Does This Sound Like a Scam Artist to You?

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

Well, I was delivering pizza tonight in my 273k mile 1998 Nissan Frontier and one of my deliveries was to the home of a "used car dealer". The first words out of his mouth were "How much for your truck-I need to buy your truck!!!" Now this took me aback for a moment. He even offered me a 2000 Honda Civic he had sitting in his driveway with 100k on it as an even trade. I even said my truck may need rod bearings and that did not phase him. I said "NO!" I would not sell my truck truck to him. What I figured is that he has a wrecked Frontier sitting somewhere that he needs the body from mine to sell, swapping VIN's and speedometers to do so. To me, this is unethical, not to mention illegal. Besides, I could tell what he offered to trade me was a buy here-pay-here hack job of a car with a shitty respray and/or bodywork. If he wanted to use my truck with it's low bluebook to scam someone else, how do I know he was not selling me some kind of gray market vehicle? Maybe he has a stolen truck he needs a VIN for to get rid of, I dunno. Besides, a Civic is useless to me for parts chasing and getting lumber from the Home Depot or other sundry mundane tasks I use it for every day. I did however, offer an even trade if he had a 1987 Grand National-he was unwilling to do the deal...lol

 

[SBCregal]

that's alot of assumptions to make

 

[Silent viewer]

maybe the guy actually really wanted it??? if i was a dealer and some one rolled up in a decent g body that they thought little of i would try to trade them or buy it from them and i would not be switching vins, just engines!

 

[455OLDSMAN]

Could of had a customer looking for that particular vehicle maybe.

 

[Tony_SS]

that's alot of assumptions to make

Seriously. But it sounds like you really do want the Civic though.

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

A Civic is not my style. To me, it has no value as it lacks utility and I rarely ever carry passengers with me. If I found a good one for $300 I would take it but not as a replacement for my truck, just for something to run into the ground. Even then, I would prefer a VW Golf TDI with a 5 speed if I wanted an economy car. My truck has been anal-retentively maintained by me and I just did a minor restoration over the past few years. I did a quickie respray but fixed the dents and peeling paint, removed the hood, lights, grille, bumpers, weatherstripping, door glass, mirrors, tailgate, etc so that it would have no masking lines or overspray. I also did the door and hood jambs as well as spraying inside the bed. ( The hood, tailgate and gas door were done off the car. I only took a month for prep so it was below my normal standards of perfection) I also replaced the steering wheel and driver's seat with Nissan NOS parts and replaced the bad weatherstripping around the door windows because the windows rattled. Other than a noisy engine, there is not a thing wrong with it and it looks like a truck with maybe 50k on it. I just like messing with used car dealers. I enjoy going with friends to shop for cars so that I can get in their faces and tell them why their car is garbage.

 

[oldsofb]

You made the right call. After telling him you had a rod bearing isssue and he didn't even blink! It's the same way you get that feeling when the elevator opens and there's someone in there that makes your neck hair stand on end. Walk away because somethings wrong about it. Good call!

Hutch

 

[ryanwitski]

he is a scam artist. no one says no problem when the engine is near gone.