The big 2 tricks that many Car Tents and dealers get up to

[steevjee]

1/   It's fairly well known (I presume) that a lot of Thai car tents and dealers selling 2nd hand cars alter the Odometer (distance car has travelled) reading.

I've been told by a farang who has been a dealer in the industry here a long time that the fee is about 300 bht for a uni student to plug his laptop into the cars electronics system (OBD) and adjust the vehicles (kilometers travelled) down (usually a lot).

 

2/  Ask for a log book of services and the common reply will be "oh sorry the book it get lost". (so refer to point 1 for understanding why it got lost)

 

This is when the wise potential buyer walks away

 

PS. I'm sure there are more that others can add and please do so, we need to unite against all these common scams

[jvs]

A lot of times you can tell the km's has been altered by looking under the hood.

When the timing chain is replaced it is usually marked some where.

If the car is fairly new you can just call the main dealer or the importer,if they have done recent service it will be in their computer.

[steevjee]

1 hour ago, jvs said:

A lot of times you can tell the km's has been altered by looking under the hood.

When the timing chain is replaced it is usually marked some where.

If the car is fairly new you can just call the main dealer or the importer,if they have done recent service it will be in their computer.

OK thanks, is that usually around 100,000 kms? and is it the same with a belt? any idea if theres a common place they will write it?

[jvs]

15 minutes ago, steevjee said:

OK thanks, is that usually around 100,000 kms? and is it the same with a belt? any idea if theres a common place they will write it?

Usually only the timing belt and it is usually on the cover of said belt.

 

[JBChiangRai]

Tents have to charge 7% VAT on the sales price of the vehicle.

 

Sometimes they will absorb that cost themselves if they have a high profit margin in the sale eg you bought on finance.

 

12 years ago after I finished commuting from Pattaya to Bangkok every week, I sold a Camry to a tent in Pattaya with over 100k kms on it, I later saw it in my condo building with 30k kms recorded on it.

[Tuvoc]

Don't some ECUs have a tampering alert on them - the ECU will always retain the real mileage that can be read by a standard diagnostic tool. Later BMWs I was told that was the case. Japanese stuff, don't know.

[Tropicalevo]

Those tricks have been standard since Noah was a lad, for many 2nd hand car dealers in the UK.

[DaRoadrunner]

3 hours ago, Tropicalevo said:

Those tricks have been standard since Noah was a lad, for many 2nd hand car dealers in the UK.

As a former uk motor trader I never clocked a car.

 

I'd like to have Lady Roadrunner clocked though.... anyone know how?

[Yellowtail]

Toyota and Isuzu, and I assume most all dealers maintain service records, and most people have the service done at the dealer, at least during the warranty period. If they have the VIN, they can pull up the service record. 

 

 

 

 

 

[steevjee]

9 hours ago, Tuvoc said:

Don't some ECUs have a tampering alert on them - the ECU will always retain the real mileage that can be read by a standard diagnostic tool. Later BMWs I was told that was the case. Japanese stuff, don't know.

At the end of the day its all code and if theres good money to be made in breaking that code the dodgy dealers will hire the code breakers every time.

A caring Government with an effective Police Force would fix it but we all know neither exist in LOS

[steevjee]

3 hours ago, Yellowtail said:

Toyota and Isuzu, and I assume most all dealers maintain service records, and most people have the service done at the dealer, at least during the warranty period. If they have the VIN, they can pull up the service record. 

 

 

 

 

 

Hmmm!  that would be an interesting experiment for a bit of fun on a rainy day