The Honker

Important tip from a mechanic. When you are buying a vehicle from a dealer or used car lot, make sure you check all the VIN numbers on that vehicle to see if they match the title and documentation they gave you. Here is a troubling example why. Years ago I was a Nissan Tech working for a Nissan dealership and during that time I had a big following of some loyal and wonderful customers. One such customer was a nice lady named Julie I had been servicing Julie's old Nissan Stanza for quite some time. Julies mother died and she got a small inheritance, so Julie decided to treat herself and buy a brand new Nissan 300 Z . Our dealership owner was selling the dealership and he was having a big sale at the time. She put $9,000 down and financed $25,000. Payments of $725 a month. Fast forward to 9 months later. New owners at dealership, and I was one of the few original employees they retained, as the new owners brought most of their own people in. This particular day I was at the service write up desk when I recognized Julie in her 300 Z pulling into the shop. Very happy to see her once again, I gave her a big hug and we exchanged some pleasant small talk. Julie had brought her car in for a minor hesitation problem she wanted checked out. But when the service writer scanned the VIN on Julie's car door, very bad things happened. The VIN was coming back as a stolen vehicle! Shocked, Julie pulled out her payment book and car registration papers. However, upon close examination it was discovered the VIN numbers on the car did not match the VIN numbers on her papers or bill of sale! Seems the previous dealership owner had done a very shady and illegal money grab. I remembered that 10 months prior the former service manager had totaled his 300 Z demo to which the dealership insurance covered the loss. But I also remembered they had bought the totaled car from the insurance company as they had me remove a lot of good parts from it including the Bose sound system. After removing all the good parts, they towed the car to a scrap yard. Long story short, the 300 Z that Julie had put 9K down and had been paying $750 a month on, that car was actually in a junk yard. The car Julie was driving had been reported stolen from the previous dealership to which insurance covered that loss also. Julie did not get charged with any crime but she lost her car that day. I felt so bad, but there was nothing we could do. I did have a long talk with the new owner and he agreed to sell her a good used car off the lot at cost. It was not as nice as her 300 Z but it was at least transportation. This could happen to anyone. How often does one check VIN numbers when they buy a vehicle? If a vehicle it bought from a different state, often that has to be checked by police but that practice varies by states. Side note: The previous dealership owner had skipped out of the country and had done much more shady illegal money grabbing deals before he left. One horrible thing he did was far more serious and affected all the previous dealership employees including myself. That story will come on another post