Recommendations before motor transport purchase.
You have decided to buy a used car. However, buying such car you risk to get the stolen one. We recommend or we shall tell about simple and quite available ways to avoid acquisition of the stolen car.
Recommendation first. Definition of the price of the car.
Find out how much such car may cost. For clarification of the real cost of the car of such brand use of Internet services, visit motor shows. Find a specialist who can estimate technical condition and identify the vehicle. Such expert will be useful for you during car examination.
Recommendation second. Preliminary examination of the car.
Examination of the car should be done during daylight hours. For examination of the car invite an expert (see the first section). Ask the seller to check the technical condition of the vehicle by the diagnostic equipment and to investigate VIN for possible change. During examination of the vehicle pay attention to the condition of locks, glasses and sealants. All locks should work freely and without delays. The manufacturer provides the car with a set of firm keys. As a rule the set consists of 2-5 keys. The locks should not have signs of dents and scratches, the keyhole shutters should be closed tightly; there should not be gaps, dents or scratches in places of connections of lock details with the car elements; there should not be chips and scratches on paint at door locks and a luggage carrier. The sealant should not be damaged, as well as the paint which they block. All glasses of the vehicle, as a rule, should have identical firm logos and production date. The expert invited by you should be able to define whether a replacement of glasses took place and define date of their release with accuracy up to the 1st month. As a rule the difference in date of production of the mounted glasses, shouldn't exceed three months. If the above-stated signs are present during preliminary examination the seller behaves restlessly, nervously reacts to your actions during verification of documents or technical condition of the vehicle, is against inspection of VIN, willingly reduces the price for the car, you should consider this information that the vehicle can be stolen. It is better to refuse from buying such vehicle.
Recommendation third. Documents on motor transport.
It is necessary to check all submitted vehicle documents: technical data sheet, reference account (bill of sale), customs declaration, service book. Documents should be checked at sufficient lighting, you should also have a small lamp, an ultra-violet lamp, a mirror, a magnifying glass with 10 fold increase. It is necessary to pay attention to the following places of fake: form number, place of the VIN record, year of release and technical characteristics of motor transport, the owner’s data and place of registration, date of statement and removal from the account. If you find: the tousled fibers of paper, a spot from a chemical discharging, the stamps masking initial records, finishing of strokes, contour of records or typing-in of records by other printer or typewriter - all these are signs of fake. Use of original documents is characteristic for contractual thefts. At these "thefts" the owner "forgets" in the car technical data sheet and other documents on the car, a firm key. In this case studying of documents for a fake is useless. Only experts are able to provide proper check up according to appropriates accounts, if the document stationary form and its filling is appropriate (except the stamp confirming removal of the car from the account). You should also be alerted if the set of the firm keys is not complete. While examining the documents your suspicions deepen, we recommend two solutions: either not to buy such vehicle or to address experts for verification of documents and vehicle itself.
Recommendation fourth. We define year of release of the car.
It is a very important stage. The price of the car and customs duty, directly depends on date of its production. It is necessary to consider three types of interpretation:
- Calendar year of release of motor transport. It is the date of production of motor transport. For example: From 01.01.1999 to 31.12.1999.
- Production (modeling) year of release. The year of the vehicle release is encoded in the form of an alphabetic or digital symbols and is on the 10th position of VIN. The majority of vehicle manufacturers start new production year in September - October. Thus on the 10th position of VIN the symbol indicating release of motor transport of the next year is placed. For example: The vehicle is let out on November 15, 2000. Therefore on the 10th place of VIN there will be a symbol of 2001.
- Year of the vehicle admission. In the majority of the European countries in technical data sheets year of the admission of motor transport in operation is specified. For example: The vehicle is let out on July 14, 2000. It was sold on June 04, 2001. Therefore year of the admission of the vehicle into operation will be considered 2001, and calendar year of release - 2000.
An example of discrepancies of calendar, production year and year of the admission in operation is proposed: date of production of the vehicle - is October, 1999 that corresponds to the 2000th production year. If the vehicle is sold a year later (in 2001) after its production, year of the first admission into operation will not coincide neither with calendar, nor with production year of its release.
It should be noted that in FORD cars made in Europe, calendar and production year of release completely coincides. Calendar year of release is fixed on the 11th position, and on the 12th - indication of the month of release. It is possible to determine date of assembly of the majority of the vehicles by details on which date of their manufacturing is specified. From the date of manufacturing of details before assembly of the vehicle can pass up to 3 months. The manufacturers place the time of detail production on various plastic elements. In most cases these designations look like two concentric circles, in the middle of which there are two last figures of the release year, divided by an arrow specifying month of manufacturing. It is necessary to remember that in the technical data sheets of the vast majority of vehicles instead of the production year by the manufacturer, the date of primary registration (the primary admission in operation) is specified. The interval between them can be more than one year. It is important to know, as you are entitled to pay the customs duty. If the car is made at the end of one calendar year (for example, in December), and admitted into operation at the beginning of the next year. Therefore if as a “date of primary registration” January is specified in the technical data sheets, it means that the vehicle might be produced in the previous calendar year. The time delay between primary registration and the actual date of production maybe more than one year. The vehicles of the brands which are not in demand, can be sold in half a year or even one year after their manufacturing. Concerning foreign cars it is necessary to take into account that certain time is needed for their delivery, thus the date of primary registration can considerably differ from a calendar date of production.
In conclusion of the section information for the "autogourmets" – potential buyers of the vehicles assembled by the individual order is presented. As a rule, assembly of such cars is made upon order payment of already manufactured body, aggregates and components. If the body number contains the year of release it means that it is the year of the body production itself rather than year of the vehicle assembly (the difference may reach one and more years). For example: 1998 is specified in the body of the vehicle but the actual assembly was made in 1999 or 2000. In such cases in order to avoid possible misunderstanding during registration or subsequent sale of the vehicle one should request from the manufacturer a document stating the calendar date of actual assembly.
Recommendation fifth. VIN check (Vehicle Identification Number - identification number of a vehicle).
To avoid purchase of the stolen car, it is not enough to investigate indication of the year of its release or authenticity of the documents. One of the most important stages is verification of identification numbers of vehicles.
In this publication we will not mention types of fonts, ways of drawing and an arrangement of VIN, stickers, types of fastening of number plates.
VIN of vehicles made in the countries which have accepted the international standard represents a combination of the Arab figures and capital letters of the Latin alphabet: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 A B C D E F G H J L M N R S T U V of W Y Z. In VIN it is impossible to use letters I, O, Q, as they are easy for changing. VIN contains a code of the producer, and also vehicle description by the scheme established by the producer. For example, the body type, a type of fuel, a wheel arrangement, an estimated figure of VIN, year of release and serial number of the vehicle can be specified. VIN more often is placed on rarely replaced and, as a rule, fixed elements of motor transport before painting. Therefore on a platform with VIN and in deepenings of signs there should be the same stratifications of paint, as well as on the adjacent surfaces. In some cars (for example, the brands of BMW, AUDI, Volkswagen, Renault) the number platform of a body after drawing of the first paint coat is blocked by a strip of the film (foil) removed after completion of painting of the body. Due to this the surface color of a number platform considerably differs from the other surface. Before examination VIN should be wiped by rags. Examination should include: the signs and number platform of the body as a whole; places of fastening of the marked panels with other details of a body; engine number; the number plate or the plate with VIN. All vehicles have it and can be placed below the dashboard basis (to the left, under a windshield) on the cross-section panel over the radiator, on a cup of the right front shock-absorber, on the dividing wall of the engine compartment (on the right side). For detection of signs of replacement of the number panel it is necessary to examine sites where it passes to other elements of the body, including places of fastenings. The following signs indicate possible replacement of the panel: the panel edges are untightly fitted with another elements (gaps between joints) and presence of artisanal welded seams. When examining the paint-and-lacquer covering of the number platform and adjacent surface of the number panel of the body the following signs indicating possible change of VIN can be found: unevenness of intervals between signs, deviation of separate signs from the line vertically and horizontally, the wrong form of signs, convex cambers or deepenings on separate sign sites and sites of the number platform adjoining to them, peelings of a paint-and-lacquer covering separate sign sites of the number platform of the body, repainting traces by brush or spray. In all possible cases it is necessary to examine the back side of the number platform of the vehicle body. It is useful to review the quality of texts on plates, as well as whether VIN on the plate coincides with VIN on the number platform of the body. Possible reinstallation of number plates may be confirmed by use of fixing details of another type (for example: instead of tubular rivets – self-driving screws, instead of self-driving screws – rivets are used), deformation of external elements of rivets, presence of attritions, scratches, dents on the heads of rivets.
And the last.
If during examination you have found a range of the above-mentioned signs of change of VIN and documents, you can't evaluate them properly, we recommend to refuse from examination and buying such vehicle. Because during registration certain suspicions and questions will certainly occur. At the best case you will lose time and money, at the worst you risk to buy a stolen vehicle with all consequences it implies.
However it is also possible that the revealed signs didn't convince you or you can't assess them appropriately. In such cases you should address experts. While deciding to carry out investigation, you should also take into account that numerous posting and removing vehicles from the account, as well as lack of visible signs of fake don't provide a full guarantee of authenticity of its VIN. Conclusions made by the experts in the course of the VIN investigation can be positive or negative, but in any case objective. Naturally, verification of numbers should be carried out prior to the purchase, registration of leasing, insurance of motor transport rather than after.
The AR-CONTROL Company offers services for the investigation of VIN for change, decoding of VIN, vehicle identification. For these purposes the certificated specialists of AR-CONTROL Company have necessary skills and experience. You can order services in our AR-CONTROL Company. Our Web page is at your service. The price list is presented there.
We not at all suggest you to mistrust people but even honest sellers may be truly mistaken in regard to the actual condition of the vehicle and VIN.
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