My mom is an Anti-scmmer hero!! My parents tried to buy my brother a Toyota truck, they got scammed the guy had rolled the odometer and lied about it being 4x4 and the year. My mom found more listing of his and discovered this was his standard motus operandi, so she got the news involved They were able to get the guy trying to sell a Jetta to the news crew with a rolled odometer and the wrong year. So then, with pressure we would turn him in, we were able to get him to buy back the truck. I went with my Dad and we met him at a Home Depot. I had my GoPro strapped to my chest and counted out his money in front of the camera and gave him back the messed up title. I gave the video to the news so they cold do a follow up story and we turned around and found my brother a really nice 4Runner :)
I had a guy once tell me he had someone looking at the truck I was driving an hour to come buy, I was only 10 minutes in on a 1:30hr drive. just replied with "Damn hope he buys it then because I'm not wasting the gas to maybe buy the thing. Good luck with the sale" An hour later he replied saying the guy didn't want it and I should come get it, told him its all good I don't waste my time like that and again good luck with the sale. He wasn't happy and started getting angry in the texts and demanding that I come buy the truck, I blocked his number and moved on found a better deal on a better truck later. Moral of the story if someone isn't willing to do the bare minimum and be patient for a sale they aren't worth the costs of doing business with them.
It kills me when I see people make an ad and put angry wordage in it or make demands in the ad. They think because they are the ones selling that *they* have leverage in the deal when I'm the one with the money. You know, the thing *you* want so badly. Nope, buyer has the cash they have the leverage because there is ALWAYS a better vehicle out there and possibly a better deal. I can wait, I don't need your car b
Car salesman here - the point at 6:50 about dealers with in-house financing tacking on extra % points to your interest rate- accurate, it does happen. However, what you don’t know is that the banks you choose or get approved to finance through also do this as well. Always try to source your own outside financing through a bank you are already with for the best rates, unless the dealership can offer you a better one 🤝
"Needs a tune up" or "Needs carbs cleaned" is something to run from. If they're telling you the "solution" instead of the problem, the problem is bigger than they want you to know.
IMO for a car older than about 10 years, don’t even worry about miles, evaluate the car. On a 3 year old car a 25k and 200k mile car will be wildly different in wear, but after 10, 20, 30 years miles barely mean anything. A 150k mile car might’ve been meticulously maintained and religiously driven at least once a month to circulate fluids, etc. a low mileage old car may have sat for 10 years undriven and every lubricant and seal has dried out, the fuel system is rotten, and it may need almost a full rebuild to work. There’s also city vs highway miles, I’d say an NYC car with 10k miles is like a Texas car with 100k miles in terms of engine hours and wear. Never try to gauge a car based on odometer and other ancillary ways, get it on a lift and look at the car in front of you and see if it’s good, don’t try to judge the engine by the arm rest wear.
Big ups on that letting a car sit is bad. I was shopping around for an older Corvette and I'd see 10 year old cars with 15k miles. Probably fine if they saw 1.5k a year yeah? But then I'd run the Carfax and see that it hit 12k in the first year and 14k in the second. Meaning it either got a few hundred a year from then on (no) or if sat for years. The car I ended up buying had 80k miles, but it was pretty regularly driven 5-10k a year and had a good service record. Been pretty bulletproof since then.
You are right, I just bought an original owner 06 Acura TL with 100k miles. I was worried about the dry rot of seals and gaskets because of the low mileage. Luckily I was able to get an extensive carfax report and all maintenance receipts from the owner. After driving the car for a whole day, I was sure it was a well maintained car. I could have haggled with the price but really wanted the car because it fit into my budget. $6k out the door.
Very true. I think identifying a lot of this comes with experience. Collecting and working on cars and seeing cars in varying states of decay and disrepair even with low mileage. But all good points nonetheless, especially for people who are newer or less experienced and may cling to the mileage number a little too hard when buying their childhood dream car that's now 30 years old. Edit: I just thought to add that I also put a little weight on how knowledgeable the owner is about general car stuffs. Two owners may both say "meticulously maintained" about the car they're selling, but one is like me with car OCD who did everything by the book or better and the other is just a casual who means he got regular oil changes and didn't really replace bushings or trans/diff fluid or anything like that. Those two cars are going to be at very different levels.
I work in a bank. Some years back, I had a customer (who should have known better) who wired $50K to another country to buy a car from Texas. Once the money was sent, the "seller" ghosted. FYI, your bank will not reimburse you.
OMG anybody who requires you to wire money to them is a scammer! Anything is better than that. Cashier's check, PayPal, Venmo, Zelle, cash exchanged in a bank branch - anything!
Bought a car from a dealership. They said it was a clean title. Brought it home, had a few people check it out, turns out there were signs I didn't see that it had been in a major crash. Rolled. Dents pulled, radiator frame replaced, hood replaced, and repainted. Took it back and got our money back luckily.
I'm super stressed and in the hospital right now. Seeing this made my stress much more manageable. Thanks for the content, everyone. Might not get a lot of attention but I hope Donut and gang understands (Big Time, Speeed) that we appreciate you guys for being there when need you, even though you dont realize.
I got car scammed online. I bought a Donut media shirt, then crashed my ebike and got a bunch of holes in it. Then all the hosts went to different shows.
The "used" semi truck sales are the same with paint. We call them 80% trucks. 80% of what they do is cover problems with black paint. The worst part is the people who use the budget to actually make them road worthy actually have a harder time selling their truck because they are less visually appealing.
Another dealership tip. Go through your own financing from a bank you trust. They mentioned the scam of hiking the interest rate as a means of pocketing the money, but not the alternative. Had a dealership offer me 8% interest on a 5 year loan before i even told him i was interested in financing only to tell him i was preapproved somewhere else for half that. Felt real good lol
In addition, I’ve told the dealership I have my own financing after arriving at a deal and offered to use the dealership’s financing if they can offer me a better deal than the one we have already agreed to…that’s worked twice for me.
Yeah don't tell them you're pre-approved until you get to a set sale price. Otherwise they'll pack the profits they would've snuck in the financing charges onto the price they give you.
A friend went to a car lot and walked off with a beater but was super proud because he did it by himself (“like a man”). The business set him up with a personal loan for 25% because the car was too cheap to qualify for their auto loans. By the payoff he could have gotten a much newer and nicer car. Don’t be too proud to ask someone, or multiple people for advice. Especially if they have done it several times, they probably have at least an ounce of information worth hearing
It's even more fun when you know full well ahead of time you're paying cash, and they push super hard for you to fill out an app. Still a proud moment to pay cash for a brand new car.
Thank you Donut! This is the kind of content that I think is so valuable in today’s online landscape and we need more people talking about shady practices. I’ve bought my fair share of vehicles and it still feels shady sometimes. I feel bad for kids out there just trying to buy their first cars
I bought an Infiniti G35 from a Chevy dealer and they did the fake carfax. I bought the car when I was 18yr old. Went to try to trade the car years later and no one would give me even $1000 for it. Went to the dealership where i bought it originally and everyone there was fired because they got caught doing fraud. Good times, good times.
Damn...I just picked up a G35 from a private seller for $1500, but it came with a bolt-on exhaust, coilovers, slotted/drilled rotors and matching pads, and a cat-delete tune on it. I'm well aware that I'm probably in a similar situation, but this thing is going to be mine until it stops running 😂
Some dealers are the worst; even they do odometer rollbacks. I know this because I had a car when I was in college (2012 Ford Focus SE), and I bought it used with about 110,000 miles. I put about 45k miles on it and used it as a down payment on my next vehicle, so I traded it in with about 155,000 miles. A couple week later, I see it on the dealer lot, listed at 92,000 miles… I realized in that moment that I’m NEVER going to purchase another vehicle from that Ford dealer anymore.
Don't know where you're from but around here if a dealer is selling rolled back cars their business is shut down and they get like 6 years of jail time.
There was a used car lot up the street from where I worked that got busted for doing rollbacks as well as knowingly selling lemons and dealing in stolen vehicles. He ended up going to prison for a long time.
You should always use a tiny bit of purple edge lighting to counter the green glow left after keying, so the edges your performers faces/necks/hair won't be glowing green.
Better Business Bureau is a scam itself. You want a good rating? give them $400 and then suddenly they're accredited. Using the word Bureau makes it sound like they're some official office but they're a for profit corp providing recommendations, no different than Angie's list. Not a bad place to check for complaints but plenty of bad places have a clean BBB.
Not exactly. Yes, you pay to get an accreditation but you are accredited with whatever their rating is so if you run an F rated business and pay for an accreditation you get an F Accreditation from the BBB. You are not paying for the rating just the accreditation so if you have a poorly rated business then it is in your interest not to pay for said rating.
It could prevent totally fake sites but a lot of companies from home remodeling to car sales will do exactly what you described to boost their status after a bunch of bad reviews
Facebook marketplace is so bad for letting obvious scams just exist for months at a time. It's embarrassing. Nobody is selling 5 year old Honda's and 5th wheels for 3500 dollars ....
Also if you’re possibly trading in a car bring your spare keys and be ready to drive off in your old car. Learned the hard way as I never saw my trade in after they got the keys for inspection. If you don’t like the deal demand your car back politely yet forcefully.
Kia has been doing this lately. I see so many internet posts about it and the only way to make them give the keys back is to call the police. Crazy times man.
Go to Carmax first and get an offer on your car. That way you can always negotiate with that info. Or just don’t bother with a trade in, and just sell to Carmax. Only issue is in some states, you’re only taxed on the difference if trading in a car. (not all states do that though)
One thing to mention on the parts/fake listing's section: use a credit card to purchase parts if you can. You can force a charge back for any fraudulent credit card charges, but not cash or debit.
I recently bought a $2000 Pontiac Sunfire from a local dealership. They didn't mention the thing died when idling after going freeway speeds, so that was a fun drive home. Thankfully it only needed a new throttle position sensor, so I was able to fix it for just $40, but that could've been a nightmare purchase.
If you go to look at a car and they are ‘just washing so it looks good’ and they have water sitting on the car - Wipe away some of the water beads. Selling a car wet is a great way to hide Hail damage. If the car has ‘just been taken around the block to warm it up’ - Run! Some engine and transmission issues are obvious on cold starts but become harder to detect when the vehicle is up to operating temperature.
Not just car scams, got a car insurance quote through GEICO for a 2019 Chevy bolt. $1200 per month. $6000 for 6 months. And they said they were saving me $600. Wtf is that??
In order to get a good rate from GEICO, you need to be 35-62 years old, female, never divorced, 800 credit rating, 100% clean MVR, only used GEICO for all property, live in a very white/rich area, home has garages, closest dollar store is more than 60 miles away.
I bought a title skipped truck a couple years ago that had a title that was already signed. I looked up the guy and found out he had passed away. The DMV told me I needed the estate settlement documentation to get the title in my name. I literally cold called a law firm around where the guy lived and I shit you not, they were the ones that settled the estate. I sent the documents as proof of financial interest, and they sent them back with all the documentation needed to get the title in my name. I was super lucky. But that was wild.
Theres a lot of DMV private shops that could help you around it. My guy filled out a misfilled title document and the transfer went through no problem.
A used car place in Salt Lake (first class cars if you’re out here) trying to sell me a Honda Pilot. There was an extreme whine from the power steering, I checked and they had topped it off that morning. Meaning the pump was going to go out! They tried to push me to buy it anyways because “it’s a small problem. It will probably last a year or more with it!” Then when I asked about repairing it, they refused to do so. I walked off that lot, don’t buy broken cars
Really? Are they still in business? I remember their radio ads from years ago. I went there years ago to look at a Camaro it turned out to be a Crapmaro and I drove all the way from Ogden.
@@carlosnavarro921 yeah, shady business practices preying on those desperate and uninformed motorists is how places like them stay in business. I’ve worked with a lot of places that “approve anyone” but so far they were the shadiest.
I listed an ancient Mercedes 300SD on Craigslist for $1000 years ago. I was very detailed in the description that it was rough, but ran and drove. I had some guy call me claiming he was coming in from Germany and wanted me to leave the car in an unincorporated area in the California desert.... I was like, "Nope, We're not doing that". I have no idea how the scam was supposed to work, but I didn't want to find out.
Dealerships in Alaska have been adding a “Alaska Fee” into even the used trade in cars they have. Usually it’s a $2000 fee they add on for having to get the car delivered to Alaska. Now they add it to ANYTHING on their lot. As well as many dealerships won’t list fees on their sticker price. So imagine my surprise going in to look at a $22k Miata Cx-50 and finding with all these fees -dealership fee, Alaska fee, convenience fee, in stock fee-it was almost $30k. I went for a test drive and took up as much time in that guy’s day, and then left saying I’d only buy it if the final total was $20k. He tried the “well I have several people looking” and I did the, “Well I don’t see them having been here the last 3 hours so I suppose I’ll leave, too.”
“Oh, you have several other people interested in buying THIS car? Are they hiding behind that fake tree, or under a desk? I don’t see any people here right now ready to buy this car. I’m here, right now, with cash (or pre-approved financing). If I walk out that door, I’ll probably find another car to buy,” I was looking at a new pickup, and the dealership was pushing me to a leftover prior year model. It was already end of model year, so the leftover vehicle was nearly 2 years old. Was pre-facelift, and in the “wrong” color. That said, it had more features than I was looking for - real high spec. Spent 3 hours negotiating a price on a truck that wasn’t what I really wanted. Got them down “a bit” to “the lowest they could go”. I left. The guy calls me trying to get me back in. I look up the vehicle on the dealer page - they have it listed for the price it took me 3 hours to talk them down to! 😡. I bought my truck, the year/spec I wanted for $3k LESS than the leftover model, at a different dealership.
@@tanssi2145 A 2012 Nissan Altima, a bit of body damage and blown a gasket before hand. It's been repaired and even came with a 6 month warranty, still running with minor over heating problems due to a faulty temperature control sensor. Doesn't really affect me much because my drives to work are short and it can get me around town. Total price on financing, 5k
Another one is certified checks. Me and a few buddies fixed up a Redline, and went to sell it. We lived in AZ, and a man contacted us a a rep for a garage up near SLC. We looked into the garage, seemed legit. Man came looked at it, even talked to who we thought was the garage owner. We all agreed on a price, he wrote us a check from a reputable bank. And he took the car. I deposited the check to my bank to cash it, and went through, so I pulled my friends money to give them since I could cover it. 2 days later right before the pending was going to end, they pulled a stop check. I called the guy again and line was dead. Called the garage, line was dead. FB page was locked. Friends gave me their money back to cover me since my account went negative. But, they had the car and title, and we got screwed. Lesson learned, never let title go until the check has cleared.
Damn, I thought certified cheques were as good as cash. Doesn't the money get taken from the account and sit in a trust when the cheque is drafted? I don't get how they can order a stop when the money is technically not even theirs anymore.
As a mechanic, I had to let the new owners of a 4Runner know they had been scammed due to an odometer rollback. It was a 2003 4Runner with 55k miles that they paid TOP DOLLAR for. It was very nice looking with immaculate paint and interior. As I am doing a post purchase inspection, I notice that ALL the steering components are new. Also, it has new brakes and a new alternator. I begin to think that is weird that all of that failed after only 55k... Also, the drivers bottom seat cushion looked brand new as well with scratches on the bolts where they had been removed?...But in the end, the gas and brake pedals really gave it away. They both had serious wear on them. Turns out, by looking at the carfax, it had over 200k on it several years before this couple purchased it so who knows how many miles are on it now. The seller, who claimed to have not known and was simply flipping it (possible as all the new stuff still looked like it had more time and mileage on them than he had actually owned it) gave them 50% of their money back. It was still a very nice 4Runner after all.
Traveling with a large amount of cash is outright risky now a days. IF police discover the cash, they can simply confiscate it under "Civil Asset Forfeiture" even if you are not charged with anything or not suspected of anything. The Institute for Justice has been battling this in court recently.
I'm so happy to see this being g talked about more. No one even believes this happens in America until they are the victim. It goes on at all levels. Fed, state, and local.
I once bought a flood damaged vehicle from a dealership. Didn't realize it until like 2 months after i bought it. When all rust started popping through the paint.
My only hesitation about them taking fresh pictures of my stuff and then not buying it is that they could then setup a fake listing with pictures that don't show up on reverse image search! Then people are thinking YOU'RE the one ghosting people after their deposit.
In some cases, you just have to use your COMMON sense. I recently saw a Facebook posting for a C8 Z06. Guy wants $50K for it!!!! No way in hell will someone sell a brand new Z06 that doesn't have significant damage to it for $50K.
Sometimes when you see something like that, it's mostly a scam. I did one time back in 2015 find a 1995 Cutlass cruiser wagon. It was in near mint condition from what I could see and it was craigslist so the posting had gone up like at the exact time I was looking. I NEEDED a vehicle and only had 1500 which was asking, I messaged him and told him I would take it. He said he went with me cause he got hundreds of messages but ever one was low balling. It was a perfect vehicle, only 75k miles original everything, all electricals still worked. I drove it for 2 years and it was stolen 😢
Window Etching! Don't need to pay for it, even if it was done already- check your state's laws before you go. Also- wheel locks already installed? Say no, take them off. Buy your own later for way less. Windshield chip coverage? Your car insurance may already waive the deductible for chip repair. Great video!
I bought a $1000 motorcycle from a guy whose name wasn’t on the title, but he had literally 20/30 really nice motorcycles in his garage and wasn’t shy about opening the garage door, so I just figured he was selling on consignment. No issue with the dmv. Bought a motorcycle for my girlfriend at the time. It was from a nice guy whose name was on the title. The dmv through a fit and this guy had to come and sign a proof of sale. Point is, DMVs are confusing.
My favorite scam is the newish car listed for $1,000. Like a 2019 Jeep Wrangler listed on FB market place for $1,000. I don't even click on it. I just report it as a scam immediately.
Also beware if you are selling your car that the potential "buyer" doesn't do a key swap. I knew a guy who was selling his car, a so called buyer came to his work to check it out, they went for a test drive then later on that evening the dude came back and stole his car with his own key. He'd swapped it out with one that looked the same.
Been living overseas and PCSing back to the states next year. Just bought an Evo VII and NB MX5 this last year to bring back with me. I can’t wait to drive them both back home
Something I felt for on my ford ranger is the guy was super upfront and honest about a few of the issues and because I was focused on those sorta minor, easier to fix issues I missed the bigger ones that were at play that I maybe would have noticed if I was looking closer at everything. Distracted me from the underlying issues
Another thing dealerships do is take your keys when you get there and make you feel stuck. I’ve had that happen to me at three different dealerships where they tried to take my keys. two times I wasn’t even trading in a vehicle I was just buying a second one
@@andoletube key word “tried”. But I have heard it happening to other people. Some people just don’t know how dealerships work. If you think about it normal people only visit them maybe once or twice their entire life
@@andoletube The sales people at the dealership do this kind of thing for a living. They get trained in how to make it appear as if you're the awkward one if you say no. They make it seem as if they're doing you a favor, even.
My friend got severely scammed buying a car. There's a mechanic shop in Nashville that is "fixing" cars that have been in unreported accidents and then selling them.
I worked for a dealership that didn’t even break down the cost and fees when presenting the paper. Just showed them the final cost and it gave the customer no insight of what they bought until the paperwork was signed. I made great money at dealerships but it did made me feel bad when I was scamming people of making them pay more for “add-ons” that were worthless
Can we all stop for a moment and appreciate the level of awesomeness between donut and big time? Tho they branched off and started there own thing, it's really dope to see they come together to do Collaborations together for us
Had someone try to scam me over the sale of a turbo Miata, his scam evaporated when I told him I was flying out to see the car, he immediately emailed me back that the car had been totaled. I'm sure he was thinking I would decide to buy the car from pictures alone.
When I was younger I worked at a chop shop up here in Canada, specifically for trucks, constantly collecting out of province or out of country vehicles and vin swapping to salvage in the next province, then bringing to Ontario as a clean title. I didn’t realize what was going on initially but it didn’t take long to see it. Quit the job and the company is still operating to this day.
You are NOT responsible for back fees owed on a car you have purchased. There is a DMV form that you need to fill out if the vehicle has back fees owed. The car didn’t do anything wrong, and nor did you- you are not responsible, the seller is and this form will keep the fees attached to the seller, rather than the vehicle. Most DMV employees are unaware of this, too.
@@eurosonly “take over payments” means the car is financed and you will need to apply for financing on your own, or pay it off directly to the financier and receive the title from the “seller” once they receive it.
If your state allows (as it should) always be armed when doing these large transactions. DO NOT show up with the money, if you agree to purchase the car, drive to your local bank with the buyer, retrieve the cash, do it all in the parking lot with lots of cameras everywhere. Banks also (sometimes) have a notary if you need one for your state. Also, never go alone if you can help it!
You can do it inside the bank. Tell them you’re buying/selling a car. They’ll let you use a desk, and can either transfer funds directly, or give a bank check, or give cash that you know isn’t fake.
@@stephen3164 100%. To add onto this, something that im surprised wasnt touched on in the video, make sure, and i seriously mean this, that there is no lien on the car, or that by you buying the car, the lien is removed and you now hold the title. I bought a c5 like 3 years ago and there was a lien issue with the title that took about a month to resolve. Its not a scam, but some people are unbelievably ignorant. You can do this inside the sellers bank with the lien
I had to quit selling at dealerships because there where so many things that looked shady with us, but it really was just the back end was so poorly ran and optimized that we where so in the dark on everything. Couldn’t stand it
Lol I was looking for a 240SX yesterday on FB marketplace and saw one it was white for $3000 bucks I looked at the pics and everything and went back to look at more and two ads down was the same EXACT car with the same pics in a different location for $6000 bucks and I texted BOTH sellers and asked why was the car on the site twice and in different locations for different prices and NEITHER OF THE SELLERS SAID ANYTHING BACK YET ! THEY GHOSTED ME ! LOL I believe that they were SCAMMERS and their ads got put to close together and I caught it !
The interest rate thing you guys discussed is called the “buy rate.” The dealership is allowed to mark up the buy rate (I’m not sure the limits) but when I just bought my new ZR2 I asked about it and was given the buy rate.
Not 100% true I'm an auto inspector and vin decoding usually gives you the base color( red, blue, etc) but won't give specific paint numeric codes. Sometimes it gives the actual color name but usually not.
Both my 2018 Dodge Charger AND the 1968 Mustang I had told its color code in VIN. It may not be the exact paint code but certain letters and or numbers in the VIN mean the color that manufacturer designated for that model.
5:20 HAH I can do you one better... small dealer, list a decent car for a good price.. get in there and they are trying to up-sell me to another less glamorous car that costs $2k more... after about 40 minutes of haggling, him trying to lower the price on the car I didn't come in for I just straight up asked "Are you going to sell me the car I came in for or not?!" after about 5 minutes of silence I walked out. Never went back. Don't be pressured into buying things you do not want.
Went to go possibly buy a new car once. Saw a good price online and went to look at it. Got to the dealership and they had tacked on 15k markup "because it was the only one in the county". I flat out told them I wouldnt be buying a car at a markup and they kept trying to "get me to a monthly payment I was hoping for". Eventually I said that a markup on the car was instant value I lost as soon as I drove off the lot and wouldn't buy it at that cost. They offered to cut the markup in half instead but "couldn't sell it at no markup" (?). They said if I didn't buy it it would probably be gone by the end of the weekend because so many people already came to look. Told them I was happy for them and left. A week and a half later they called me back and asked if I was still interested in it. Guess it didn't sell so fast.
I remember asking a seller on Facebook for the VIN for the car he was selling. He went off on a rant about how I might as well ask him for his social security number. I told him that was a ludicrous comparison to make and I wasn't interested anymore.
The most important part that was touched on in every scam they mentioned but never explicitly called out: a clear line of communication. Especially on higher value items, if the seller or buyer seems to be avoiding certain questions or not willing to cooperate with certain processes that make you feel better about the transaction, let those be red flags.
The money-counting thing? Yeah, it doesn't matter who I'm dealing with, I count it myself. Folks make mistakes, and it's a good habit to have to avoid scams on top of that. ALWAYS count it yourself. Verify.
went to a dealership for a very clean 2000 monte carlo, dealership said it was absolutely perfect condition and such, first red flag was that they took almost 25 minutes to get the car cause apparently even though it was in "good condition" it was stored in the back of the lot, 2nd huge red flag was the amount of seemingly shoddy fixed dings on the side of the car and such and the biggest of all red flags, the weirdly long startup even from a very hot start (cause it was baking in the sun at like 110 for a couple days and such) and the fact that the brakes barely worked, honestly my best advice is literally NEVER go to a dealership, unless your trying to buy a new car or the dealership is actually trustworthy and will fix problems that occur for you, they listed the monte carlo for like 4k btw and after "fees" and such it run up to around 10k dollars, WITHOUT repairs that will be needed
I experienced the “title float” one. In my case, it wasn’t really malicious, it was just some guys trying (poorly) to run a “dealership” out of their garage. I went to the DMV to file for a lost title and transfer, and that’s when they told me the car still had a TX title (I live in CA) from TWO owners prior. The car had been sold from the TX owner to a dealer in SF, to the guys I bought it from, to me. I went back to the sellers and was pestering them about it. Eventually, they managed to get ahold of both the SF dealership AND the TX owner and get all the transfer paperwork, which they delivered to me. But, from the day I drove the car home to the day I finally got the title was almost 4 months
Im a noob selling stuff and was thinking of selling my 77 L82 corvette. I was thinking i was going to meet at the bank if i did sell, im glad that isn't unusual.
Another tip that will help avoid buying a lemon is have the seller meet you at a shop to have the vehical inspected (buyer pays the shop fee) or if you can, bring a mechanic with you to check the vehicle over. When I worked on cars, I did quite a few pre-sale inspections both at the shop and on site. Most of the sales were above board and some were real doozies. If the seller is honest, they'll have no problem with it.
The dealer experience has absolutely ruined buying a vehicle. Manufacturers would be wise to start doing away with the dealer network and going direct to buyer.
@@middleagedbaldguy6774 Basically lets say you live in texas where you can't sell directly but they sell it to you from Arizona which they can sell you directly then ship it to your home. Elon loves loopholes.
A dealer might do the interest scam you described but it is illegal. Most new car dealers will not do this because it is illegal. The best way to combat this is to get a pre-approval through your own bank to know what to expect and make sure you go back to your bank with the info for that specific car and get an actual number. You guys are right, the rate switch IS illegal!
Well the book was written in 1988, when Dahl would have been 72, so he was probably drawing on what he'd seen through the years to make sure we understand her dad is an unscrupulous jerk, even if those tricks wouldn't have worked.
A couple of pearls of wisdom I got from my dad to avoid rip-offs: 1. If it looks too good to be true then it most likely is. 2. You can't cheat an honest man.
I bought a 92 Dakota off Craigslist when looked at it great condition 50,000 on the engine told him I buy it went to the bank that Monday when the bank opened when I went to go back and buy looked under the hood and the bolts were taken off recently they tried to switch the engine the hood said v8 the vin was for v8 was a v8 when. I looked now all the sudden there was a v6 in it
yikes... buddy had a Dakota whose floor was entirely duct tape and fiberglass covered in under coating. Looked super legit until he sat in the passenger seat and the floor sagged under his feet.
It works on really old cars. I think it was like the 60s when they started making them so they couldn't because people made a big deal about it but I don't think anyone actually drove backwards to wind them back. Lots of easier ways to get the clock to 0
Here in Canada it's quite common to get US cars... Usually people are open about it and will mention it in the ad... This one time I was trying out a car advertised as having 180K km on the clock... As I pull away on the road when test driving it I'm thinking "WTF! This thing is lame! How is it only doing 40... Waiiiit a minute..." So yeah the car actually had 180K MILES on it... I walked!!
A good way to make sure the seller has the car before sending a deposit or driving out is to have them write your name on paper, and take a pic of that paper next to the VIN number to see that they have the car. Most reasonable sellers will do this without hesitation.
I worked at a motorcycle dealer for a little while and we would go buy used bikes. They would set up the whole deal and I just had to go pay the man and get the goods… usually in Chicago. So here was a 16 year old kid driving around Chicago with like $25k in cash.
Watching this as I just recently got scammed buying a gsxr 600. I was rushing through everything and didn’t take my time to really examine it and see the mechanical flaws it had. Didn’t notice until it was too late. Mad at myself because I know better.
Naiveté! Jeremiah is quite the wordsmith! I know that ⚙️ gearheads can be highly educated and overwhelmingly detailed. Jeremiah speaks so eloquently that we dummies can understand stuff without having our brains melt. Keep up the good work, guys.
Fun time getting the VIN verifies on my 1970 blazer. The shop said they needed to check it in at least two of the five places. It still had the dash tag, and the only other one I saw was printed on paper on the glove box door. I was told that wasn't enough so I asked them where the other stamps were. They told me I had to tell them where to look.
I raised 75k and Christina Ann Tucker is to be thanked. I got my self my dream car 🚗 just last weekend, My journey with her started after my best friend came back from New York and saw me suffering in dept then told me about her and how to change my life through her. Christina A. Tucker is the kind of person one needs in his or her life! I got a home, a good wife, and a beautiful daughter. Note: this is not a promotion but me trying to make a point that no matter what happens, always have faith and keep living!!!
< I know that woman(Christina Ann Tucker) If you were born and raised in new York you'd know too, No doubt she is the one that helped you get where you are!!!!
I raised 75k and Christina Ann Tucker is to be thanked. I got my self my dream car 🚗 just last weekend, My journey with her started after my best friend came back from New York and saw me suffering in dept then told me about her and how to change my life through her. Christina A. Tucker is the kind of person one needs in his or her life! I got a home, a good wife, and a beautiful daughter. Note: this is not a promotion but me trying to make a point that no matter what happens, always have faith and keep living!!!
< I know that woman(Christina Ann Tucker) If you were born and raised in new York you'd know too, No doubt she is the one that helped you get where you are!!!!
Remember, you are an adult, the most powerful word you can have in your vocabulary is "NO"
Followed by "f off!"
Fact. And your No doesn't have to make sense to anyone else but you.
The military teaches you that NO stands for numerous opportunities when enlisting initially.
or say yes and walk away for maximum psychological pain 🤣
My mom is an Anti-scmmer hero!! My parents tried to buy my brother a Toyota truck, they got scammed the guy had rolled the odometer and lied about it being 4x4 and the year. My mom found more listing of his and discovered this was his standard motus operandi, so she got the news involved They were able to get the guy trying to sell a Jetta to the news crew with a rolled odometer and the wrong year. So then, with pressure we would turn him in, we were able to get him to buy back the truck. I went with my Dad and we met him at a Home Depot. I had my GoPro strapped to my chest and counted out his money in front of the camera and gave him back the messed up title. I gave the video to the news so they cold do a follow up story and we turned around and found my brother a really nice 4Runner :)
Comment deserves more attention, that's badass!
Good job
I had a guy once tell me he had someone looking at the truck I was driving an hour to come buy, I was only 10 minutes in on a 1:30hr drive. just replied with "Damn hope he buys it then because I'm not wasting the gas to maybe buy the thing. Good luck with the sale" An hour later he replied saying the guy didn't want it and I should come get it, told him its all good I don't waste my time like that and again good luck with the sale. He wasn't happy and started getting angry in the texts and demanding that I come buy the truck, I blocked his number and moved on found a better deal on a better truck later. Moral of the story if someone isn't willing to do the bare minimum and be patient for a sale they aren't worth the costs of doing business with them.
But the seller is under no obligation to wait for the buyer either. There are too many flakes out there. It's first come, first serve.
@@joelcruz9415nah bro don’t be wasting peoples time and gas. That’s a 3 hour trip there and back
@@joelcruz9415 they are under a moral obligation to not be a dickweed lol
@@antoniocastellanos4936That's just the chance you have to be willing to take.
It kills me when I see people make an ad and put angry wordage in it or make demands in the ad. They think because they are the ones selling that *they* have leverage in the deal when I'm the one with the money. You know, the thing *you* want so badly. Nope, buyer has the cash they have the leverage because there is ALWAYS a better vehicle out there and possibly a better deal. I can wait, I don't need your car b
Car salesman here - the point at 6:50 about dealers with in-house financing tacking on extra % points to your interest rate- accurate, it does happen. However, what you don’t know is that the banks you choose or get approved to finance through also do this as well. Always try to source your own outside financing through a bank you are already with for the best rates, unless the dealership can offer you a better one 🤝
It's called making money on the back end.
Car scammers? Well, of course I know them. Dealerships
facts
@@guffityI thought he was replying to himself lmao
Stealerships!
@@Tumbxdothe Obi-Wan meme.
@@Tumbxdo ok
"Needs a tune up" or "Needs carbs cleaned" is something to run from.
If they're telling you the "solution" instead of the problem, the problem is bigger than they want you to know.
"cheap and easy fix". Ok so why wouldn't you do it before selling?
I work at valvoline, (the oil change shop not the oil brand name) and you can stop in anytime and we can show any cars carfax for free
@@chadsanburg4361 can I just bring you a vin?
They all do this? I thought it was a regional thing. I tried once at one near me and they said the would, but I'd have to pay like $30 for it
WTF?! They charge. Can I call one in my city & it'll be free carfax?
I use Valvoline anyways
@@GLo1991 Pretty sure you can give vins to shops like O'reily's too? And Autozone? I feel like I've read that somewhere.
Whoaaa... nooo it is not a FULL carfax. It's just a MAINTENANCE history
IMO for a car older than about 10 years, don’t even worry about miles, evaluate the car. On a 3 year old car a 25k and 200k mile car will be wildly different in wear, but after 10, 20, 30 years miles barely mean anything. A 150k mile car might’ve been meticulously maintained and religiously driven at least once a month to circulate fluids, etc. a low mileage old car may have sat for 10 years undriven and every lubricant and seal has dried out, the fuel system is rotten, and it may need almost a full rebuild to work. There’s also city vs highway miles, I’d say an NYC car with 10k miles is like a Texas car with 100k miles in terms of engine hours and wear. Never try to gauge a car based on odometer and other ancillary ways, get it on a lift and look at the car in front of you and see if it’s good, don’t try to judge the engine by the arm rest wear.
That's something so many people overlook. An older car with low mileage doesn't mean it's gonna be problem free. Just different problems.
Big ups on that letting a car sit is bad. I was shopping around for an older Corvette and I'd see 10 year old cars with 15k miles. Probably fine if they saw 1.5k a year yeah? But then I'd run the Carfax and see that it hit 12k in the first year and 14k in the second. Meaning it either got a few hundred a year from then on (no) or if sat for years. The car I ended up buying had 80k miles, but it was pretty regularly driven 5-10k a year and had a good service record. Been pretty bulletproof since then.
You are right, I just bought an original owner 06 Acura TL with 100k miles. I was worried about the dry rot of seals and gaskets because of the low mileage. Luckily I was able to get an extensive carfax report and all maintenance receipts from the owner. After driving the car for a whole day, I was sure it was a well maintained car. I could have haggled with the price but really wanted the car because it fit into my budget. $6k out the door.
My bmw is at 230k and it’s in better shape than a lot of cars from my era. Daily highway miles
Very true. I think identifying a lot of this comes with experience. Collecting and working on cars and seeing cars in varying states of decay and disrepair even with low mileage.
But all good points nonetheless, especially for people who are newer or less experienced and may cling to the mileage number a little too hard when buying their childhood dream car that's now 30 years old.
Edit: I just thought to add that I also put a little weight on how knowledgeable the owner is about general car stuffs. Two owners may both say "meticulously maintained" about the car they're selling, but one is like me with car OCD who did everything by the book or better and the other is just a casual who means he got regular oil changes and didn't really replace bushings or trans/diff fluid or anything like that. Those two cars are going to be at very different levels.
I work in a bank. Some years back, I had a customer (who should have known better) who wired $50K to another country to buy a car from Texas. Once the money was sent, the "seller" ghosted. FYI, your bank will not reimburse you.
OMG anybody who requires you to wire money to them is a scammer! Anything is better than that. Cashier's check, PayPal, Venmo, Zelle, cash exchanged in a bank branch - anything!
Bought a car from a dealership. They said it was a clean title. Brought it home, had a few people check it out, turns out there were signs I didn't see that it had been in a major crash. Rolled. Dents pulled, radiator frame replaced, hood replaced, and repainted. Took it back and got our money back luckily.
I am a filthy European.... so if this happened to me. I am taking that car back and getting my money back.
So how can a dealer get away with that?
I'm super stressed and in the hospital right now. Seeing this made my stress much more manageable. Thanks for the content, everyone. Might not get a lot of attention but I hope Donut and gang understands (Big Time, Speeed) that we appreciate you guys for being there when need you, even though you dont realize.
Hope you get well soon.
If a seller states they are in the hospital… probably a scam. 😉
Hope you get better soon.
hope it all works out for you brother. praying ur hospital stay is short and your condition gets better
@@stephen3164 lmaoo! Thanks. Needed that laugh
@ripfluffyman9972 thanks brother!
I got car scammed online. I bought a Donut media shirt, then crashed my ebike and got a bunch of holes in it. Then all the hosts went to different shows.
😂😢
golden
Donuts also have holes in them, so your shirt is now on-brand.
😂 😂 😂 Bruh
Underrated 😂😂😂
Just glad we have X3 the amount of car content now with Donut, Big Time and Speeeed
Except James hasn't posted since announcing
@@Thegladtrad eh, its been 2 weeks, they have a 2 man crew Im sure theyve got some good stuff brewing
Well, Speeed might not be a car channel and Donut is a dead channel with trash presenters. So, it's more like 1.5x the car content.
Speeed isn't even going to be a car channel
@@Thegladtradi think his business model is going to be the opposite of donut...speeedco will be quality over quantity
The "used" semi truck sales are the same with paint. We call them 80% trucks. 80% of what they do is cover problems with black paint. The worst part is the people who use the budget to actually make them road worthy actually have a harder time selling their truck because they are less visually appealing.
Another dealership tip.
Go through your own financing from a bank you trust. They mentioned the scam of hiking the interest rate as a means of pocketing the money, but not the alternative.
Had a dealership offer me 8% interest on a 5 year loan before i even told him i was interested in financing only to tell him i was preapproved somewhere else for half that. Felt real good lol
In addition, I’ve told the dealership I have my own financing after arriving at a deal and offered to use the dealership’s financing if they can offer me a better deal than the one we have already agreed to…that’s worked twice for me.
My bank tells people to do the opposite lol. I guess it all depends on who you talk to and what mood they are in.
Yeah don't tell them you're pre-approved until you get to a set sale price. Otherwise they'll pack the profits they would've snuck in the financing charges onto the price they give you.
A friend went to a car lot and walked off with a beater but was super proud because he did it by himself (“like a man”). The business set him up with a personal loan for 25% because the car was too cheap to qualify for their auto loans. By the payoff he could have gotten a much newer and nicer car.
Don’t be too proud to ask someone, or multiple people for advice. Especially if they have done it several times, they probably have at least an ounce of information worth hearing
It's even more fun when you know full well ahead of time you're paying cash, and they push super hard for you to fill out an app. Still a proud moment to pay cash for a brand new car.
Thank you Donut! This is the kind of content that I think is so valuable in today’s online landscape and we need more people talking about shady practices. I’ve bought my fair share of vehicles and it still feels shady sometimes. I feel bad for kids out there just trying to buy their first cars
Checking VIN spots and using a VIN decoder is a good idea, but the best bet is to go see the car in person and bring along a VIN Diesel
FAMILY
@@AngySumo I rarely ever thumbs-up ANYTHING on youtube, but I'll be damned if I didn't expand the replies and give you that hard-earned thumb.
@spuds3689 I'm pretty sure that clip of them with all their vins chanting family will live in my brain rent free for quite some time 😭😂
😂😂
I bought an Infiniti G35 from a Chevy dealer and they did the fake carfax. I bought the car when I was 18yr old. Went to try to trade the car years later and no one would give me even $1000 for it. Went to the dealership where i bought it originally and everyone there was fired because they got caught doing fraud. Good times, good times.
Damn...I just picked up a G35 from a private seller for $1500, but it came with a bolt-on exhaust, coilovers, slotted/drilled rotors and matching pads, and a cat-delete tune on it. I'm well aware that I'm probably in a similar situation, but this thing is going to be mine until it stops running 😂
Nobody tried to buy a G35 for $1k? Do you live in Wisconsin??? Lmao that car would've sold in a hour where I live
I mean the engine alone is worth more than that 1k lmao
@@bonniscootorfor 1500??? Does it have 250k miles or is it stolen with salvage title lmao
@@cwill2127 You know what, I didn't even fucking think of that at the time. I was just pissed.
Some dealers are the worst; even they do odometer rollbacks. I know this because I had a car when I was in college (2012 Ford Focus SE), and I bought it used with about 110,000 miles. I put about 45k miles on it and used it as a down payment on my next vehicle, so I traded it in with about 155,000 miles. A couple week later, I see it on the dealer lot, listed at 92,000 miles…
I realized in that moment that I’m NEVER going to purchase another vehicle from that Ford dealer anymore.
I hope you reported them
That's very illegal, they need to be locked up and business shut down.
Don't know where you're from but around here if a dealer is selling rolled back cars their business is shut down and they get like 6 years of jail time.
There was a used car lot up the street from where I worked that got busted for doing rollbacks as well as knowingly selling lemons and dealing in stolen vehicles. He ended up going to prison for a long time.
You should always use a tiny bit of purple edge lighting to counter the green glow left after keying, so the edges your performers faces/necks/hair won't be glowing green.
Better Business Bureau is a scam itself. You want a good rating? give them $400 and then suddenly they're accredited. Using the word Bureau makes it sound like they're some official office but they're a for profit corp providing recommendations, no different than Angie's list. Not a bad place to check for complaints but plenty of bad places have a clean BBB.
One thousand Percent. I’ve been to places that have the sticker and there is no way in hell that they are part of the Better Business Bureau
Not exactly. Yes, you pay to get an accreditation but you are accredited with whatever their rating is so if you run an F rated business and pay for an accreditation you get an F Accreditation from the BBB. You are not paying for the rating just the accreditation so if you have a poorly rated business then it is in your interest not to pay for said rating.
It could prevent totally fake sites but a lot of companies from home remodeling to car sales will do exactly what you described to boost their status after a bunch of bad reviews
@@thegingineer0 “I’m reporting you to the better business bureau” is like saying “I’m gonna leave you a bad review on yelp”..
🚨IDIOT ALERT!🚨
Facebook marketplace is so bad for letting obvious scams just exist for months at a time. It's embarrassing. Nobody is selling 5 year old Honda's and 5th wheels for 3500 dollars ....
But yet if you say something about their preferred politicians they will put you in Facebook jail. So glad I left Facebook 7 years ago.
Also if you’re possibly trading in a car bring your spare keys and be ready to drive off in your old car. Learned the hard way as I never saw my trade in after they got the keys for inspection. If you don’t like the deal demand your car back politely yet forcefully.
You can also get the police involved if they don't give your keys back and you haven't signed paperwork.
Kia has been doing this lately. I see so many internet posts about it and the only way to make them give the keys back is to call the police. Crazy times man.
Go to Carmax first and get an offer on your car. That way you can always negotiate with that info. Or just don’t bother with a trade in, and just sell to Carmax. Only issue is in some states, you’re only taxed on the difference if trading in a car. (not all states do that though)
One thing to mention on the parts/fake listing's section: use a credit card to purchase parts if you can. You can force a charge back for any fraudulent credit card charges, but not cash or debit.
Yes, and whatever you do, never wire money to the seller. It's always a scam.
I recently bought a $2000 Pontiac Sunfire from a local dealership. They didn't mention the thing died when idling after going freeway speeds, so that was a fun drive home. Thankfully it only needed a new throttle position sensor, so I was able to fix it for just $40, but that could've been a nightmare purchase.
They prolly didn't drive it on the hwy.
If you go to look at a car and they are ‘just washing so it looks good’ and they have water sitting on the car - Wipe away some of the water beads. Selling a car wet is a great way to hide Hail damage.
If the car has ‘just been taken around the block to warm it up’ - Run! Some engine and transmission issues are obvious on cold starts but become harder to detect when the vehicle is up to operating temperature.
Not just car scams, got a car insurance quote through GEICO for a 2019 Chevy bolt. $1200 per month. $6000 for 6 months. And they said they were saving me $600. Wtf is that??
In order to get a good rate from GEICO, you need to be 35-62 years old, female, never divorced, 800 credit rating, 100% clean MVR, only used GEICO for all property, live in a very white/rich area, home has garages, closest dollar store is more than 60 miles away.
Insurance /is/ a scam
lmao whats your age and driving history like? I don't even pay 1200 per year!
@@eurosonly I'm 45 with no tickets and no at fault accidents. Got rear ended but no damage and no payout.
$1200 a month for a bolt? That’s wild
I bought a title skipped truck a couple years ago that had a title that was already signed. I looked up the guy and found out he had passed away. The DMV told me I needed the estate settlement documentation to get the title in my name. I literally cold called a law firm around where the guy lived and I shit you not, they were the ones that settled the estate. I sent the documents as proof of financial interest, and they sent them back with all the documentation needed to get the title in my name. I was super lucky. But that was wild.
Theres a lot of DMV private shops that could help you around it. My guy filled out a misfilled title document and the transfer went through no problem.
A used car place in Salt Lake (first class cars if you’re out here) trying to sell me a Honda Pilot. There was an extreme whine from the power steering, I checked and they had topped it off that morning. Meaning the pump was going to go out! They tried to push me to buy it anyways because “it’s a small problem. It will probably last a year or more with it!” Then when I asked about repairing it, they refused to do so. I walked off that lot, don’t buy broken cars
Really? Are they still in business? I remember their radio ads from years ago. I went there years ago to look at a Camaro it turned out to be a Crapmaro and I drove all the way from Ogden.
@@carlosnavarro921 yeah, shady business practices preying on those desperate and uninformed motorists is how places like them stay in business. I’ve worked with a lot of places that “approve anyone” but so far they were the shadiest.
I listed an ancient Mercedes 300SD on Craigslist for $1000 years ago. I was very detailed in the description that it was rough, but ran and drove. I had some guy call me claiming he was coming in from Germany and wanted me to leave the car in an unincorporated area in the California desert.... I was like, "Nope, We're not doing that". I have no idea how the scam was supposed to work, but I didn't want to find out.
Dealerships in Alaska have been adding a “Alaska Fee” into even the used trade in cars they have.
Usually it’s a $2000 fee they add on for having to get the car delivered to Alaska. Now they add it to ANYTHING on their lot.
As well as many dealerships won’t list fees on their sticker price.
So imagine my surprise going in to look at a $22k Miata Cx-50 and finding with all these fees -dealership fee, Alaska fee, convenience fee, in stock fee-it was almost $30k.
I went for a test drive and took up as much time in that guy’s day, and then left saying I’d only buy it if the final total was $20k.
He tried the “well I have several people looking” and I did the, “Well I don’t see them having been here the last 3 hours so I suppose I’ll leave, too.”
“Oh, you have several other people interested in buying THIS car? Are they hiding behind that fake tree, or under a desk? I don’t see any people here right now ready to buy this car. I’m here, right now, with cash (or pre-approved financing). If I walk out that door, I’ll probably find another car to buy,”
I was looking at a new pickup, and the dealership was pushing me to a leftover prior year model. It was already end of model year, so the leftover vehicle was nearly 2 years old. Was pre-facelift, and in the “wrong” color. That said, it had more features than I was looking for - real high spec. Spent 3 hours negotiating a price on a truck that wasn’t what I really wanted. Got them down “a bit” to “the lowest they could go”. I left. The guy calls me trying to get me back in. I look up the vehicle on the dealer page - they have it listed for the price it took me 3 hours to talk them down to! 😡. I bought my truck, the year/spec I wanted for $3k LESS than the leftover model, at a different dealership.
"What did she say this fee is for?"
"Idk, Alaska 'bout it"
@speedracer2please this dad joke is actually pretty funny...wait, am I old now?
Almost cheaper to take a trip to buy it in Oregon Washington or Idaho and drive it back up.
The car I got was so shitty that my dealer ship gave me 0% interest. He clearly just wanted it off his lot
rly? damn that's awesome
@@tanssi2145has to be an american brand they are fucking horrible and made with tinfoil and the iq of a fucking doormatt
@@tanssi2145 A 2012 Nissan Altima, a bit of body damage and blown a gasket before hand. It's been repaired and even came with a 6 month warranty, still running with minor over heating problems due to a faulty temperature control sensor. Doesn't really affect me much because my drives to work are short and it can get me around town. Total price on financing, 5k
Also yes I floor it out of a stop light
@@tanssi2145 5k Nissan Altima 2012
Another one is certified checks. Me and a few buddies fixed up a Redline, and went to sell it. We lived in AZ, and a man contacted us a a rep for a garage up near SLC. We looked into the garage, seemed legit. Man came looked at it, even talked to who we thought was the garage owner. We all agreed on a price, he wrote us a check from a reputable bank. And he took the car. I deposited the check to my bank to cash it, and went through, so I pulled my friends money to give them since I could cover it. 2 days later right before the pending was going to end, they pulled a stop check. I called the guy again and line was dead. Called the garage, line was dead. FB page was locked. Friends gave me their money back to cover me since my account went negative. But, they had the car and title, and we got screwed. Lesson learned, never let title go until the check has cleared.
Here's the crazy thing, they could actually do a stop check *AFTER* it cleared. It's insane that they can
@@Vynncent 🥲smile through the pain!
Damn, I thought certified cheques were as good as cash. Doesn't the money get taken from the account and sit in a trust when the cheque is drafted? I don't get how they can order a stop when the money is technically not even theirs anymore.
As a mechanic, I had to let the new owners of a 4Runner know they had been scammed due to an odometer rollback. It was a 2003 4Runner with 55k miles that they paid TOP DOLLAR for. It was very nice looking with immaculate paint and interior. As I am doing a post purchase inspection, I notice that ALL the steering components are new. Also, it has new brakes and a new alternator. I begin to think that is weird that all of that failed after only 55k... Also, the drivers bottom seat cushion looked brand new as well with scratches on the bolts where they had been removed?...But in the end, the gas and brake pedals really gave it away. They both had serious wear on them. Turns out, by looking at the carfax, it had over 200k on it several years before this couple purchased it so who knows how many miles are on it now. The seller, who claimed to have not known and was simply flipping it (possible as all the new stuff still looked like it had more time and mileage on them than he had actually owned it) gave them 50% of their money back. It was still a very nice 4Runner after all.
The most important thing when buying things online is Paypal. Saved me so many times. Thanks for the video and raising awareness guys👍
That vehicle tracking scam is new to me! Thanks donut you guys rock!! And thanks for keeping Jeremiah around
Traveling with a large amount of cash is outright risky now a days. IF police discover the cash, they can simply confiscate it under "Civil Asset Forfeiture" even if you are not charged with anything or not suspected of anything. The Institute for Justice has been battling this in court recently.
Yes, particularly high risk if you're any shade of brown!
I'm so happy to see this being g talked about more. No one even believes this happens in America until they are the victim. It goes on at all levels. Fed, state, and local.
I once bought a flood damaged vehicle from a dealership. Didn't realize it until like 2 months after i bought it. When all rust started popping through the paint.
My only hesitation about them taking fresh pictures of my stuff and then not buying it is that they could then setup a fake listing with pictures that don't show up on reverse image search! Then people are thinking YOU'RE the one ghosting people after their deposit.
Put something easily identifiable (printout of your profile picture for example) in the picture...
I'm convinced they are just flushing out their backlog of videos with Jerry and Jobe to delay the somewhat inevitable
You do realize the day you see the video is not when they recorded it
You do realize thats what he said right?@@scvmbag
This was a good video, Jimmy has really come into his own as a host.
In some cases, you just have to use your COMMON sense. I recently saw a Facebook posting for a C8 Z06. Guy wants $50K for it!!!! No way in hell will someone sell a brand new Z06 that doesn't have significant damage to it for $50K.
I have a feeling that $50k signified the over-asking price.
Or stolen.
Striker baby
Problem is some people don’t have any common sense 😅
Sometimes when you see something like that, it's mostly a scam. I did one time back in 2015 find a 1995 Cutlass cruiser wagon. It was in near mint condition from what I could see and it was craigslist so the posting had gone up like at the exact time I was looking. I NEEDED a vehicle and only had 1500 which was asking, I messaged him and told him I would take it. He said he went with me cause he got hundreds of messages but ever one was low balling. It was a perfect vehicle, only 75k miles original everything, all electricals still worked. I drove it for 2 years and it was stolen 😢
Window Etching! Don't need to pay for it, even if it was done already- check your state's laws before you go. Also- wheel locks already installed? Say no, take them off. Buy your own later for way less. Windshield chip coverage? Your car insurance may already waive the deductible for chip repair. Great video!
I bought a $1000 motorcycle from a guy whose name wasn’t on the title, but he had literally 20/30 really nice motorcycles in his garage and wasn’t shy about opening the garage door, so I just figured he was selling on consignment. No issue with the dmv. Bought a motorcycle for my girlfriend at the time. It was from a nice guy whose name was on the title. The dmv through a fit and this guy had to come and sign a proof of sale. Point is, DMVs are confusing.
The guy with the garage full of bikes was floating titles most likely. Didn’t transfer the title to his name so he doesn’t have to pay sales tax.
My favorite scam is the newish car listed for $1,000. Like a 2019 Jeep Wrangler listed on FB market place for $1,000. I don't even click on it. I just report it as a scam immediately.
Also beware if you are selling your car that the potential "buyer" doesn't do a key swap. I knew a guy who was selling his car, a so called buyer came to his work to check it out, they went for a test drive then later on that evening the dude came back and stole his car with his own key. He'd swapped it out with one that looked the same.
Wait, so he gave him a fake key back after the test drive? How do you fail to notice such a thing?
@@eurosonlyyou just buy the same key before going to see the car
Been living overseas and PCSing back to the states next year. Just bought an Evo VII and NB MX5 this last year to bring back with me. I can’t wait to drive them both back home
0:01 Is he the new James of Donut?
Probably
He’ll never be James.
@@ericodom8401he just did
I see what you did there, OP! 😂
Lol nope, he's not apart of Donut anymore, look up Bigtime
Something I felt for on my ford ranger is the guy was super upfront and honest about a few of the issues and because I was focused on those sorta minor, easier to fix issues I missed the bigger ones that were at play that I maybe would have noticed if I was looking closer at everything. Distracted me from the underlying issues
Another thing dealerships do is take your keys when you get there and make you feel stuck. I’ve had that happen to me at three different dealerships where they tried to take my keys. two times I wasn’t even trading in a vehicle I was just buying a second one
Ya them withholding your keys is called theft at the very least.
@@eurosonly doesn’t mean they won’t do it for as long as possible. Before they give them back.
Plus if so try an prove it.
How on Earth do you hand over your keys when it doesn't even involve your vehicle?
@@andoletube key word “tried”. But I have heard it happening to other people.
Some people just don’t know how dealerships work. If you think about it normal people only visit them maybe once or twice their entire life
@@andoletube The sales people at the dealership do this kind of thing for a living. They get trained in how to make it appear as if you're the awkward one if you say no. They make it seem as if they're doing you a favor, even.
My friend got severely scammed buying a car. There's a mechanic shop in Nashville that is "fixing" cars that have been in unreported accidents and then selling them.
"I put people in vehicles everyday"
They really are acting like they're doing a public charity service with their rip off prices lmao
I worked for a dealership that didn’t even break down the cost and fees when presenting the paper. Just showed them the final cost and it gave the customer no insight of what they bought until the paperwork was signed. I made great money at dealerships but it did made me feel bad when I was scamming people of making them pay more for “add-ons” that were worthless
“Trust your gut”.....ALWAYS great advice! Something feels off, don’t ignore it💯Not with just this topic either....it could save your life!
Can we all stop for a moment and appreciate the level of awesomeness between donut and big time? Tho they branched off and started there own thing, it's really dope to see they come together to do Collaborations together for us
Had someone try to scam me over the sale of a turbo Miata, his scam evaporated when I told him I was flying out to see the car, he immediately emailed me back that the car had been totaled. I'm sure he was thinking I would decide to buy the car from pictures alone.
lmao.
When I was younger I worked at a chop shop up here in Canada, specifically for trucks, constantly collecting out of province or out of country vehicles and vin swapping to salvage in the next province, then bringing to Ontario as a clean title. I didn’t realize what was going on initially but it didn’t take long to see it. Quit the job and the company is still operating to this day.
You are NOT responsible for back fees owed on a car you have purchased. There is a DMV form that you need to fill out if the vehicle has back fees owed. The car didn’t do anything wrong, and nor did you- you are not responsible, the seller is and this form will keep the fees attached to the seller, rather than the vehicle. Most DMV employees are unaware of this, too.
Does this apply to all these "take over payments" posts? Or are those referring to monthly payments left on the car?
@@eurosonly “take over payments” means the car is financed and you will need to apply for financing on your own, or pay it off directly to the financier and receive the title from the “seller” once they receive it.
@@S42069 you forgot "hope" the seller sends it.
Do we know what this form is called?
@@JakeNoInsurance it is vehicle code 4604 in California
Thank you! One of my favorite videos and probably saving viewers thousands of dollars and hours of headaches
If your state allows (as it should) always be armed when doing these large transactions. DO NOT show up with the money, if you agree to purchase the car, drive to your local bank with the buyer, retrieve the cash, do it all in the parking lot with lots of cameras everywhere. Banks also (sometimes) have a notary if you need one for your state. Also, never go alone if you can help it!
You can do it inside the bank. Tell them you’re buying/selling a car. They’ll let you use a desk, and can either transfer funds directly, or give a bank check, or give cash that you know isn’t fake.
@@stephen3164 100%. To add onto this, something that im surprised wasnt touched on in the video, make sure, and i seriously mean this, that there is no lien on the car, or that by you buying the car, the lien is removed and you now hold the title. I bought a c5 like 3 years ago and there was a lien issue with the title that took about a month to resolve. Its not a scam, but some people are unbelievably ignorant. You can do this inside the sellers bank with the lien
I had to quit selling at dealerships because there where so many things that looked shady with us, but it really was just the back end was so poorly ran and optimized that we where so in the dark on everything. Couldn’t stand it
"were", not "where".
Lol I was looking for a 240SX yesterday on FB marketplace and saw one it was white for $3000 bucks I looked at the pics and everything and went back to look at more and two ads down was the same EXACT car with the same pics in a different location for $6000 bucks and I texted BOTH sellers and asked why was the car on the site twice and in different locations for different prices and NEITHER OF THE SELLERS SAID ANYTHING BACK YET ! THEY GHOSTED ME ! LOL I believe that they were SCAMMERS and their ads got put to close together and I caught it !
The interest rate thing you guys discussed is called the “buy rate.” The dealership is allowed to mark up the buy rate (I’m not sure the limits) but when I just bought my new ZR2 I asked about it and was given the buy rate.
3:40 VIN WILL NOT give paint codes, its a misconception, the only way to get a paint code is the paint code that is on a production label.
Not 100% true I'm an auto inspector and vin decoding usually gives you the base color( red, blue, etc) but won't give specific paint numeric codes. Sometimes it gives the actual color name but usually not.
Both my 2018 Dodge Charger AND the 1968 Mustang I had told its color code in VIN. It may not be the exact paint code but certain letters and or numbers in the VIN mean the color that manufacturer designated for that model.
"Nobody got rich being honest"
Hilarious!!! 😂
5:20 HAH I can do you one better... small dealer, list a decent car for a good price.. get in there and they are trying to up-sell me to another less glamorous car that costs $2k more... after about 40 minutes of haggling, him trying to lower the price on the car I didn't come in for I just straight up asked "Are you going to sell me the car I came in for or not?!" after about 5 minutes of silence I walked out. Never went back. Don't be pressured into buying things you do not want.
Went to go possibly buy a new car once. Saw a good price online and went to look at it. Got to the dealership and they had tacked on 15k markup "because it was the only one in the county". I flat out told them I wouldnt be buying a car at a markup and they kept trying to "get me to a monthly payment I was hoping for". Eventually I said that a markup on the car was instant value I lost as soon as I drove off the lot and wouldn't buy it at that cost. They offered to cut the markup in half instead but "couldn't sell it at no markup" (?). They said if I didn't buy it it would probably be gone by the end of the weekend because so many people already came to look. Told them I was happy for them and left. A week and a half later they called me back and asked if I was still interested in it. Guess it didn't sell so fast.
I remember asking a seller on Facebook for the VIN for the car he was selling. He went off on a rant about how I might as well ask him for his social security number. I told him that was a ludicrous comparison to make and I wasn't interested anymore.
Ya I can totally see that happening. But if you think about it, if he's selling it, does it really matter to him?
@@eurosonly it will matter if it shows odo rollbacks, series accidents etc. I would never trust someone selling a car who won't hand over their VIN
The most important part that was touched on in every scam they mentioned but never explicitly called out: a clear line of communication. Especially on higher value items, if the seller or buyer seems to be avoiding certain questions or not willing to cooperate with certain processes that make you feel better about the transaction, let those be red flags.
The money-counting thing? Yeah, it doesn't matter who I'm dealing with, I count it myself. Folks make mistakes, and it's a good habit to have to avoid scams on top of that. ALWAYS count it yourself. Verify.
Bro I count the cash myself when I'm buying a mcdouble
went to a dealership for a very clean 2000 monte carlo, dealership said it was absolutely perfect condition and such, first red flag was that they took almost 25 minutes to get the car cause apparently even though it was in "good condition" it was stored in the back of the lot, 2nd huge red flag was the amount of seemingly shoddy fixed dings on the side of the car and such and the biggest of all red flags, the weirdly long startup even from a very hot start (cause it was baking in the sun at like 110 for a couple days and such) and the fact that the brakes barely worked, honestly my best advice is literally NEVER go to a dealership, unless your trying to buy a new car or the dealership is actually trustworthy and will fix problems that occur for you, they listed the monte carlo for like 4k btw and after "fees" and such it run up to around 10k dollars, WITHOUT repairs that will be needed
That borla ad spot could be its own video 😮
I experienced the “title float” one. In my case, it wasn’t really malicious, it was just some guys trying (poorly) to run a “dealership” out of their garage.
I went to the DMV to file for a lost title and transfer, and that’s when they told me the car still had a TX title (I live in CA) from TWO owners prior. The car had been sold from the TX owner to a dealer in SF, to the guys I bought it from, to me. I went back to the sellers and was pestering them about it. Eventually, they managed to get ahold of both the SF dealership AND the TX owner and get all the transfer paperwork, which they delivered to me. But, from the day I drove the car home to the day I finally got the title was almost 4 months
Im a noob selling stuff and was thinking of selling my 77 L82 corvette. I was thinking i was going to meet at the bank if i did sell, im glad that isn't unusual.
Bank or local police station
" looks legit. He's got carpet in that house " 😂
Buying a Yamaha banshee at 15 is crazy
The buying or the riding? Cos the riding at that age is quite normal.
@@TheDaemon66 He clearly said buying.
@@TheDaemon66 buying their like 7k
This is Jeremiah Burton we're talking about here. 😂
Another tip that will help avoid buying a lemon is have the seller meet you at a shop to have the vehical inspected (buyer pays the shop fee) or if you can, bring a mechanic with you to check the vehicle over. When I worked on cars, I did quite a few pre-sale inspections both at the shop and on site. Most of the sales were above board and some were real doozies. If the seller is honest, they'll have no problem with it.
The dealer experience has absolutely ruined buying a vehicle. Manufacturers would be wise to start doing away with the dealer network and going direct to buyer.
In the USA There are laws to prevent manufacturers from selling direct to the consumer.
That would circumvent an extra layer of tax. The Guv'ment wont allow it.
@@RageUnchained Then how does Tesla do it?
@@middleagedbaldguy6774 Basically lets say you live in texas where you can't sell directly but they sell it to you from Arizona which they can sell you directly then ship it to your home. Elon loves loopholes.
A dealer might do the interest scam you described but it is illegal. Most new car dealers will not do this because it is illegal. The best way to combat this is to get a pre-approval through your own bank to know what to expect and make sure you go back to your bank with the info for that specific car and get an actual number. You guys are right, the rate switch IS illegal!
The "put your car in reverse and roll back the odometer" hasn't worked for the last 100 years.
It's actually easier now!!😉
They’re doing it somehow. Just recently ditched a seller cause the car he was selling had rolled back odo 150k miles
Well the book was written in 1988, when Dahl would have been 72, so he was probably drawing on what he'd seen through the years to make sure we understand her dad is an unscrupulous jerk, even if those tricks wouldn't have worked.
Yeah, yet this is the guy everyone’s running the channel of as ‘the real car guy’
A couple of pearls of wisdom I got from my dad to avoid rip-offs:
1. If it looks too good to be true then it most likely is.
2. You can't cheat an honest man.
I bought a 92 Dakota off Craigslist when looked at it great condition 50,000 on the engine told him I buy it went to the bank that Monday when the bank opened when I went to go back and buy looked under the hood and the bolts were taken off recently they tried to switch the engine the hood said v8 the vin was for v8 was a v8 when. I looked now all the sudden there was a v6 in it
yikes... buddy had a Dakota whose floor was entirely duct tape and fiberglass covered in under coating. Looked super legit until he sat in the passenger seat and the floor sagged under his feet.
@@plav032 damn
With Speed and Big Time coming out I was ready to write off Donut. But this is actually a really good video. I’m not going anywhere. Thanks, y’all!
Comeonman running the car in reverse don’t work. 18:03
It works on really old cars. I think it was like the 60s when they started making them so they couldn't because people made a big deal about it but I don't think anyone actually drove backwards to wind them back. Lots of easier ways to get the clock to 0
Here in Canada it's quite common to get US cars... Usually people are open about it and will mention it in the ad... This one time I was trying out a car advertised as having 180K km on the clock... As I pull away on the road when test driving it I'm thinking "WTF! This thing is lame! How is it only doing 40... Waiiiit a minute..." So yeah the car actually had 180K MILES on it... I walked!!
"This beast got 500hp and a Borla exhaust system"
0-60 in 4.3 seconds
The professionalism of this young man is unmatched
11:22 NOT THE MIATA THEY TAKE THE MIATA THEY DIIIIIIEEEEEE!!!!
A good way to make sure the seller has the car before sending a deposit or driving out is to have them write your name on paper, and take a pic of that paper next to the VIN number to see that they have the car.
Most reasonable sellers will do this without hesitation.
I worked at a motorcycle dealer for a little while and we would go buy used bikes. They would set up the whole deal and I just had to go pay the man and get the goods… usually in Chicago. So here was a 16 year old kid driving around Chicago with like $25k in cash.
Watching this as I just recently got scammed buying a gsxr 600. I was rushing through everything and didn’t take my time to really examine it and see the mechanical flaws it had. Didn’t notice until it was too late. Mad at myself because I know better.
Good thing Jeremiah from Big Time came to help Donut understand car scams.
Naiveté! Jeremiah is quite the wordsmith! I know that ⚙️ gearheads can be highly educated and overwhelmingly detailed. Jeremiah speaks so eloquently that we dummies can understand stuff without having our brains melt. Keep up the good work, guys.
17:56 Did he just tell us to Ferris Bueller the miles off a car?
I bought a car from Facebook last week, and I think the best thing I did to prevent a scam was a video call inspection.
they took my civic 😔
Fun time getting the VIN verifies on my 1970 blazer. The shop said they needed to check it in at least two of the five places. It still had the dash tag, and the only other one I saw was printed on paper on the glove box door. I was told that wasn't enough so I asked them where the other stamps were. They told me I had to tell them where to look.
I'm 47yrs old. $73,000 biweekly and I'm retired, this video have inspired me greatly in many ways!!!!💙
I'm inspired.
Please spill some sugar about the bi-weekly stuff you mentioned.
I raised 75k and Christina Ann Tucker is to be thanked. I got my self my dream car 🚗 just last weekend, My journey with her started after my best friend came back from New York and saw me suffering in dept then told me about her and how to change my life through her. Christina A. Tucker is the kind of person one needs in his or her life! I got a home, a good wife, and a beautiful daughter. Note: this is not a promotion but me trying to make a point that no matter what happens, always have faith and keep living!!!
Wow 😱 I know her too
Miss Christina Ann Tucker is a remarkable individual who has brought immense positivity and inspiration into my life.
I started with a miserly $1500. The results have been mind blowing I must say TBH
< I know that woman(Christina Ann Tucker)
If you were born and raised in new York you'd know too, No doubt she is the one that helped you get where you are!!!!
It's really cool to see the guys from BigTime helping out a small channel like Donut with these cameos
I'm inspired.
Please spill some sugar about the bi-weekly stuff you mentioned.
I raised 75k and Christina Ann Tucker is to be thanked. I got my self my dream car 🚗 just last weekend, My journey with her started after my best friend came back from New York and saw me suffering in dept then told me about her and how to change my life through her. Christina A. Tucker is the kind of person one needs in his or her life! I got a home, a good wife, and a beautiful daughter. Note: this is not a promotion but me trying to make a point that no matter what happens, always have faith and keep living!!!
Wow 😱 I know her too
Miss Christina Ann Tucker is a remarkable individual who has brought immense positivity and inspiration into my life.
I started with a miserly $1500. The results have been mind blowing I must say TBH
< I know that woman(Christina Ann Tucker)
If you were born and raised in new York you'd know too, No doubt she is the one that helped you get where you are!!!!