ZuffenZeus

Personally, I think we need to call out sellers pushing bad cars on the Porsche community. If it hadn't been for Rennlist, I wouldn't have known the things to watch for during an inspection.

I'll give an example that happened to me last week. A person posted a 2007 Porsche 997 coupe on Facebook marketplace about 30 miles from my house. The listing said "Clean Title", but the "Engine won't start". His price was $16,000.

Now in my mind, this is potentially a car that I could get repaired. Overall it appeared to be in nice condition with low miles. The seller was very eager to sell and we began a conversation. I asked for the VIN# to run a CarFax and things started to change.

He said, "For some reason, the Carfax says salvage, but the title is CLEAN". My first thought... the title has been washed. I paid for the Carfax and it was deemed "JUNK" by the insurance agency in Florida because of flood damage. I said, your car has a junk designation to the title. He's like, "I didn't know that. I paid cash for it 2 years ago at a racing event. I gave him cash. The seller gave me the title." I then looked it up on CoPart and it had been sold at auction for $6200.

He then sent me a picture of the title that guy gave him. What he didn't know is that I could scan titles, but didn't to because using good wisdom I've gained from dealerships, I knew what to look for when a title is fake. Personally, the title was a horrible example. I've seen better. It looked like it was printed with an old school typewriter. Anyway, the title has printed the model wrong, called it a "CABRIO". It was coupe. This is a common mistake among thieves... they're usually too dumb to know what the car really is and it ends up showing on the fake title. A real title would NOT have this mistake because the information is obtained from national government database... in other words, it's not manually entered.

Another problem... the title was from New Jersey but the registration shows Tallahassee Florida.

I explained the car was still registered in Florida. He's like, "How can this be???" I said in tone of Madea, "Yo dam title aint no good! It's fake son!"

He's like, "Wow, I didn't know. I was planning on repairing the car, but things got tough and decided to let it go". Part of me wants to believe him, but come on. Who tries to sell a car with a "Salvage title" designation on CarFax and/or doesn't legally MOVE the title after a purchase that happened two years ago?

By law, I explained you're supposed to move the title after a purchased within 30 days. That doesn't necessary mean you have keep it registered for public roads, but you must move the title over to your name after a purchase.

He was like, "Originally, I wanted to convert it to a track car and didn't want to pay the taxes".

I'm like... "Dude, this is like buying property. You want a deed to the land after you hand over the cash. Basically, in the long run, an official title is better than a shake of hands or even a bill of sale from a private transaction if something were to go wrong with the previous owner."

We finished our conversation and his last question was "What should I do with this title?" My first response was... "BURN IT!". Then I responded, "If it were me and I knew I was scammed with a bogus title, I would go a police investigator that specializes in auto theft (I have a personal friend who's a cop that catches these guys every week) and also contact my lawyer". This is why I always ask for ID and run the title for authentication. I also have the bank check the cashier's check to make sure it's legit too. This is why due diligence is vital and why we need to a community to help people.