Lesson Learned re: Buying A Used Car

[Mike4AU]

I have been talking with a fellow in Florida about buying his 1989 Mercedes 560SL (convertible, roadster). Really nice car for a decent price.

To make a long story short, I was within an eyelash of telling him I would take it. Then I ordered a Carfax...saved my butt....report shows indications of an odometer rollback, salavage title in Tx, re-registered in La without any reference to the salvage title in Tx (this is called title washing).

The car belonged to the guy's mom. I suspect that she nor him had any knowledge of this. She probably did not get a Carfax in 1999 when she bought the car.

I am disappointed, but extremely glad I followed my rule of thumb....always get a Carfax when considering buying a used car. Keep this episode in mind when ya think about getting a used car.

Hope this helps.

Mike

[BobJoe123]

Did you inform him of what you found?

[Mike4AU]

Did you inform him of what you found?

Yep and sent him a copy of the report. I do believe that he had no knowlege of this. I think his mom got hosed when she bought the car from a "collector" (owner's words).

[Skiman]

That Carfax report may have saved you from some huge expenses, not necessarily related to it's ownership history. You correctly point out the benefit of a Carfax report, however, even if it had come back 'clean', I personally wouldn't touch a 20 year old Mercedes with a ten foot pole. Have you priced the cost of parts and labor for this car?

[Mike4AU]

Yep...not inexpensive.

[blackzarg]

Yup! Carfax is absolutely great. It's saved my family on salvage titles a few times!

[dvenardos]

So you guys never buy salvage titles?
My understanding is that a salvage title comes anytime damage is more than the insurance company is willing to repair, so it is not necessarily a bad car. My mom has been looking at Prius with salvage titles and I didn't really have anything worthwhile to say about it.

[CAK]

Depends

on what you're willing to live with. Some recovered theft's may be salvage titled because all of the interior was stolen. I wouldn't have an issue owning one of those because it's not structural and mostly a bolt on and go affair...although the title will still reduce its value if you go to re-sell it.

Cars that have been salvage titled from collision/flood damage, I wouldn't touch it, too risky.

[Stereodude]

Insurance on a salvage title can get tricky too if you want collision.

[Mike4AU]

Keep in mind that folks who work on or repair salvage title cars try to cut every corner they can to keep the cost of repair down. Fundamentally, only shysters deal in salvage title cars.

The odds of getting a problem car when buying a salvage title car are high.

[neuronbob]

Actually, when purchasing a used car, one should check both Carfax AND Autocheck. Each has slightly different sources and may have information the other doesn't. Neither service is perfect....

[CAK]

I work for a major insurance company and have access to ISO reports. These are the best possible reports to run as far as a vehicle history.

[Mike4AU]

I work for a major insurance company and have access to ISO reports. These are the best possible reports to run as far as a vehicle history.

How does one go about ordering these reports?

Thanks

[koa]

When I bought the Miata in the other thread (Daughter's first car) I ran Carfax and Autochecker. Both showed a glitch in the mileage when the seller registered in her name at the time of her purchase. Mileage had dropped 25K, but next day with smog check it came back up to correct mileage. That was fine, but there was very little history on the car like where it was first sold, dealer names, or how many owners it had. It listed a few services but no details as to what was done which led me to having the timing belt done since there was no way of knowing if it had been done by whoever owned it at 60K miles. Maybe because it was an older car, not much had been reported. Carfax refunded me my money, Autochecker did not even though there were fewer events than they stated with initial report. I relied a lot on my feel for the lady selling the car which can also be a problem since I don't think she honestly knew the car needed a clutch or that it had paint work done to it. I feel I did alright considering I was dealing from 2500 miles away, but it could have turned into a nightmare pretty easily, but at less than 3K I was willing to risk the downside.

On cars that have large followings with active forums there are usually forum members that would check a car out for someone if there's time. So that might be another option. I would still run a Carfax to check the title.