Dealer Fraud

1. Warranty Facts
You can sometimes get a car that is still under warranty. If this is the case, check with the warranty (perhaps call the number in the warranty book) to ask if there is anything that you need to do to keep the warranty when you buy the car. This often just involves sending out a letter with the purchase information to the dealership.
If you buy from a car dealership, you can often get warranties on used cars. If you want peace of mind when purchasing, consider this option for sure.

2. Warning Signs
If the odometer reading doesn’t match the wear and tear of the car, then you should definitely ask for some records.
If there is any vagueness about getting the service records for the car, you might want to walk away.

3. Getting a Good Price
Because the cost of new cars is going up, there is more of a demand for used cars. This means that some dealerships believe that they can take more money than the car is worth. There are a few things that you need to do to get a good price.
Do your research; check online and in used car guides to find out what the prices of cars listed online to sell are. If you are uncertain about buying a car online, then don’t. Often purchasing a car online means that it will come from a long distance, and as such, you will have to pay exorbitant shipping or delivery costs, which will not be worth the money that you are saving off the sticker price.

4. Making the Payments
Instead of getting a car loan from the dealership and paying the dealer or the seller monthly payments, consider taking out a loan from the bank. You will often get better interest (or financing, as it is called with cars) rates. Go to a bank or credit union before you go shopping for your car. Salespeople will try to talk you into going with the dealership’s rates; you will be better off if you already have your financing set up. Credit unions can sometimes offer even better rates than banks on loans and are an often-overlooked choice.

5. The Information to Get
In some states, you can ask to get the used vehicle information package. This will have the details of the previous maintenance and ownership history of the car.
Always do a complete visual inspection of a car. Even if you are buying a car from the internet, buy one from your province or state so that you can go and check it out first. Alternatively, agree with the seller that you have the right to return the car for a full refund (including shipping) if it does not meet your standards.

6. What not to Trust
Don’t judge the use of a car by it’s brakes; a dealer can buy new brake pads for less than $10, which is often an easy fix for a car.
If a car has rear-door-hinges that are very worn, it might have been used as a taxi, and you should probably find another one. Check the roof of the car to see if there have been any holes filled in; this could have been a sign for a delivery vehicle. They also often have been used a lot.
Be careful if a car looks like it has been freshly painted. This could mean that it has been in an accident that is trying to be covered up.

7. And finally…
Buying a used car can be a great deal for you. You can save money on the car itself, and you can get a safe means to travel. Remember, the condition of the car is more important than if it has had multiple owners, or even the odometer reading. Good luck shopping!

Used cars may be wrecked, re-built and re-sold legally to unsuspecting buyers! A clean title and bill of health can even be acquired by the used car seller and the used car buyer may never know the car had been wrecked and/or “totaled” in an accident!

The only way to ever know a car’s true condition is to have a good independent mechanic check it out before you buy.

A flood car is one that has been caught in a flood and underwater then salvaged and cleaned up for re-sale to unsuspecting car buyers and even used car dealers! Consequently, you cannot even trust that the title held by the used car dealer is legitimate, even though, by law, the title of a flood car is supposed to state that the car has been under water.

In essence, you cannot trust what the used car dealer knows so you must inspect used vehicles thoroughly yourself or have a good mechanic do it. Check under the hood for corrosion and look for water lines indicating how high the water level may have reached during a flood. Also, check under the dashboard, seats and floor mats for signs of dirt and/or sand.

Too many new car dealers selling so-called “certified” used cars say that they have no way of making absolutely sure that the used cars they sell have not be involved in major collisions and have been re-built to be re-sold to unsuspecting car buyers, who are not made aware the cars were once wrecked! However, this is hardly believable because if independent car mechanics can easily spot re-built wrecks then so can car dealers!
Only around half of the motor vehicle departments in all 50 states in United States even supply local governments with enough information to determine if a used car has been completely wrecked then re-built for re-sale to the public! This makes the so-called “used car search and information” internet services or independent services being sold to consumers for a fee not very practical and essentially unable to really know if a used car has ever been wrecked or not. Consequently, hundreds of thousands of cars that get “totaled”, or completely wrecked beyond repair, get re-built for re-sale and end up being bought and driven by unsuspecting car buyers!
Too often these cars end up getting involved in collisions again that may kill the driver and passengers because the re-built wrecks were not re-built for safety but were re-built just to “look” good to prospective car buyers! Re-built wrecks may not even have proper functioning airbags and other safety equipment put back into them and few, if any, proper repairs may be made to ensure the re-built wrecks are even safe to drive again!
Your only hope is to have a competent, independent mechanic that does not work for the car dealer inspect the used car you want to buy before you buy it to determine if the car has been wrecked then re-built. Once you buy the car from the dealer it may be too late to get customer satisfaction even if your re-built wreck case ends up in a court of law!

A motor vehicle salesperson recently explained to me that there are 11 steps that dealers use to get the most money out of you that they can get in a deal. I call it 11 Steps Dealers Use to Rip You Off.
For new cars, dealer prep means doing what the factory requires but watch out they don’t try to charge you for “dealer prep” because the factory actually pays them for it anyway. Charging you too gives them double the money!
For used cars, it could mean anything from putting sawdust in the transmission to “clocking” the odometer (altering it to reflect a more desirable lower number that makes the vehicle worth more), or a lot more.
Tip: For used cars, ask to take the car to get an inspection done by an independent mechanic. If they won’t let you, there’s probably a reason so be careful. For new cars, watch out for all the extra charges the dealer will try to tack on to the deal…they are all negotiable!

Next, you have to land the customer on a car. If you don’t find out what they want, and “land” them on it, the customer will wander around the lot, poking their head into every car, test driving who knows what, until hours have gone by and nothing has been accomplished. The dealer wants to avoid all of that by asking the customer what kind of car they are looking for, sedan, mini van, sports car, pickup truck, or whatever. Next, find out if the customer likes a particular make, Ford, Chevy, Chrysler, whatever. Figure out what color the customer likes. Surprisingly, many customers buy by color and style first and make and model second.

With used cars, many dealers want to have the sales person take the customer on a test drive, rather than let the customer drive it off the lot, ostensibly “for insurance purposes“. In reality, if the car acts up during the test drive, the sales person can feign the malfunction on their own lack of product knowledge, if they can’t conceal the malfunction completely. Test drives are usually done on an established route that the sales person is familiar with. That can help avoid road and traffic issues that can bring out a car’s problems. Bad shocks can be harder to detect if you avoid certain road surfaces. If a warning light lights up on the dash, or the fan doesn’t work on high speed, the sales person is trained to quickly point out that it will be fixed before the customer takes delivery.

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