I doubt it, even in the 40s and 50s it was not that common. Although Barney Fife got suckered into a ‘great deal’ on a used car.
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Just from personal experience over the years, I’ve seen far more customers pull crap on dealers than the reverse.
Cars spliced together, subframes broken in half and butt welded, engines crammed full of motor honey, brake lines crimped flat, or whatever it takes to palm it off quickly on a dealer who does not take the time to look it over.
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I agree with @ok4450
Seems it’s usually the customer who’s hiding something . . .
It always put a huge smile on my face when a low down dirty cheating customer was told to be careful that the door doesn’t hit them on the way out 
Sawdust would quickly ruin an automatic transmission, ignore those old wives’ tales.
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Sawdust only used in manual transmissions.
Mechanics who see a lot of customers have one point of view. Consumers who visit mechanics have another point of view. I will say that the vast majority of mechanics are honest hard working people. But there are enough bad apples out there to give consumers a feeling of distrust. I’ve ran across my share of bad/dishonest mechanics.
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There bad apples, dishonest, and/or incompetent individuals in all professions. But for some reason mechanics are held to a higher standard than doctors.
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No - it’s volume. Most people will see a mechanic far more times a year then their doctor so there’s a much higher likelihood of encountering a dishonest mechanic then a bad doctor.
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Hi @xpaceone:
Please remove the links you added to your post. Such advertising is against the site rules.
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So funny.
How did the seller pull that off?
While no.ne was looking, pushed the car onto the lot and parked it?
Regarding the car with the missing engine/transmission, my boss was going to shut the dealership down for a holiday weekend and head to Lake Keystone which is near Tulsa. Late on Friday afternoon some guy came flying into the back of the lot and jumped out of a straight lookinjhg 1961 Bel Air, 4 door sedan. He wanted to take advantage of a grand off on anything drive on onto the lot sale and the boss never went and looked the car over. He just noticed that it appeared to be straight and since he dealt with a few old cars now and then figured he could flip it pretty easily. The boss had his pontoon boat hooked up and was ready to get out of town.
On Monday morning when he went to start it and move it around back the car was stone dead. Grabbing his portable starter pack he raised the hood and found no engine, transmission, or radiator.
After asking around town he found out the driver of that Bel Air had a buddy push him up to 50 MPH on a side street and that’s what rocketed him onto the lot.
The boss was initially irate but calmed down after a few days and began laughing about the whole thing; giving the guy credit for guts. The ad said “Anything driven onto the lot no matter the condition” meant the Bel Air guy was adhering to the ad. The only debatable thing was the manner of propulsion.
The guy had torched the front springs to lower the nose a bit and stopped the car with the front wheels in a rut so the stance looked normal. Apparently planned it out in advance…
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Thank you.
Well done! (I would nevehave thought abouthe front springs.)
Good trick to laugh about.
Could have been a car with a bad engine still eligible for the “grand off”.
What is a bad engine worth?
It’s very easy for an unethical mechanic to convince car owners that unnecessary repairs are needed because the average person doesn’t know much about their cars. People often have no idea they’ve been ripped off.
The easiest way to tell if they did an oil change is look at the oil on the dipstick. Brand new oil should be very clear. You can tell the difference between old and new oil and Sawdust is mainly only used in manual transmissions.