Buying A Car - Stolen Vehicles
The second hand car market has always been a mine field due to the fact that mixed in with the thousands of honest traders are a few underhand ones. Buying a second hand car is always a gamble and more than a few people are stung each year with costly repair bills to a new second hand car. The biggest concern for a second hand car buyer however is the innocent purchase of a stolen car as this often results in the police seizing the car with no compensation and at massive loss to you.
With this in mind here are a few tips to help you try and avoid innocently spending your hard earned cash on a stolen vehicle. Additional tips can be found in Buying a Car - Internal checks, External checks, Engine checks and Test drive checks.
Numbers - Always check the engine and the VIN numbers on the car against the documentation the seller will supply. Check that the numbers match up and that they don't look like they have been tampered with as this could show up the up and coming act of car cloning.
Paint - Check the paint on the car and pay specific attention to areas that would show the original paint work such as under carpets and the engine bay. If the colour in these areas doesn't match the rest of the car talk to the owner about any re-spray job which may have taken place. Some criminals will re-spray a car to disguise the fact that it is stolen, only proceed with the purchase if you are totally satisfied with the answer.
Documents - Check that all the documentation is present as stolen cars rarely have the documentation needed when selling a car. If all the documents are present be sure to check all the details carefully against the car such as colour, chassis number, engine number and number plates. If any of these don't match terminate the purchase there and then as it could be a stolen vehicle.
Seller - Finally do some digging on the seller; ask them some questions about the car which may stump a potential criminal. Make sure that you are buying from the owner's home address and the one that is listed on the registration documents. Criminals will often not sell a stolen car from their home address so this can be a good indicator, talk to the seller and only proceed if completely satisfied. Another technique being encouraged by Norfolk police is to take a picture of the seller next to the car on your camera phone which could be used in evidence if the car turns out to be stolen (see our previous article titled Buying a Car - Cloned Vehicles for more information on this and cloned cars)
Basically the best rule when buying a second hand car is to do your homework. Make sure that you go prepared and know what to look for and by following these few simple guidelines you could avoid innocently purchasing a stolen car.
