vehicles.

Regards,

Peter J.

[Guest ken bogren]

Peter J.Heizmann

This AACA Website strives to be dedicated to vehicles 25 years old and older

So that would be 1986 this year I guess.

And since CarFax reports....

.... are available on all used cars and light trucks model year 1981 or later.

So that would include cars as much as 30 years old.

They seem to be appropriate to discuss here.

New car dealers around here seem to occasionally have 1981- 1986 and older cars available.

And certainly we want to know we are doing business with honest dealers, right?

[51dyno]

To Peter H.: I am aware of the site and its purpose. But there is a lot of tallent and knowledge on this board with daily life and buying cars wether old or newer. Last time I was in Europe ran into a feller that claimed if you are willing to pay the price there are computer geek's that can set the digital milage to what you want,if they can do it there were the laws are sticter then here it could happen here to????????????Thanks DK