North Carolina Army veteran buys $68,000 Carvana car for wife — but it was a stolen vehicle, police said
A local Maserati dealership said the VIN on the car, window, and door was different
A husband in North Carolina looking to surprise his wife with a new car for her birthday was the one who ended up being surprised when he found out months later the vehicle had been stolen, falsely advertised and sold to him, according to a report.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/north-carolin...olice-said
Those online dealers like Carvana and Vroom scare me..
I'd rather go to the dealership and test drive..
I've never had any desire to buy a car online; for me its like shoes, rather tried them on in person if you will.
(03-24-2023, 02:24 PM)WingerDinger Wrote: [ -> ]Those online dealers like Carvana and Vroom scare me..
I'd rather go to the dealership and test drive..
You basically get a week or so to test drive it. You can see pictures of it online and instead of having to go to a dealership, they just deliver it.
Now I haven't used it but it's supposed to work like that. It's basically an extended test drive that you may get at a dealership (although who knows if they do that anymore).
This case is really weird.
He bought a 2021 year but it was actually a 2017. So did nothing change in body, inside, or technology? Did it not look like the other ones he was looking at? Was the mileage high or what else made it a good deal that he didn't notice anything?
For Carvana, no clue what went wrong with it. They most likely are using the VIN to fill out all the options on the vehicle online. The VIN would have had to match the color and options, plus be valid. So there isn't much they can do there to stop from selling a stolen vehicle unless they are checking all the VINs and normally they just look at the dash one.
It brings up questions to where they are buying their vehicles. If it's a personal sale, you need to have the title and sign it over and the VIN is on it. So unless someone is forging titles, then they should be able to catch it. They most likely bought it at auction or in a lot of cars. They should be able to send the cops to where they bought it from.
The 2021 VIN had to be valid unless Carvana, NC, their insurance, and whoever else reviewed the VIN are not validating that the VIN is actually valid. There are plenty of free ways to check and you would think any of the companies or government would be checking that. So are they taking VINs off wrecked cars in the junkyard and putting them on the stolen vehicles? That is supposed to create a salvage title or something similar though. This could end up creaking a huge case if the cops follow it up.
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Carvana is in dire financial straits at the moment. They probably wont be around much longer. Too bad; I was looking forward to having the hot tattooed chick hand me a check for my used car. Maybe I can sell it to a junk yard and get the same level of service.
I bought a car online once many years ago when it was very uncommon.
Folks were just becoming comfortable with sites like "Travelocity" and "Priceline" had just entered the fray.
Yet, a startup auto sales site had some backing and wanted to let buyers "bid" on what they'd pay for a car. And their business model allowed them to undercut dealers to build their reputation in their first year of business.
I needed a cheap commuter for a job that had me going back and forth to and from St Augustine > Jax > Sea Island GA often.
So I found a new Honda Civic on the lot for about $13.8K (2000 model/year) - another dealer had the same one for 13.6.
I went to the site and bid 11K and they called me the next day from Coggin Honda and said "your civic is here ready for pickup"
I scrambled to get a loan approved and a check cut and they handed me the keys for 11K.
I asked the salesman how they could do this and he told me the site was paying them $1800 so they could sell me the car. I thought, this is never going to work out for this website.
The site (I think it was greenlight.com or something) went out of business a year later.
(03-27-2023, 10:26 AM)NewJagsCity Wrote: [ -> ]Carvana is in dire financial straits at the moment. They probably wont be around much longer. Too bad; I was looking forward to having the hot tattooed chick hand me a check for my used car. Maybe I can sell it to a junk yard and get the same level of service.
What the heck will they do with the 30+ stupid car tower/vending machines they've built all over the place? LOL
That will be a weird thing to repurpose.
(03-27-2023, 10:43 AM)NYC4jags Wrote: [ -> ]I bought a car online once many years ago when it was very uncommon.
Folks were just becoming comfortable with sites like "Travelocity" and "Priceline" had just entered the fray.
Yet, a startup auto sales site had some backing and wanted to let buyers "bid" on what they'd pay for a car. And their business model allowed them to undercut dealers to build their reputation in their first year of business.
I needed a cheap commuter for a job that had me going back and forth to and from St Augustine > Jax > Sea Island GA often.
So I found a new Honda Civic on the lot for about $13.8K (2000 model/year) - another dealer had the same one for 13.6.
I went to the site and bid 11K and they called me the next day from Coggin Honda and said "your civic is here ready for pickup"
I scrambled to get a loan approved and a check cut and they handed me the keys for 11K.
I asked the salesman how they could do this and he told me the site was paying them $1800 so they could sell me the car. I thought, this is never going to work out for this website.
The site (I think it was greenlight.com or something) went out of business a year later.
(03-27-2023, 10:26 AM)NewJagsCity Wrote: [ -> ]Carvana is in dire financial straits at the moment. They probably wont be around much longer. Too bad; I was looking forward to having the hot tattooed chick hand me a check for my used car. Maybe I can sell it to a junk yard and get the same level of service.
What the heck will they do with the 30+ stupid car tower/vending machines they've built all over the place? LOL
That will be a weird thing to repurpose.
Sometimes timing is everything. Good deal.
So he got burned buying an Italian car within months instead of a couple years?
He got off easy.
(03-27-2023, 10:43 AM)NYC4jags Wrote: [ -> ]I bought a car online once many years ago when it was very uncommon.
Folks were just becoming comfortable with sites like "Travelocity" and "Priceline" had just entered the fray.
Yet, a startup auto sales site had some backing and wanted to let buyers "bid" on what they'd pay for a car. And their business model allowed them to undercut dealers to build their reputation in their first year of business.
I needed a cheap commuter for a job that had me going back and forth to and from St Augustine > Jax > Sea Island GA often.
So I found a new Honda Civic on the lot for about $13.8K (2000 model/year) - another dealer had the same one for 13.6.
I went to the site and bid 11K and they called me the next day from Coggin Honda and said "your civic is here ready for pickup"
I scrambled to get a loan approved and a check cut and they handed me the keys for 11K.
I asked the salesman how they could do this and he told me the site was paying them $1800 so they could sell me the car. I thought, this is never going to work out for this website.
The site (I think it was greenlight.com or something) went out of business a year later.
(03-27-2023, 10:26 AM)NewJagsCity Wrote: [ -> ]Carvana is in dire financial straits at the moment. They probably wont be around much longer. Too bad; I was looking forward to having the hot tattooed chick hand me a check for my used car. Maybe I can sell it to a junk yard and get the same level of service.
What the heck will they do with the 30+ stupid car tower/vending machines they've built all over the place? LOL
That will be a weird thing to repurpose.
Yes, same here! It was an auto buyers club that allowed you to buy directly from the factory and then have it shipped to a local dealer to pay for all the taxes, title, etc. Bought a 96 Dodge Caravan in late 1995. Got a lot of upgrades at a substantial discount. As for those Carvana vending machines, I'm thinking they could turn those into some sort of a funky version of Wet and Wild, but all indoors. Or perhaps a multi-level Police or Fire Station. Or a multi-level adult Entertainment complex. Just re-train the tattooed chicks.
(03-27-2023, 10:43 AM)NYC4jags Wrote: [ -> ]What the heck will they do with the 30+ stupid car tower/vending machines they've built all over the place? LOL
That will be a weird thing to repurpose.
That's actually one of the main drivers in their collapse. They tried to grow too large instead of staying where they were and being successful.
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