Looking for son's first car, is this a red flag?

General Discussion
1

Found a vehicle worth looking at. Looks good but i ran the free vininfo lookup and it comes up with CT sales records (im in ny and car is at a dealer) and a lot of sales records. Besides the original sale and then the next one they are all just days apart, like 30 times.

Whats the deal with that?

I ran another car we were interested in and this is from a private seller and the same thing happened.

The cars are 2013 and 2014.

Someone mentioned its a lemon and is being traded between dealers in “packages” whatever that means but im not so sure because most of the “sales records” are just 2 days apart, The first couple of records though are the original sale which lasted for years and then another sale for a decent time and then all the rest…

Im not sure if this is something i should walk away from because of this but im not sure and its something my son is really interested in so i dont want to walk unless im sure of whats going on…

Help / information greatly appreciated

2

Just pass on both. Find something that does not have you on a forum asking if you should buy it.

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3

why would i do that when i dont know if theres cause to do that. Do you walk away from everything in life just because you dont know the answer without figuring things out?

4

The point is, none of us knows the actual reason for the unusual trade history, and you’re unlikely to find out asking the sellers. There are lots of used cars out there, better to find one without issues.

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5

Well, then buy them.

6

right, but im on my 4th or 5th now all with same type of sales records.
Looking to find out why. There is a reason for everything.

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7

A 12 year old vehicle with 30 sales records ? I would not need to know why because I would pass .

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i mean, im an optimist but you are right…i just need to know. Its like the 5th one, though i just found one that s normal.
Thanks

9

Seems like a misunderstanding, dealers don’t sell/trade vehicles 30 times before retailing to a customer. Are these unusual cars? Something with a long-delayed safety recall (airbags)?

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10

yeah i dont get it thats why im asking…there are 3 recalls on it but not for airbags, nothing unusual but as mentioned i have come across this 4-5 times now.
i did just find another of the same one that is legit so i will be looking at that one but id still like to know the reason for this issue

11

There is no way to know the reason. Reasons vary. What does not vary is if the car is traded like a hot potato, you don’t want it burning your hands.

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12

Yep, i can imagine lots of bad reasons for this trade history, no good ones. But I still don’t (and can’t) know the actual reason.

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13

It’s also possible that there is a problem with the vininfo software. Look up a car you know the history of and see if there are too many transfers.

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14

I don’t know but seems like you are putting a lot of faith in the computer history reports. Or it might be something like frame damage that shows up the minute the used car dept puts it on the rack. I would guess an inspection would be in order at the least. That can show major body and frame repairs and drive train issues. Maybe it was put to rental use or something but gotta ask why two cars with the same history? If the one is a private seller, just ask him.

15

It will probably never be known where and what these vehicles are that have such strange owner records . Maybe one but 4 or 5 ? I would like to see one of those reports.

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16

For that it’s worth, I’ve had good luck with CarFax.

Admittedly it’s not “free”, and I know it may or may not be “complete”. But it tends to be consistent.

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17

I think carfax is one thing but a free vin check service? I just wonder how reliable and how they get their information. Makes no sense.

18

When I used to buy used cars, I did not waste time with cars with ANY red flags. Shopping for a used car is time consuming and I don’t want to waste it by investigating anythins suspicious.

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19

Hi @lioneagle
What free vininfo service are you using?

I ask because I just tried the site vincheck.info on a car that I’ve owned 11.5 years since new. It says the car was sold four times.

Another free site, iseecars .com, says it was last sold in another state.

Both of the above, completely false.
I would suspect the validity of these 'free vin info" sites.

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20

I would probably shy away from a used dealer that doesn’t even offer a free Carfax report now a days, are you looking at vehicles at tote the note lots (buy here pay here)??

BTW: make sure to have some kind of a pre purchase inspection if possible before buying a vehicle…