Do not fall victim to used car scams. Discover the common lies told by used car salespeople and how to avoid them by using View 4 You.
“I swear on my mother’s life that this car has only had one owner – a little old lady who used to drive it to church on Sundays…”
You’ll hear that – or a version of it – in many a second-hand car showroom in South Africa these days… although there are a few wrinkles to those old used-car salespeople’s lies.
These days, no one’s going to believe the little old lady used a Golf GTI to get around, but you might be convinced if you hear that this hot hatch has only done 63 000km and is fantastically shiny.
As the sucker who signs up for heavy repayments for the car, you find the stars in your eyes go dim a couple of weeks down the line, when the turbo expires, or the head gasket goes.
Mileage manipulation is a growing concern
Malcolm Cavie has heard plenty of those sort of sad stories – and it seems to him as though the dodgy dealings out there are getting worse.
“These days, it only costs you a few hundred for some guy to come along with a laptop and wind back the odometer. It’s not uncommon to see these ‘haircuts’ taking 100 000km or more off a car’s mileage.”
Even worse, some owners fit special electronic devices that record only a fraction of the mileage, letting them dump a well-used car as if it were barely out of the box.
Checking what the seller won’t tell you
Cavie’s company, View 4 You, is starting to get a name out there – among savvy car fans and dealerships and, slowly, among ordinary people who only know that cars have four wheels.
“We can check everything for you – from whether the car has been stolen, whether it has been crashed and rebuilt; whether there has been any accident damage repair and, of course, whether the mileage is real or not.”
That happens because the electronic diagnostic equipment his team uses talks directly to the electronic control units, which are the heart of all modern cars.
“As part of our inspection, we run a diagnostic check which tells us whether there is anything currently wrong with the car and whether there are any fault codes stored in the system about previous problems.”
Sometimes the advice is simple: ‘Run!’
Sometimes, when View 4 You detects tampering with mileage, they advise the client: “Run!.
“If they’ve done that, they’re just out to rip you off, and there might be other hidden issues…”
Because View 4 You is so thorough – and because its assessments are unbiased and pull no punches – the company has been banned from several dealerships.
Others, though, the honest ones, actually welcome View 4 You and tell potential clients that.
Cavie, a trained engineer, got into the assessment and review business because he found himself helping friends look at cars or houses (View 4 You also offers a pre-purchase property assessment service) and realised most people are ignorant about what they are buying and how to spot faults and potential problems.
“People are so trusting,” he says, “and sometimes they even feel bad about calling us in because they feel it’s rude.”
He says people also need to step back – from any big financial deal – “take a deep breath and think.
“Don’t be tempted by the shiny stuff. And don’t let the bling make you overlook something which worries you.”
The power to walk away
The most powerful weapon any consumer can have is the power to walk away.
“There will always be other cars, other houses…”
The company often gets called in to run its eye over the work of panelbeaters – and even to double-check claims on service invoices.
“There is a lot of cheating out there – because most people don’t have any way to check or dispute what they are told.”
Cavie’s strong religious belief drives him to help people.
“The Lord told me that I can make a difference and help people – stop them from getting hurt — by doing this work.”
And, nowhere else is that in evidence than with his clients.
One, Anuschka, told us that View 4 You had helped her and her husband get justice after they bought a dud 4×4 from a dealership in Cape Town.
“View 4 You inspected it and made a long list of the things which were wrong with it… and we’ve got them in again to look at a replacement vehicle which the dealership is offering us.
“The money we paid View 4 You, we saved many times over because they helped us get the original deal cancelled and all our money refunded – and how often do you hear of that these days?”
