Yet More Bad Car Dealer Tricks

Cloned: Car thieves can be clever little chaps and are becoming very good at disguising the fact that a car was stolen. One such trick is “cloning”.

Cars are usually identified by their make, model and registration plates. If they steal, say, a red 2003 Honda Civic they will look for a similar red 2003 Civic on the road and take down their registration plate details, get a copy made, take off the registration plates from the stolen car and put the copied plates on it. Now, there are two very similar cars driving around. It is more than likely that one person has no idea their car has been cloned. The cloned car can pick up speeding tickets, parking fines, or worse, be involved in a hit and run or robbery but they will all be traced back to the innocent person’s home address!

Ringing: “Ringing” is another trick to disguise a stolen car. Thieves steal a car and find a similar car that was written off, steal their registration plates and put them on the stolen car.

Cut ‘n’ shut: Say a 2004 type Opel Tigra was involved in a crash and the front has been completely destroyed. They find another 2004 Opel Tigra that was involved in a crash and the back was completely destroyed. They weld together the “good” parts of both the vehicles to make one car. A good welder can do a superb job of hiding the seams but if you buy the car and are involved in an accident the joins can be very weak and will crumple under the pressure of a crash. Again, a history check should determine this for you.