Buyer beware… Dammit…

TxDMV has put out a warning about buying cars/trucks that are ‘too good to be true’… And this isn’t just for Texas, by now it could be any of the surrounding states.

TxDMV Warns Buyers to Beware of Flood-Damaged Vehicles

Giving someone a new or used car as a graduation gift may earn you an “A” for effort, but failing to do your homework before buying could be a dangerous and costly mistake. More than eight months after Hurricane Harvey damaged an estimated 500,000 cars and trucks, Texans are still at risk of unknowingly purchasing flood-damaged vehicles.

The Texas Department of Motor Vehicles (TxDMV) is urging Texans to do their research before buying a new or used car.

“Too many Texans already get taken advantage of by people selling flooded, salvaged, and rebuilt vehicles as though they are in perfect condition,” said TxDMV Executive Director Whitney Brewster.

TxDMV uses a national title database under the United States Department of Justice to help stop title fraud and urges consumers to learn how to protect themselves when buying a vehicle. Brewster cautioned, “Don’t find a problem after you bought the vehicle. Protect yourself before you buy.”

TxDMV offers these tips to help detect water damage on a vehicle:

Link HERE to the pdf with hyperlinks. Apparently the link isn’t working. Here’s the verbiage-

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact: Customer Contact: [email protected] [email protected] (512) 465-1484 1-888-368-4689
May 22, 2018
TxDMV Warns Buyers to Beware of Flood-Damaged Vehicles
AUSTIN – Giving someone a new or used car as a graduation gift may earn you an “A” for effort, but failing to do your homework before buying could be a dangerous and costly mistake. More than eight months after Hurricane Harvey damaged an estimated 500,000 cars and trucks, Texans are still at risk of unknowingly purchasing flood-damaged vehicles.
The Texas Department of Motor Vehicles (TxDMV) is urging Texans to do their research before buying a new or used car.
“Too many Texans already get taken advantage of by people selling flooded, salvaged, and rebuilt vehicles as though they are in perfect condition,” said TxDMV Executive Director Whitney Brewster.
TxDMV uses a national title database under the United States Department of Justice to help stop title fraud and urges consumers to learn how to protect themselves when buying a vehicle. Brewster cautioned, “Don’t find a problem after you bought the vehicle. Protect yourself before you buy.”
TxDMV offers these tips to help detect water damage on a vehicle:
 Get the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) off the vehicle you want to buy.
 Do a Title Check and obtain a Vehicle History Report at www.TxDMV.gov/title-check.
 Have an independent mechanic examine the vehicle.
 Examine the interior and engine compartment for evidence of water and grime. An extremely clean vehicle might also be a red flag to investigate further.
 Check for rust on areas of the vehicle that normally do not come in contact with water.
 Check for issues with electronical components such as door locks, windows, or motorized seats.
While these inspection suggestions will not detect water damage in every case, they do provide some information to protect consumers from purchasing a vehicle damaged by water, such as a flood. If you are considering purchasing a used vehicle, consider having it inspected by a licensed mechanic.
Go to TxDMV’s Title Check page. It provides information on obtaining a Vehicle History Report from the only vehicle title database in the nation where all states, insurance carriers, and junk and salvage yards are required by federal law to report. It contains title information on cars, trucks, motorcycles, motorhomes, buses, and big rigs – virtually every titled motor vehicle in the country.
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“When title fraud happens, innocent people are hurt,” Brewster said. “We need everyone to urge their family members, neighbors, friends, and coworkers to do their research and spend a few extra dollars before they buy any vehicle.”
“Remember,” she added. “Don’t Buy a Wreck. Do a Title Check.”
For more information:
 Title Check, www.TxDMV.gov/title-check
 National Motor Vehicle Title Information System, www.vehiclehistory.gov

Subscribe to receive TxDMV news releases via email or text message.

The Texas Department of Motor Vehicles serves, protects and advances the citizens and industries in the state with quality motor vehicle related services. For every $1 it spends, the TxDMV returns $11 to the state. Each year the agency registers more than 24 million vehicles; issues more than 8 million vehicle titles; licenses approximately 34,000 motor vehicle dealers and distributors; credentials more than 60,000 motor carriers; issues more than 650,000 oversize/overweight permits; investigates approximately 13,000 complaints against dealers and motor carriers; and awards grants to law enforcement agencies to reduce vehicle burglaries and thefts. Learn more at www.TxDMV.gov.

My grandson got bit on a flood damage/salvage car out in California last year… When the research got done on the title, it actually was a salvage, and had sold for $250.  He paid $1500, and it STILL trying to get all the ‘little’ problems fixed. When we tried to go back on the sellers, they were of course long gone, burner phone dead, etc. And this was off Craig’s list…

Do your #%^^@ homework! If it looks too good to be true, it probably IS! And yes, there are ‘fake’ titles out there, or cars that have been ‘washed’ through two or three states to get rid of the salvage title!

Comments

Buyer beware… Dammit… — 9 Comments

  1. You know, they should make it a crime to KNOWINGLY sell a vehicle without revealing the fact to the buyer. That is like selling a firearm you know has some ‘issues’ that are expensive to fix or make it unsafe to use.

  2. Hey Old NFO;

    When I go car shopping, I look under the floor mats for mold, also open the trunk and look under the spare tire, if the car got flooded, you would see mold and you would know. Another trick is to look at interior moldings and see if they are “crooked”, this shows that somebody was monkeying behind it trying to clean it up. You are correct, if it is too good to be true…then it probably is. I also take a “scanner” I have an OBDII scanner, they are cheap, about a 100 bucks from advance or ebay, they can read the car computer and it will tell you if there is a problem like they “unhooking the battery” until right before you show up to keep the “check engine” light off until after cash changed hand and “Ruh Roh Shaggy”. The code shown in the scanner is “P1000”. The same reason it will not pass an emission test because the computer in the car is “still checking” before it throws a code.

  3. Consider I was in the car biz for decades and “bought” hundreds of vehicles (trade ins). A skillful “detailer” can hide a lot of problems. Bob’s advice, above, is sound. Pro tip. Get an extension mirror. You can find them for less than $5. Ones with a built in light, which I used, are more. The one place even the best detailer can’t completely clean is under the dash. Look hard at the cracks and crevices. Often the vehicle was partially flooded but a lot of electronics are under the front seats in many models. Again, look in cracks and crevices.

    Lastly, use the mirror to check under the car, especially the entire exhaust system. Any sign of repairs, or missing catalytic converters, is a huge red flag. You don’t need to be a mechanic. Any repairs will jump out. Everything should look uniform.

  4. yup recurring problem along the coast. I got to where I will only buy from a long time dealer, but even they will cheat you if you aren’t on your game with used cars.

  5. All- Fixed the problem, just put the verbiage with the links in the post. Good points, and thanks for the advice WSF!

    Posted from my iPhone.

  6. I was driving I-10 from San Antonio area to Jacksonville FL at the end of last September and it was crazy on the road. There were convoys of big Electrical repair rigs and crews heading home from patching stuff up all over the Gulf area and along with those there were large numbers of car carriers filled with nice looking flood damaged vehicles. Some of the cars still had license plates and lot of them did not but I am sure these were part of the millions that had been damaged.

    I got screwed twice years ago buying damaged cars, one an Olds Cutlass in the mid-1970s had been in a rough front end wreck and repaired, it was a couple of months before I discovered the damage and then not long after I was cleaning up the interior and found a lot of dried blood on the bottom of the dash. Crazy thing is that was a great car and we kept it and drove it for a long time. The other was a dumb-assed purchase of a very low mileage 1981 Cadillac Seville from a respected dealer and it had all kinds of wanky problems and I dumped it in less than a year and felt like an idiot for buying it.

  7. Car and Driver magazine just had a big article on the estimated 600,000 cars destroyed by hurricane Harvey.

    Some states will purge the “salvage” or “totaled” designation from a car’s title, so the shady dealers will re-title a car in a state that does that, and then resell it elsewhere.

    It’s been going on ‘forever’, and lots of people get burned.