Tales From The Cooler: The Land Of The Crooked Car Buyer

I recently stood on the showroom floor of a Los Angeles-area luxury car dealership as their sales manager pointed out a middle-aged couple browsing the lot. "We will never sell them a car," he said. (read more) "In fact, we are going to politely ask them to leave." Why? "One of our salesmen recognized them. They are professional Lemon Law scammers. They have hit Audi and Porsche but they are not going to hit us." Welcome to Southern California, where when it comes to automotive fraud, even customers can be criminals. 50% of fraud nationwide is in LA why? Melting pot, certain tight-knit criminal communities. And the action is almost exclusively with Lexus, Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche brands. After all, if you are going to go to all this trouble, why steal a Kia? Lemon Law Outlaws Odometer Fraud For as little as $75, anyone can buy a "CAN," a device that will roll back odometers. The "CAN" below is offered by a Chinese firm: BENZ CAN FilterBy installing this small pcb inside the EIS module, you can make mileage corrections on NEW MB cars of w221/w164/w204/w212……, and scanner can not find original mileage from EIS module _________________________________________________________________________ Most of these transactions are consumer-to-consumer as TTAC reader Nick Naylor reader knows all too well. The NHTSA brags about their success in combatting odometer fraud but their website admits that the average number of reported cased stands at 450,000 per year while an average of only 15 people are convicted for odometer fraud annually. One conviction for every 30,000 cases means America is losing the war on odometer crime. The few perps that get caught are typically amateurs. This father and son team from Florida would never make it in LA – their placing fliers on vehicles offering their odometer "services" was incredibly stupid and not up to the sophisticated standards of LA scammers. BMW Financial Services recently filed suit against a customer, accusing him of spinning back the odometer on his leased BMW prior to turning the car in. The defendant just happens to live in the city of Glendale, considered by many to be the fraud capital of California. In this closely-watched case, BMW is more interested in sending a message to the criminal community rather than recouping the few thousand dollars in dimished value of the car. It appears that the NHTSA lost interest in odometer offenders back in 2005 Brokers Compounding the problem is the fact that the crooks will often hide behind car brokers. Banks report that over half of the fraud in Southern California can be traced to these shady operators, of which there about 400 in the LA area, and which account for about 5% of luxury auto sales. Brokers charged dealers a fee of between $200 and $2,000 for the privilege of working with their clients. For the perp it means never setting foot in a dealership, and the broker is often their accomplice in an ID theft or falsified credit application scheme. Weak state licensing requirements means that literally anybody can become a car broker in California. Note this broker's FAQs are literally FAQs! Dealership owners grumble about brokers but know that if they do not work with them their neighboring dealer will. Sacramento will likely never outlaw these parasites, as since they consider automobile dealers to be the root of all evil, why help them? Stay tuned for Part 2, where we will explore exports, sub-leasing, car brokers, and how perps obtain their very own parts car from a dealer. It is always interesting to be in the car business here in the City of Anglers… from The Truth About Cars http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com

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