Purchased 2000 Land Cruiser from a fraudulent odometer seller. NEED HELP

[Area 51]

In SC Court.
Oh you did not hear me, i did say 280k miles, judge this idiot can't hear, i never would have mislead anyone.
So unless you have something in writing be prepared to come out greatly more pissed off than you already are.
Change all the fluids, all of them. have a good shop or dealer look things over.
Change all the hoses and belts.
Tries, breaks.
16k$ really doesn't sound bad at all.
Or sell it and buy something better from a toyota dealer. You may get a decent trade in on a LC.
Advertise on Craig's you may be able to get what you paid or close.

sacramento cars & trucks for sale "toyota land cruiser" - craigslist

sacramento cars & trucks for sale "toyota land cruiser" - craigslist

sacramento.craigslist.org

 

[joseph A]

In SC Court.
Oh you did not hear me, i did say 280k miles, judge this idiot can't hear, i never would have mislead anyone.
So unless you have something in writing be prepared to come out greatly more pissed off than you already are.
Change all the fluids, all of them. have a good shop or dealer look things over.
Change all the hoses and belts.
Tries, breaks.
16k$ really doesn't sound bad at all.
Or sell it and buy something better from a toyota dealer. You may get a decent trade in on a LC.
Advertise on Craig's you may be able to get what you paid or close.

sacramento cars & trucks for sale "toyota land cruiser" - craigslist

sacramento cars & trucks for sale "toyota land cruiser" - craigslist

sacramento.craigslist.org

If the mechanical evaluation comes back good on the engine and I have low cost to get it clear for safe travel. Would you still consider selling it? Or keeping it?

 

[Area 51]

If the mechanical evaluation comes back good on the engine and I have low cost to get it clear for safe travel. Would you still consider selling it? Or keeping it?

That's more of an emotional decision. We live in different worlds so what i think on this question is irrelevant to your considerations and decisions.
Good luck.

 

[FarooqMCSE]

I am reaching out to seek advice from anyone who has experience with their Land Cruiser because I am in a hole.

I just purchased a 2000 Land Cruiser in CA that was advertised as a single owner with 70,000 miles for $16,000. The ODO on the vehicle reads 70,000. But after purchasing we found a car fax report that says the vehicle has 281,264 miles and 3 owners. The seller had a carfax report and invoices from Toyota that showed the mileage that he advertised but it seems to be fake after pulling our own carfax (we effd up by not looking at this before purchasing..I know).

I am now in a dilemma.. I have a truck with significantly more miles than I thought it would have and repairs may be 10fold. Do I sell the truck and try to get back some money and take a loss? Or do I keep the truck?

I plan to take it to Toyota to get a full inspection on it so that I have a list of said repairs/ maintenance. At what expense is too much to continue on with the truck that has 281,264 miles on it? What are red flag repairs?

I was under the impression that the vehicle was well maintained but now I feel violated not knowing if it was taken care of.

The shit thing is, the truck is in beautiful shape inside and out. Yet, didn’t catch the fraudulent odometer and falsifying the amount of owners.

I bought this vehicle as a family car to have daily for my 10 month child. I thought I was buying a well maintained machine because I need reliability. I sold my 2009 access cab Tacoma for this to upgrade to a 4 door and now I feel absolutely effd.

Can anyone offer any sort of advice so that I can think clearly on what do next in this situation? Do I continue with maintenance/ repairs for the truck with high mileage or do I sell now and cut my losses?

Thank you,

JosephView attachment 26141View attachment 26142

Hi, I think, somehow that fraudulent person has to pay a price for grossly mis- stating mileage. I feel very violated.

 

[HarvLC]

Would you even be able to sell it right now? What is the status of the title and / or application for title? Would a potential buyer really be willing to jump into the mess?

Have you contacted the appropriate party at the state regarding your discovery of the alleged fraudulent representation of the odometer? If not, do so and go from there.

An older 100 series with approx 300k miles probably has a trade / wholesale value of ~$6k. Private party retail values vary greatly, but I doubt you’d get close to $16k, especially with your uncertain vehicle history.

I sold my ‘02 100 to friends this past summer for $10k. It had 310k miles and I was the sole owner. It was regularly maintained, unmodified, and I had all service receipts. I had turned down a $7k trade offer the year before. I’m sure I could have sold it for more than $10k but it would have taken awhile and I was willing to provide a reasonable price to my friends.

Last point, a good inspection will reveal needed repairs, etc. as of today. But it’s an older vehicle and your to do list will continue to expand as additional components wear out. A good shop will help you prioritize your list - ie fixing critical items while monitoring slowly-progressing issues.

 

[cvx5832LC]

At least file some claim or report so you have it on record that it’s not you that being shady about it. The course disclose when selling. You, unfortunately, are on the hook for it at the moment

 

[joseph A]

At least file some claim or report so you have it on record that it’s not you that being shady about it. The course disclose when selling. You, unfortunately, are on the hook for it at the moment

Right, I filled a complaint through the DMV. I am in touch with the small claims attorneys in sd and waiting for their email with instructions on course of action.

 

[Esquire]

If you hire an attorney you could spend another 16k and get nowhere. It looks great. I would report the seller, get an evaluation from Toyota and then decide. Hiring attorneys in California is expensive and emotionally draining. 281,000 miles on a Land Cruiser is like 70K miles on any other car. You could have a gem there given the shape it's in or a problem if it needs a lot of maintenance. Don't despair, this can happen to anyone. Let us know how things work out for you

As an attorney, this is the best advice. You can certainly hire an attorney, and you may, even get a judgment in your favor. However, you will likely never be able to collect the judgment and you will spend the amount of your purchase on your lawyer.

Use this as a lesson. $16k is a fair amount of money that no one likes to lose. However, it appears you have a sharp looking LC and your mechanic advised it is solid. It's a LC. Drive it and enjoy it. Remember a new one will cost you $75k plus.

 

[HarvLC]

Apparently state disclosure regs follow federal legislation dating back to ‘86. And there is a threat of fines and / or imprisonment for failure to comply.

But there may be an exception made for vehicles that old, based on a quick scan of CA’s instructions?(Chapter 5: Odometer Mileage Reporting - California DMV). Note that I’m not an attorney nor do I live in CA.

Spend some time looking at the above guidance, especially in regards to how you can get the title & registration corrected as much as possible to facilitate your later sale of the vehicle.

BTW, did the seller actually certify 70k as the actual mileage on the back of the title? Given the exemption, it appears he didn’t have to.

 

[HarvLC]

More related to exemption:

Consumer Alert: Changes to Odometer Disclosure Requirements | NHTSA

www.nhtsa.gov

 

[dog]

To be completely honest, it is absolutely insane that you took someone at their word that they were selling you a nearly 25 year old car with only 70k miles and only did a Carfax AFTER the purchase.

Regardless, you have some self-help which I think is possible at minimal cost to you, but it would take significant time and effort with a potential that you would never recovery anything anyway.

What do you believe to be the actual value of the car versus the 16k you paid?

If I were you, I would file a small claims case. This is easier for me since I am an attorney, but here's a basic overview of some of the stuff you will need or should think about if you go this route. You will need a lot of information but at minimum, the following:

1. Seller name and address to serve them with a copy of the lawsuit.

2. Some written evidence of them communicating that the car had 1 owner, 70k miles. Possibly some proof that you were actually talking about the same car.

3. Some evidence that the car in fact has more than 1 owner and 70k miles. Again, you need to be able to connect it to the actual car in question. This is going to be the tough part if the ODO says 70k. How can you prove the ODO is wrong or has been altered? Why is the Carfax more reliable than the actual ODO? Why should the judge believe your Carfax over his? You may have to go as far as paying an expert to testify that it's been tampered with. Don't assume you can just show up with a Carfax that says 280k miles and win. Frankly, I'm not convinced myself based on the condition of the car and pictures you posted.

4. Some evidence of the difference in value between what he communicated the car to be and what it actually is. Depending on the rules of small claims court in your jurisdiction, something like two different bluebook entries could be enough.

Keep in mind, you need to be aware of the "rules of evidence" for this Court. You may or may not be able to just show up with printouts. If the rules are relaxed, you probably can. If not, you may need to offer some authentication that the documents you want the judge to see are true and accruate. Worse, you may have to actually worry about whether small claims allows heresay evidence which are out of court statements, such as a KBB printout, trying to prove what the statements says. Many of the small claims courts I've seen are pretty relaxed on this front.

There is also likely some exchange of pleadings, such as potentially your complaint, or a bill of particulars, or evidence before trial.

At the end of it all, I would probably ask the judge for the difference in value.

I assume this person is a scammer that has taken steps to intentionally hide their real identity or assets. They probably didn't give you a real name or address. Or worse, potentially they got scammed themselves and didn't know either. That may be a problem you run into. What if they show up to Court and say, "I didn't know it had 280k miles. I bought it last year, never drove it, so I decided to sell."

Even if you win, I doubt the person is going to just hand over several thousand dollars. I would guess at some point, you'd need to go through the steps of getting more information from them, such as their employer or bank accounts, to actually garnish wages or funds. This can be a whole entire process in and of itself and most attorneys actually will decline cases that require this because they dont want to sit around waiting 10 years to get paid.

Given your profile says you're in Anaheim, I'd start here:

Self-Help Small Claims | Superior Court of California | County of Orange

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, please visit the Court’s COVID-19 page for the latest information regarding our available services. You can access the page by clicking here. For Self-Help Services’ hours of operation and services, please click here.

www.occourts.org

 

[katekebo]

First and foremost - report the guy to your local law enforcement. Odometer fraud is a federal felony crime. A lawyer will easily win the case.

 

[HarvLC]

Read much of the thread?

He already tried that. Secondly, as noted above, the seller wasn’t required to disclose mileage on such an old vehicle per Federal & state regs. The OP hasn’t indicated whether the seller certified 70k as the actual mileage. Again, he wasn’t required to. Likely, the fraud was contained within his ads and verbal statements.

 

[Area 51]

This thread is getting so old and very boring.

 

[RideWithYanu]

This thread is getting so old and very boring.
View attachment 26639

You could keep scrolling.

 

[Area 51]

You could keep scrolling.

Better to "Unwatch"
his thread wreaks of a set up.