Buying a new car will be a straightforward affair. But, when it comes to buying a used vehicle, you need to do a lot of research and legwork to ensure that you get the good car and deal — and you don’t fall for several scams that the fraudsters use for ripping off their buyers. Some following used car scams happen on their own; however many times criminals use it too. But, the best part is, you may protect yourself & avoid falling a victim to the predatory sellers when buying used cars in phoenix.
Confusing Window Stickers
Most of the dealer displays the “dealer sticker” close to its official MSRP. This may look very official, but an only purpose is fooling buyers in paying more for that vehicle. A dealer sticker can include various options that got installed AFTER car arrived from manufacturer. They are generally worthless & some are not options at all, however just made-up charges. Like, you may see things “Special Value Package” that includes fabric protection, and charges labeled ADM. It stands for “Additional Dealer Markup” and they are totally worthless!
Odometer Fraud
The digital odometers that were considered to be very less susceptible for tampering will be simple to manipulate. There are some unscrupulous people that are reprogramming the digital odometers by using inexpensive software & devices that are made for recalibrating the faulty odometers. Make sure you compare mileage on the car odometer with mileage indicated on vehicle’s maintenance records & get the CarFax odometer check for free.
Title Washing
This scam erases salvage brandings, which serve as the warning sign on the titles for vehicles that the insurance firms have deemed as loss after the events like the accident and flood. They attain it by transferring the salvage cars to the states where automaker’s brand is not recognized. When state issues the new title, salvage branding will disappear — and if not, seller tries again in a different state.
Dealers Not Offering VIN Search
Whereas vehicle history reports will be available for purchase, truth is you must not need to pay for it if you are buying from the used-car dealer. The reputable dealers offer for free & link every specific car report to the ads. Suppose the ad does not have one and dealer does not offer one, you must consider it to be a red flag.