buying a used car tomorrow but something important came up
 

So here's the deal, the car was said to be local according to the owner, claimed no accidents on the vehicle.

We worked out an initial offer after viewing and testing the car of $7000 (hypothetical).

The day after I went to ICBC just to make sure that there really weren't any accidents and that the car was local through their vehicle history reports.

Lo and behold, the ICBC vehicle report shows that there were no accidents, however it says the vehicle was imported from out of province in Jan2004.

I'm doing a pre-purchase inspection tomorrow to make sure mechanicals and everything else is in check. Say there aren't any surprises from the inspection, what depreciation in price since it isn't a local car anymore? (I haven't mentioned that the vehicle isn't local to the seller yet, I was expecting to mention it before the sale with cash up front with a lower offer that way there's less chance he'll back out of the sale and sell it to someone else instead)

Any insight is appreciated!

only thing is even though you know there's no accidents from jan2004 to now, the history of the car prior to importation is pretty murky... noone will really ever know if the car's been rebuilt previously, or cut into two or whatever...

if you really still want to purchase it after an inspection, you might be able to bring it down to $5000? depends on whether the current owner decides it's a waste of time and moves on to the next buyer

with the history being murky, which icbc report did u get? the full one gets all provinces and states too.. not saying its full proof but its the best you can get

in a non-direct way, re-confirm with the owner if the car has always been local, if he is the 1st owner etc

if he lies, walk away

Oh, I did not know that there's a all provinces and states one, i'm assuming that one is a lot more expensive.

Well depends on how long he's willing to go on the price. Again, if my shop checks it out and looks good and he's flexible on his price then i'd probably take the car without doing the full inspection report, but i guess i'll definitely throw the point out there that the car could be two halves put together etc lol.

absolutely great points, glad i posted up here, any more insight would be greatly greatly appreciated

edit: volvo-brickster, he claims he bought it from a dealership and that he isn't the first owner, he assumes he's second. To his understanding the vehicle is local to him, it's stated in his e-mail to me so that's very evident. He's a pretty honest seller though, tells me up front what needs to be fixed, what's leaking etc.

You can forget it. I'll find someone else to sell it too.

ouch.

rofl

leave it to revscene to screw me over lol but kang19 isn't the seller but he raises a good point , original post editted

LULZ!!!:haha:

you should run CarFax as well.

ICBC report won't show you everything. In fact, if previous owner decided to pay the damage from accident by him/herself, ICBC will eliminate the accident history. Also the CarFax will show you some kms as well, so you can catch the odometer rollback if there is any.

I have also heard that out of province cars are hard to do lien search.

Carproof will do a Lien search on all canadian provinces and includes the info in the detailed ICBC reports.

Coming back to milage rollback, you can get the vin and check it on aircare.ca ;)

Not if it was imported from out of province. Might have to try other provinces' emission control programs if they log it publically. I know Ontario does.

I ended up not going through with it, it was from Toronto and it wasn't in the best condition.
Thanks for all the insight guys, I do appreciate it.
Mods, close please.

How about posting details about the car so other members will know not to pursue this?

1996 Integra SE (power everything, moonroof, leather)
5speed
Black 2dr Coupe
165xxx km's
Maintenance kept very well, needs timing belt/waterpump done though.
Lowered on H&R Sport springs
14" steelies
AEM cold air intake + bypass valve

Imported into BC Jan2004, previous history of Toronto.
Very mechanically sound, great guy to deal with.
Rusted engine bay nuts and bolts etc, driver and passenger side rear quarter panel with rust bubbles

CarPROOF is the one you want to use, Carfax and ICBC is pretty crappy.

Second, honestly, on a $7000 car, no one gives a flying fuck if it's local or out of province. It's a $7000 car with 165,000kms and rust all over...

If it was a nearly new 2008 $50,000 Navigator, it might be a $1000 difference between a CDN car and a US import, if that. But on a $7000 car? No.

SOO many american cars have been imported in the past few years due to the strong CDN dollar, that it really doesn't make much of a difference anymore.

Edit: I'm also pretty sure the seller wasn't trying to rip you off... he just bought the car without knowing or caring if it was out of province, and obviously never bothered to check.

It was hypothetical 7000.

Either way, $7000 is $7000 right?

I didn't state the seller was ripping me off, he was under the impression that it was local as well.

Tell yah what, if you can find an IDENTICAL local car, for the same price or less, than what he's selling his at - then you'd have a legit reason to ask for a couple hundred less.

But if his was already the best deal around, then really he wouldn't have to give any discount as he'll probably sell it to someone else pretty quick.

Anyways, good luck finding a car! :)

7gs is way too much for a 96 integra SE with rust on the rear. Rust on the rear panels are hard to deal with because the rear quarter panels are not replacable and needs to be cut and welded to remove the rust. For that price, you can probably find a GSR.

yeah $7K for that? fuck me. Buy a JDM imported EVO or sumthing.

I remember my first motorcycle I bought had an accident over $2000 which wasn't disclosed to me not that I would have cared because it ran and looked great. I rode a few years then sold it. The buyer who bought it contacted me a year later and apparantly when he went to sell it his buyer did the check on it and found out about it. I was like OK? So you want me to do what?

It happens, sometimes the current owners have no idea. For a cheaper car I wouldn't even bother to see if it was in accidents I would just get a mechanical inspection. Now if I was spending 10K plus I would do my due dilligence.