A warning to those in the market

[RAArmstrong]

So I've been looking at F10 530d's for the last little while. Have a little niggle in my mind. Anyway. I came across what looks like a really clean nicely specced example at Vaalridge Auto. Nicely priced etc etc etc.

Anyway, had Coisman have a look into the car.

This car was advertised with 110k km. In actual fact has over 236k km on it and is accident damaged and repaired. I've informed the dealership but I see the car is still advertised...

http://www.autotrader.co.za/used-ca...es-530d--fpa-8a81c8d65bf26406015c10651308708a

The above is the car in question. Stay the hell away!

 

[MikeR]

:YesNo::YesNo::YesNo::YesNo: there must be a way to report them and stop them doing this...who are the real authorities.

 

[RAArmstrong]

Good question. I phoned and spoke to the dealer principle yesterday and he asked for me to forward the info I had. So maybe he'll do something about it, or maybe they'll just sell it on to some poor unsuspecting victim...

 

[Dirtydeedsman]

This car belonged to gent who used to work in my office park. Last time I spoke to him the car was hijacked in Roodepoort and the thieves accidented as they were driving off damaging the front. Police recovered it a few days later and insurance wrote it off...

I am going to look for a pic of it in the parking lot just to confirm the number plate but I am positive this is the one .

 

[GoCart]

What about E60 M Sport? Herman must buy it no, or broken?

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But yes, be very careful when buying a car, many many interesting things out there.

Cois is a absolute asset to have, and thank goodness we have access to him.

 

[Bmw E46 Touring]

My question is how do they manipulate the km reading on these cars?

 

[Sabretooth tiger]

These type of dealers make it very hard, for the honest dealers to make ends meet.

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You can now also report an advert to Autotrader.

 

[ChefDJ]

My question is how do they manipulate the km reading on these cars?

I ponder this too.

 

[momo1]

Thanks for the heads up.
I think we should have an official warning page/thread informing us of this.
I see it happening far too often.

 

[M3_devil]

Possibility exist that guy traded car in after repairs and kilo tampering.

 

[ChefDJ]

The dealership however does know that there is a major fault with the car (and an illegal one at that) and should therefore take the necessary steps to have the problem seen to. If it arrived there like that, they have grounds to reverse the transaction the same way a customer would.

 

[RAArmstrong]

What about E60 M Sport? Herman must buy it no, or broken?

---

But yes, be very careful when buying a car, many many interesting things out there.

Cois is a absolute asset to have, and thank goodness we have access to him.

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Well I have an E60 MSport now but I'm putting nuclear mileage on her and have a cash offer on the car so I'm toying with my options a bit

 

[TurboLlew]

My question is how do they manipulate the km reading on these cars?

I ponder this too.

Find a lower mile crashed car and transfer all the electronics/lockset etc across. Harder than just swapping the cluster (as on some other models) but not impossible.

There is a place I went to whilst hunting for a set of 20s. There were gran coupes, 6 coupes and a couple of M cars in various states of repair (ie: written off and being repaired) at least one of which allegedly still had plan.

These cars wind up back in the trade inevitably looking attractive to those without a keen eye. Seen more than one M5 (helping guys look) that has had extensive and poor paintwork repaired off the grid with no comments and motorplan (confirmed with BMW).

EDIT: To give you guys an idea of how quickly these parts get cannibalized, I wanted to go and look at a sakhir orange interior and within 3 days it was gone from the scrap yard... together with the rest of the car... like literally the whole car. There was just a damaged motor left.

 

[TurboLlew]

The dealership however does know that there is a major fault with the car (and an illegal one at that) and should therefore take the necessary steps to have the problem seen to. If it arrived there like that, they have grounds to reverse the transaction the same way a customer would.

There are some dealers which seem to specialise in these sorts of cars/deals. Their target market is not the vigilant buyer.
:roflol:

 

[sash]

And this is why we have Cois and guys like John and Jerry from BMW. I find their feedback imperative when looking to spend this amount of money.

With regard to the vehicle advertised, the price is clearly lower than what other dealers are selling at. This seems highly unlikely that the dealer was not aware of the damage, maybe not the full extent as somebody else mentioned write-off

 

[rodga]

The dealership however does know that there is a major fault with the car (and an illegal one at that) and should therefore take the necessary steps to have the problem seen to. If it arrived there like that, they have grounds to reverse the transaction the same way a customer would.

not quite illegal...

http://www.iol.co.za/motoring/industry-news/how-to-avoid-getting-clipped-1084522

While it is entirely legal to adjust the odometer readings on your car (it’s your car, you can do with it what you like), it is fraud to deceive a buyer into thinking a car has done less distance than it actually has.

 

[ChefDJ]

The dealership however does know that there is a major fault with the car (and an illegal one at that) and should therefore take the necessary steps to have the problem seen to. If it arrived there like that, they have grounds to reverse the transaction the same way a customer would.

not quite illegal...

http://www.iol.co.za/motoring/industry-news/how-to-avoid-getting-clipped-1084522

While it is entirely legal to adjust the odometer readings on your car (it’s your car, you can do with it what you like), it is fraud to deceive a buyer into thinking a car has done less distance than it actually has.

I would think reasoning applies here. Yes an odometer can be adjusted in cases such as where engines are replaced and you wish to reflect the mileage of the new engine, however advertising the vehicle without disclosing the adjustment and the reading before the adjustment was made is, as stated, fraudulent and so it's illegal.

 

[rodga]

The dealership however does know that there is a major fault with the car (and an illegal one at that) and should therefore take the necessary steps to have the problem seen to. If it arrived there like that, they have grounds to reverse the transaction the same way a customer would.

not quite illegal...

http://www.iol.co.za/motoring/industry-news/how-to-avoid-getting-clipped-1084522

While it is entirely legal to adjust the odometer readings on your car (it’s your car, you can do with it what you like), it is fraud to deceive a buyer into thinking a car has done less distance than it actually has.

I would think reasoning applies here. Yes an odometer can be adjusted in cases such as where engines are replaced and you wish to reflect the mileage of the new engine, however advertising the vehicle without disclosing the adjustment and the reading before the adjustment was made is, as stated, fraudulent and so it's illegal.

failing to disclose is illegal, not the actual mileage change...
thats why they do it, it difficult to prove so they get away with it
So you are incorrect in saying that the fault is an illegal one....

 

[ChefDJ]

Apologies. My wording should have been better.

 

[rodga]

Apologies. My wording should have been better.

not bashing you, I just come across it quite often
If people understand what is illegal they will hopefully be able to pay more attention to these issues in future