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URGENT: Just got screwed on a car

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What's on the Bill of Sale? Most states require the car's made, model, year, mileage and VIN to be stated on Bill of Sale. If any of these is missing, or different than the truth, tell him to give your money back or you'll take it back through court.
Also, let the check go through or you'll be in deepsh!t.
 
Originally posted by: dirtboy
Originally posted by: jumprIf the bill of sale for the car says "As-Is" anywhere, you're SOL. In fact, you're likely SOL anyway. Why the hell didn't you do a CarFax BEFORE handing over $1900?
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But if he entered the contract based on a lie, then he is not subject to the terms of the contract. The owner should know the status of a title, after all it is quite hard to hide a salvage title.

He may have to go to court if the guy doesn't give him his money back and I think he'd win.

[edit] erm...wouldn't the title state salvage on it if it was a salvaged title?? Maybe Carfax is wrong. You might have to do some investigating to get to the bottom of this.
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if he stated clearly that the car had a clean title when in fact it was not, you have a case and you should get a lawyer.

if he didn't, then you're SOL
 
Originally posted by: ThisIsMatt
Originally posted by: PhasmatisNox
Salvage = BAAAD
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Not necessarily.
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Agreed. The OP said there was some damage on one side. The damage may have been enough for an insurance company to declare it totalled and sell it to a junkyard. The junkyard then put it together enough for it to run and sold it back out as salvaged.

The Ecology Auto yard in Santa Fe Springs, CA always has bunches of cheap cars out front. They were junked for whatever reasons (body damage, engine trouble, owner abandoned, owner died, owner just got tired of fixing it, etc) and were easily put back on the road.

Your odometer may be inaccurate because it was replaced. The dealer may have not known, though I feel it's the dealer's responsibility to run a Carfax (or similar) on any used vehicle they sell.
 
Originally posted by: Crazymofo
I'd advise you go ahead and let that check go thru... I spent a night in jail and $2000 in lawyer fees for doing the exact same thing. It is a felony!
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Read this post over and over and over.
In court two wrongs do not make a right.
 
im not sure what you could possibly do, but at least the amt in question was 1900.... its a harsh lesson learned but others have learned much worse
 
yea, almost happened to me except the title looked clean. had a friend check it out. he drove behind me on the highway to make sure the car frame wasn't bent (sign of major accident). it was bent. other signs pointed to a major accident as well such as lines between doors and body weren't even. learn to spot these things.

good luck
 
If the title does not say salvage on it, then it is clean.
If the car is salvaged in one state, it may be able to get a clear title in another.

I think you are SOL on this one, depending what is on the title
 
Originally posted by: PhasmatisNox
Salvage = BAAAD
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not necessarily.

All salvage means is that one time it was considered more to fix than replace, or was damaged beyond safe repair. (thats the bad part)

If you fix it up and get it inspected, you can get a regular title as long as it passes inspection.
 
You should not have stopped payment on the check. That was a very bad idea. Before you can contest something monetary, you MUST be in good standing. By stopping funds on the check, you made it appear as though you were the one trying to commit the fraud.
You must see the dealer (he is a dealer if he sells cars for a business, regardless of how many or how few) immediately to discuss the issue. Take the carfax with you. As you stopped the funds on the check, you will not be in as good a negotiating position as you would have liked. Take your checkbook, as you may have to write him a new check, and then go home and call your lawyer to start the lawsuit (and call the BBB and whatever state agency regulates car dealers where you live).
You have 2 issues in your favor. Selling a car with a salvage title and representing it as a clean title is fraud. That's the smaller, trickier issue though, and will be difficult to prove. The big one is the odometer rollback. That's a federal felony, and can be proved easily (from the car itself and from DMV records). Whether or not he actually rolled it back is irrelevant, as a car dealer he can get busted regardless.
 
Originally posted by: slag
Originally posted by: PhasmatisNox
Salvage = BAAAD
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not necessarily.

All salvage means is that one time it was considered more to fix than replace, or was damaged beyond safe repair. (thats the bad part)

If you fix it up and get it inspected, you can get a regular title as long as it passes inspection.
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Negative. A salage title is always a salvage title. I agree that it's not necessarily always bad, that sometimes insurance companies write a car off as "totalled" just because the air bags went off, but once the title is branded it cannot be made clean again, regardless of the repair/restoration.
 
very reason I bought brand-new. No hassles of background checks.

Hope your lesson was learned, albeit it was an expensive one to learn. :thumbsup:
 
If you confront him with the Carfax report showing the difference in mileage and explain to him that you wouldn't have paid the agreed upon amount if you knew this ahead of the transaction. Keep silence until he responses; if he is disagreeable then remind him you have up to 72 hrs to refuse the sale contract and you a willing to invoke this right if he doesn?t refund your money.
 
Some of you guys are nuts and give bad advice. What the hell does checking Carfax have to do with this case. It is not a clear cut issue of Caveat Emptor. Tell me, what did people do before Carfax? They relied on the seller, duh. Laws didn't change once Carfax became available. The salesman lied and that makes the contract voidable by the purchaser.
 
Originally posted by: GagHalfrunt
What do you have in writing? That's the key, if he *told* you the clean title or the mileage you're out of luck. If he advertised it that way or wrote the mileage or title status down and it's false then you can get out of it.

You should have to pay him the $1900 as a penalty for you being stupid. Exactly how far up your a** was your head when you signed over $2000 to a used car dealer without checking out the car FIRST?????
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when the sale is completed they have to list the actual miles on the Bill of Sale and the transfer of ownership. Obviously, the seller put down a bogus mileage number.
 
Originally posted by: Vic
You should not have stopped payment on the check. That was a very bad idea. Before you can contest something monetary, you MUST be in good standing. By stopping funds on the check, you made it appear as though you were the one trying to commit the fraud.
You must see the dealer (he is a dealer if he sells cars for a business, regardless of how many or how few) immediately to discuss the issue. Take the carfax with you. As you stopped the funds on the check, you will not be in as good a negotiating position as you would have liked. Take your checkbook, as you may have to write him a new check, and then go home and call your lawyer to start the lawsuit (and call the BBB and whatever state agency regulates car dealers where you live).
You have 2 issues in your favor. Selling a car with a salvage title and representing it as a clean title is fraud. That's the smaller, trickier issue though, and will be difficult to prove. The big one is the odometer rollback. That's a federal felony, and can be proved easily (from the car itself and from DMV records). Whether or not he actually rolled it back is irrelevant, as a car dealer he can get busted regardless.
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this is the best advice yet and correct also!

my father owns (but now selling it. i think he is actually going to retire! yea!) a dealership.

though busting the dealership on the roll back will be hard. they do not have to check to see how many miles are on it. But they do have to be truthful. the dealership was not.

But then again you did stop the check. that is fraud and can be called car theft. Good luck on that. you better act fast before the dealer finds out and calls the cops on you.
 
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