Used Car Buyers Beware?

TwinCities.com reports that during the Katrina & Rita hurricanes, an estimated half-million cars and trucks were damaged and some of these could end up on forecourts and sold on to unsuspecting buyers.

Although no flooded vehicles have been reported so far, state and national officials are warning consumers and car dealers to be on the lookout.

Alarming news or just media speculation?

Well it does happen and has happened in the past and so it just serves as a warning sign to dealers and customers alike that there are people out there who will take advantage of such situations.

Although the image on the left depicts that old chestnut that all used car salesman are bad guys, this story does illustrate the importance of buying from a reputable dealer.

Now I'm not saying all reputable dealers are angels, on the contrary, but they do have very robust data checking systems in place to minimise the risk of taking in cars that may have been affected by natural disasters like floods. And even if human error dictates that a car slips through the net, the law is always on your side and in my experience, a reputable garage will always own up to the error and reverse the situation very quickly.

Because like just like the customers who buy cars, car salesman are the victims too.

Caveat Emptor!