Automotive Forums  Where Car Enthusiasts Go to Discuss Cars Online

It is my understanding that a car which as endured flood damage, may be repaired, and resold in a state that DOES NOT REQUIRE DISCLOSURE of such as it is a used. In these states the title is "laundered" and then resold into another state where a retailer sells them.   I get this information through a retired GM employee whose job it was to purchase used cars at a closed auction acting on behalf of GM's regional office.  Now this doesn't help you if you have already purchased a car, but there are ways to backtrack car titles to the original states and get insurance information on the VIN number to address these pitfalls.  Check with an insurance broker than you trust.   Then if you think you have been deceived,  contact the state attorney generals office.  They have LOTS of new law grads just hungry for these types of cases.  Also if a crime crosses state lines,  I'm not sure but think it becomes a FEDERAL case after that.   Not sure but worth checking into,  especially if a dealer seems to have a number of complaints with a common thread.

Also because of the changes in titles from state to state, it may not be evident to the dealer if the car was a flood vehicle or not.  I do not think they have any responsibility to research the integrity of any but the most recent title.  

After Katrina,  many flood vehicles were being retitled in other states that eventually went through auctions with the dealers only making the briefest of inspections.  Not the dealers fault.

buyer beware !

You pay your money and take your chances.  

thats def tru...we have been screwed a few times and had to return vehicles to auction because of this. I remember a civic we had to arbitrate because of this, clean title, bought clean @ auction, had problems with the electrical system and found out this vehicle was registered in a disaster area @ the time of katrina......but clean title and history


luckly for consumers and us, autocheck now will have notes if a vehicle was registered in an area @ the time of major disaster. A good reason to use autocheck and not carfax, autocheck is far more accurate. I have seen vehicles with clean history on carfax and reported frame damage on carfax

You are right about us not knowing about things like this sometimes. When we buy a vehicle we have to sign forms stating the condition of a vehicle. This is to protect consumers from dealers saying "i didnt know". In these situations, the auction is held liable for not catching problems like this and has to take the vehicle back...then the seller @ auction is held liable. This is why I tell people if they have a problem with us over an issue like this, bring the vehicle back, we dont care. We will refund their money and take the vehicle back to the auction and get our money back....no sweat of our back  

I wonder for how much it is sold.  
________________

John R. seeking for the best maintenance help on Toyota Corolla cars..

I have to agree with some of the above entries.  I purchased a cute little car for my daughter.  I was told it was a sound vehicle.  He assured me that the brakes had been changed and I even asked that they check the sound in the back tire.  My daugther was so exited that I had purchsed the car for her.  I live in Greensboro so I had a little over an hour drive home.  Before I knew it, my dash lit up like a christmas tree.  Almost every light in the dash was on.  Without an owners manual, I was not sure what the problem was.  I got the vehicle home and too it straight to a mechanic to get it looked at.  3 days later I had a $4,200 bill.  4 of 3 window regulators were broken.  The brakes that I was told were replaced, NOT!!  A guy in the early entires metioned no fluids.  He is exactly right.  My car had no anitfreeze and very little oil.  I am surprised the car did not over heat on my way home.  Also, the floor matts that were in the trunk of the car when we test drove the car were not the same Matts when I got home.  So the car that I thought would be a sound car for my daughter is something I am afraid for her to drive.  I still have another $1,500 - $2,000 worth of repairs. So, a $9,000 car has become a $16,000 car.  Cary Auto Sales says in their earlier statement that they would buy a car back.  That was never told to me and I asked if I had any type of warranty and I was told no.  I should have figured when the guy who put the tag on my car said "good luck" I should have known then that I was in trouble.  I usually am told to enjoy, not good luck.  I will not recommend this company to anyone.  I have many friends in the Cary/Raleigh area and I have told them to tell their friends to stay as far away as possible.  I have also shared with my network of friends in Greensboro to tell anyone they see if they are looking for a DEPENDABLE used vehicle, to STAY AWAY from Cary Auto Sales.  As they say, what you see is not what you always get.  So, Buyer beware!  If you purchase a vehicle from anyone, especially Cary Auto Sales, take it to a dependable mechanic and have the car checked to ensure there is no major problems to the vehicle.  If I had done that, I would have run from Cary Auto Sales as fast as I could and never look back.  I am considering reporting them to the BBB.  

Be sure to check your car thoroughly before you buy.. if possible at least get 3-4 different friends to check..

I bought a used honda from them, they were upfront on carfax but i found so many problems with the car (power windows work intermittently, car stereo backlight spoilt, car windows tinted at a level thats illegal in north carolina, car stereo was not connected to back speakers due to cable wear, brake light switch worked intermittently and failed within 2 weeks) after driving for 3 week and all their cars were sold As-Is. I had to change the timing belt (they couldnt give me a maintenance history) and engine oil as the condition of the oil was quite bad.

So in summary, check, check, check and double check a few more times if you intend to buy from them.  

I am new to this forum, I would like to apologize in advance for any protocols or standards and rules i may not be familiar with I may be breaching here, but here goes nothing...

I am a dealer, but this aside for a moment, I am a business guy, in fact I run four businesses; besides this, at times, I am a customer and at all times I am a person. So this leads me to ask the representative from Cary's; Sir, WHAT IN HELL ARE YOU? Obviously you do not give a whit for your reputation nor that of your profession's. From those poor unfortunates who have wondered into the web of buying a, I dare say "car" from you and their statements and your complete lack of integrity and utter lack of even the the barest grasp of reality (or of the English language) in response, it is painfully apparent you are no business person...
                  let me amend this, you are no one in business, you are also no sort of person unless you really are the rare type who really enjoys being awful; as in an awfully despicable human being. Would you like your wife spoken to and treated like this? Your Mother, how 'bout your Grandmother?

So try this, If you were this person, how would you like to be treated? This is something you should have learned as a child, a very young one! Here is another one, treat your customers with love, they are the reason for your very existence, without them you die!.

How Dare you behave like this? I'd bet you have a very tough difficult harsh trying hateful tiny ugly puny sickly putrid disgusting horid joke of a life, enjoy loser!

I just wonder which will happen first, you killing someone from utter disregard for others or some other killing you for utter disregard, on second thought, one can hope...  

hi i am fairly new to this forum but after a long week of research and hard work i had to share my experience with everyone on here.i have been looking for a used bmw for quite a while,a couple of weeks ago i found it at cary auto sales.i decided to have a look.the service was great no issues but i wanted to make sure i was making the right desicion so the research continued and i found this forum which blew my mind and got me super nervous but i really wanted the car so i made a few calls and talked to a few people then i decided to go to them again but i was ready for anything they were gonna try to pull on me.first of all they had a line of people out there very busy place alot of happy faces i was surprised i still was ready till i realized they do push the customer to do whatever they like they hand u the key and leave u alone no sales pitch wow well i figured it was a trick.to my surprise thats the way they do business do what u like well work with u they said.then when i had a question about the quality of the car they said take the car and get it checked out take ur time,i was not prepared for that i mean u read all this here and u see something else there everyone was taking their cars to get checked they encourage it and push it before the sale to make u happy.but when i seen how busy the place is i realized they do treat the customer great but with hundreds of customers a week u cant please everyone.make a long story short i took my car to bmw dealer had the car 2 hours without supervision had a couple of minor issues cary auto sales gladly took care of and drove the car home.i will gladly recommend them to anyone i know just sounds like alot of angry people here that blame everyone for their mistakes.thanks cary auto sales...  

To all the consumers out there with there so called "horror Stories" about buying a car at this particular dealer. I dont know exactly what, that dealer is up to and dont really want to know. I do know as a dealer myself for 20+ years, That I have personally been scammed by consumers who come to my lot to sell me there vehicle after purchasing a vehicle recently the women told me she took great care of this car, I believed her and on that basis I bought the car from her. After my mechanics inspected vehicle it needed about $1500.00 worth of work. This is not the first time this has occured to me. Dealers are in business to make money, No secret there? It is very hard for a dealer to buy a car at auction? or elswhere and completely rebuild the car and put it up for sale for $4000- $5000. With the economy the way it is more consumers are weary and expect so much more for there money. I understand that as a consumer myself. But, Dealers are having to pay more for these used cars as well and cant possibly recondition these cars to new and turn a small profit? My advice to the mechanically conscious consumer spend the money on a new car or go to Japan and continue to help there economy!!! God Bless, Happy Holidays..........  

Just returned from Cary Auto Sales and had the worst car shopping experience of my life. These guys offered no help navigating their scattered inventory, barely left the sales office, and were insulted that I looked for flaws in their cars.

Me-"I'm not interested. It starts rough and runs rough until you tac it up a little."
Cary Auto guy-"No way, it was just checked out yesterday by another dealer who said it's fine."

From there the sleazy sales staff just got more condescending and I finally left after one of the hot shot sales guys became rude and insulting. I didn't even get to the part where they show me (possibly) laundered Carfax reports and argue that my perception is wrong.

My advice to all is avoid Cary Auto Sales unless you like rude sales staff and wasting money.  

I pays to always spend the extra time and money to have another shop or dealer do a once over. I have seen so many scams here in Miami is would make your head spin. Plus I hear about it all day long in my line of work. Carfax is almost useless as well.

Fred
Driver
http://www.cartransportquotes.com  

i wish i have read all this before my purchase so here is my story

Cary Auto Sales sold a vehicle to me that was completely "undrivable" within 12 hours of purchase.
We drove 2 hours to Cary and bought an '04 Honda on Friday Oct. 1, 2010 and paid $6500.00 cash. Upon returning home that night, the Honda started running hot.We thought perhaps it needed coolant. We did that, and upon idling, the temp gage registered HOT again. The next day we went to Advance Auto and had the diganostic machine attached. THey showed issues with cooling. We discovered the fans were not turning on so we put a new fan relay switch on. FAns worked intermittently after this, and again the temp gage went to hot as we idled the car. So we parked it in the driveway until we could get it to a garage. On MOnday it took us 30 minutes to get it to a garage 5 miles away because we had to keep stopping to let the car cool. I called CAry Auto and told them of our problems. They said to let them know what the mechanic found. Mechanic had it three days and called to tell me there was a blown head gasket and that this was a major repair. We paid the garage for their diagnostic work. We called CAry Auto on Friday (at this point we have owned the car a week and it has been in the gargage almost the whole time) and told them of the diagnosis,and told them the mechanic gave a rough estimate of $800-$1,000 for the repair. WE explained that we had not driven the car more than an hour since we owned it. AFter much back and forth discussion Cary Auto Repair (Allen) said for me to get the car to him (2 hours away) and he would look into the problem(what a scam they sell u a car and pull u in for repairs right next door which they just happen to own but can"t service their cars give me a break talk about supply and demand with these guys.) I told him I would research HOW I could get the car to him as I did not have AAA. Cary Auto suggested I use someone else's AAA to have the car towed. After some research I found the cost of having the car towed to CAry Auto would be between $500 - $700 for the 150 miles. I decided it would be dishonest to use someone else's AAA. At this point we decided to take the car to another reputable mechanic and get a second opinion - hoping the original expensive diganosis was incorrect. So on MOnday Oct 11 we took it to another mechanic - explained our problems, and asked for him to make a diagnosis. He called the next day and confirmed the original problem - blown head gasket and confirmed the costs. I called Cary Auto and told them of this 2nd diagnosis and I told them I would not be using anyone else's AAA. I also conveyed to them how upset I was with their business practices. Again, through much discussion Cary Auto said they would pay half of the repair costs. I told them that was unacceptable - I felt they should pay the whole costs considering we had owned the car 10 days and not driven it for more than an hour total. I also questioned WHY I would pay teh expense and go through the aggravation of getting the car to them when obviously their mechanics had missed so much to begin with. I also told them I would be filing a complaint through the BBB. Upon hearing this CAry Auto said if I were going to do that they they withdrew their offer of paying half the repair costs. I called my mechanic and told him to proceed with repairs - knowing at this point I would be paying the entire costs myself. My mechanic called the next day and had more bad news. He said once he started working on the car, he had found other very concerning issues. One - the motor mount was broken and had to be replaced. Two - he said the water pump was shot and needed to be replaced as well. SInce these issues were occuring - we decided to go ahead and repair timing belt as this is required on Hondas - and we have no idea if this had been done. FUrther he discovered many other issues - many bolts missing - zip ties used to hold up hoses, and many hose clamps missing. In his words - it was a mess under the hood. He questioned how any decent mechanic could not have noticed these things if they had really checked the car out before putting it on a sales lot. So it took 2 more days to repair the car. We picked it up  Oct 15 and paid $1319.00.well that was it so thank u cary auto for a crazy two weeks,money spent i didnt have,and a car i really do not trust...bottom line do not buy from these guys...  

This has to be the worst car dealership that I have ever been to. The salesman was very rude. Bad attitude with a very smart mouth. I would not recommend this dealership to, anyway. It is extremely disrespectful. I went their after reading the previous reviews. They were correct. Terrible service....  

Hi everyone,
If you bought a used car, then no one can say anything for it.  
But if you are saying that you bought a new car... then it is completely not possible..  

Defensive Driving NY | NY Defensive Driving Courses

Hi
I am agree with you, because no company or dealer will spoil his name in market...  

I always tell people to be cautious of Carfax reports. They are not 100% accurate. Insurance companies don't always fork over their info. For someone like me who buys used cars and doesn't sell them, Carfax reports can screw me over. There are alternatives and I always recommend comparing reports.

I discuss the alternatives here.
http://www.bigbucksauto.com/automotive-articles/the-problem-with-carfax-vehicle-history-reports-carfax-alternatives/