The Paperwork Mistake That Made My Luxury Car Worthless

Guest Post by Scott Adams

My BMW X5 SUV is in the shop for its third leak-related problem this year. While it was there, and by coincidence, the dealership’s used car manager called and offered to buy it because there is demand for that model in the used market. I told him it was already at the dealership and he could take a look at it.

The used car manager called me later to tell me my car only has “salvage value.” It turns out that the last two times I took it to Big O for tire repairs they wrote down my mileage incorrectly. One time they recorded it as 30,000 miles. Another time they said 80,000 miles. The actual mileage is around 50,000.

Now here’s the interesting part. That double-paperwork-error by the tire shop made its way to the Internet and the CarFax service that dealers use to know whether cars have had accidents or other issues. The mileage discrepancy automatically puts my car in the “probably turned-back the odometer” category. And that means it has no resale value to dealers or anyone else who checked online.

Apparently I can fix this problem by providing documentation of my correct mileage. I probably don’t have that documentation because the only other people who ever checked my mileage were the dealership that is telling me my car is now officially garbage.

You’ll tell me they just want to buy the car from me for cheap. But they didn’t even offer to buy it. The used car manager just seemed embarrassed by the whole thing. Apparently this isn’t a trick. My car is actually “salvage value” now.

Thanks, Big O Tires. Don’t expect me to come back.

29
Leave a Reply

avatar
  Subscribe  
Notify of
WIP
WIP

Holy Fucking shit.

BB

Holy Fucking Shit

Iska Waran
Iska Waran

What’s “Big O”?

dentss dunnign
dentss dunnign

Obama …now has a tire store ?

Rise Up

Why would anyone sell a car to a dealer? You always get a better price via a private sale through Autotrader or another online sales service. That goes especially for trade-ins, where your “best price” for your trade-in is made up for by the dealer on the car they are selling you. And most buyers don’t look at or ask for a CarFax report unless you voluntarily provide one.

Same as most home mortgage re-finances that claim a “no points” deal. They usually just roll the price of the origination fee and other costs into the new loan. Been there, done that.

Iska Waran
Iska Waran

Why would anybody buy a German car? Made that mistake once.

1980xls
1980xls

Indeed, Especially an X5.
Would be worth zero before long anyway, all on it’s own.
Nothing is worse than a 5yr old+ Mercedes or BMW.

Oil Leak?

Why do you think BMW no longer even uses an oil dipstick anymore.

If it wasn’t leaking it, it would be burning it anyway.

BMW, Subaru, Audi & Porsche top the list.

At least your neighbor thought you were “Successful,” owning a BMW, LOL

http://www.torquenews.com/1084/bmw-tops-thirsty-30-list-new-vehicles-burning-excessive-oil

1980xls
1980xls

comment image?3b5891

javelin
javelin

I love and have had no problems in 5 years with my E350 Mercedes. Quiet, luxury, spacious for a tall man and goes from 55 to 85 in a blink to pass if some a-hole is putting along in the fast lane.
Extended warranty covers all of my oil changes, tire rotation and basic maintenance every 3 to 4 months as needed at the local dealer.
One headlight bulb, some high-end brake pads ( the car lets you know before the rotors get grooved) a new set of Coopers.
For what its worth, I wouldn’t allow a chain store to change my oil, tire or anything even if I had no bumper to bumper…I bought my tires at NTW but went to the dealer to have then mounted, balanced etc…

1980xls
1980xls

Looks like you got lucky.

They are the shittiest cars ever. I have plenty of experience owning and working on them.

Nobody should ever own one while not under warranty

Ginger
Ginger

“Consumer report finds some burn a quart a month”
So that is 1 quart =$4.00
$4.00 x 12 months or $4.00 x 1 or $4.00, then $4.00 x 2 or $8.00, carry the zeros, so that is $4800.00.
Whew that is alot of money for oil, but thank you common core math. I now know to just buy one of those $60,000 Ford trucks, and get that $8,000 rebate, its like money in the bank. Where do I sign!

iconoclast421
iconoclast421

It’s $50 a year. Where you getting $4800? I drove a Honda for a couple years that burned a quart a month. But that is literally all I had to spend on it, besides gas. Sold it for only $300 less than I paid for it. The car was literally a $1 a day 2 year lease. lol

1980xls
1980xls

One cannot buy BMW/Mercedes/Porsche spec synthetic oil for $4 per qt.
Try more like $9

Westcoaster
Westcoaster

I can answer the question the CR guys are searching for: “Can we recommend a car that when new the manufacturer states it’s normal to burn a quart every 600-800 miles?”
WHY would you even consider recommending a car with an engine so loosely engineered? You expect that kinda scene from old Fiats, or Chrysler Sebrings, not a $60k plus machine!

Dutchman
Dutchman

Iska: Why would anbody buy a German car? They have great ovens that can keep a pizza warm, on your drive home.

James
James

Oh,and there I thought the oven was for something else,my bad!

rife
rife

It takes a simple mind to reduce complexity to a single variable problem.

So one German car reflects the entire German car industry?

Got Edsel?

Trapped in Portlandia
Trapped in Portlandia

I thought Scott Adams was a smart guy. But if I had a BMW X5 I would never, ever take it to Big Oh Oh for tires. I’d either take it to the dealer or Les Schwab, a tire dealer who can be trusted.

Unimaginable
Unimaginable

He probably uses a garden hose to clean his AR-15 as well.

rife
rife

You go to the dealer for tires??????

travis
travis

Same problem different reason. My ford is worth salvage value because it has been to the dealer 8 times for a problem they could or would not fix. From the first time I said it was an ignition switch problem. Finally just put it in myself and fixed the problem. It was a dead battery no start after 2 new batterys at the dealer. Now I cant even trade it in. Literally wont take their own brand in trade.

JIMSKI
JIMSKI

SIGH
Scott Adams is a Moroon.

The DMV is the decider on roll backs not carfax. He also eludes to the fact that carfax can fix this issue by submitting documentation. I have done this. It can be done here:https://support.carfax.com/c_datarequest

I sell 5 cars a year ( max in my state without a dealer license) and my wife sells 5 a year also. This takes days to fix not weeks. I submitted an OIL FREAKIN CHANGE with the proper mileage and they cleaned up the report for god sakes.

More fake news I guess…….

https://support.carfax.com/c_datarequest

James
James

Eh,difference between a BMW and a porcupine,BMW the pricks on the inside!My dads new wife(RIP dad)at the time she got one didn’t appreciate this joke!

Anonymous
Anonymous
JIMSKI
JIMSKI
Stucky

I’ve been googling for the past 15 minutes … can’t find the answer …. and simply don’t have any more time today ……. so, if someone else knows the answers, that would be great …

Why do repair shops report anything to carfax in the first place?? Is it some kind of law? Specifically, what’s in it for them? Do they get paid?

JIMSKI
JIMSKI

Carfax has 2 reasons for existence for an auto shop. It will list repairs and maint done on a vehicle and also if there are open recalls due at the dealership. I can quickly see if the 100k was done if the vehicle went to a shop on the system.

When you use carfax you agree to the system uploads.

Stucky

“So one German car reflects the entire German car industry? ” —— rife

Most wise comment here. Well done, sir. Well fuck, since we’re telling personal anecdotes, here are mine. German cars owned by me or my dad;

1960 VW Beetle —- 2nd best car in this list in terms of reliability. Hardly ever broke down, and when it did you could almost always get it fixed for under $100.

1965 VW Minibus / Camper — Only owned it for 18 months while stationed in Greece … bought it $500 from a hippie who was going back to the USA after touring Europe for the summer. Never put a dime into it. Sold it for $500. A FUN ride.

1978 VW Golf —- piece of shit … started to rust after 3 years … oil leaks from beginning to end

=========

1970 BMW Tii —– absolutely the most fun car of the lot … quick, responsive, and surprisingly roomy … only about 140 hp, but high torque, and could top out at 120mph which was pretty damn good for that era … dad had the car for 7 years and never had a single major repair issue.

1977 BMW Bavaria —– BMW’s first (?) 6-cylinder ….. worst car of the lot … absolute piece of shit … in the shop every 60 days, literally

========

1985 Mercedes 300TD —– absolutely best (mechanically) of the bunch ….. first car I bought after my divorce …. paid about $3k for it and it had 200k miles ….. I had a small accident at about 320k miles and junked it …. I swear on my son’s lives I did nothing but put gas and (lots of) oil in it for 125k miles …….. fucking slower than molasses in the winter though.

1974 Mercedes 280S (red) —- I bought this for my dad after he had already retired … he registered it as an “antique” and therefore was limited to driving it 2k miles a year …. his favorite car, actually … just classy and beautiful

comment image

Hershel
Hershel

Mechanics say a lot of new cars burn oil as part of their lubrication system. I think its all the really thin 5w oils, 25w wouldnt do it.

Discover more from The Burning Platform

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading