Every thought about buying a used import Japanese car?
Sure lots of us have since they are low in Kms, in good condition and at decent prices.
BUYER BEWARE!!
There are some great deals out there and we know some people who have gotten great deals on great cars.
However lets look at the slime ball approach.
In Vancouver the most notorious Used Car rip off artist is a guy called Grant Faithe.
Captin Rip Off - Grant Fathie
He operates under a company named GFI financial and imports cars here by the container load.
He is very successful at what he does and makes a huge profit at the expenses of others.
Lets examine why???
In Japan there is a used car rating system that they use to classify the condition of the vehicle. The lowest level starts at 1 and the best rates at a level 5. Grant claims to buy cars only rated at a level 4.5 or better. In reality he is probably buying cars that are under a level 3 or less.
Once these cars arrive in Canada he has an associate that he pays off that pushes the cars through on certification. In reality these cars should never be road worth.
He advertises these vehicles on the AutoTrader.ca as in Mint Condition. He sends you pictures of cars that are in Mint Condition to hook you in. In reality they are not the cars you are going to get but a look alike from the Japanese Auctions that was a grade 4 or better.
He tells people that the car they want to buy is the one that he is personally driving every day. The car is in perfect condition and that if it had a problem he would know about it. That he doesn't want to let the car go but he is leaving the Country to go and buy more cars so he has to let it go a rock bottom prices.
As you can imagine there are people all over Vancouver and Calgary that would love to get their hands on this guy for the Junk that he sold them.
Recently a close friend of mine bought a 1994 Mercedes Benz SL600 hundred from Grant. As you can imagine he was run through the whole sales routine from Grant about how this car was in Perfect A1 condition. He was told that they was nothing on the car that needed to be repaired or fixed. My friend was buying this car for his son as a keep sake and took the time to properly deal with Grant to make sure that the car was in fact in good condition before buying it. He lives in Calgary and the car was coming from Vancouver. When it arrived we found out that the bumper was basically falling off of the car, the engine was leaking oil, the breaks all need to be redone, and the tires are completely bald, and the supposedly 65,000km that was originally listed is actually more like 250,000km. Now my friend has to spend another $15,000 in repairs just to make this thing road worthy or take Grant to Court to try and recuperate his money back.
Either way it is a nightmare for him to deal with.
So, again buyers beware............
Anyone with similar stories we would love to hear from you!!!
Anyone with similar stories we would love to hear from you!!!
