How to protect used car buyers?

[KARTer]

Some owners (in fact 99%, due to human nature to sell their used cars at highest possible prices regardless of the cars' true/fair values) will not hesitate to lie about their car when they try to sell it. If I have to sell my cars, I would probably do the same, to be honest. I would probably pretend that the car is flawless even if it's far from being that.

 

There are innocent car buyers who are not, or have no friends, knowledgeable enough to help them check if the cars they are buying are good relative to the asking price. And workshops who may help 'check' the cars may just are as dishonest as the sellers.

 

Given the above situations, the only hope for such buyers are organisations like CASE or rules/laws to protect them. One such possible rules would be sellers or their authorised agents are obliged to provide factual history of the cars which are for sale.

 

Borneo Motors made a statement in Weekend ST that they will never release such infoon the cars (eg service/repairs records etc) if their customers are selling their cars and the buyers ask BM for the info. However they will provide the info if the buyers are buying used cars from BM. The reasons for the 'double-standard' (maybe be too harsh a description) are obvious.

 

This is where CASE can come in to protect the innocent buyers if it's worth its salt and serious about encouraging fair plays.

 

Case should at least make it mandatory for all ADs/PIs, and workshops to disclose repairs/service info on cars if potential buyers ask for it. Its not a matter of privacy, its a question of preventing false info given to potential buyers, such acts amount to fraud in busines transactions and therefore CASE should step in to have such a rule in order to reduce frauds.

 

If the specifications, years of manufacture etc are required to be made known to buyers in new car sales, why used cars' history are so 'sacret' that CASE choose to allow sellers to lie just to 'con' the buyers to pay more than what the cars are really worth?

 

We may argue that historically buying used cars always has its risks, but the risks are mainly man made ie allowing the sellers to lie. If something can be done, as suggested above, to cut down such lies, why not?

Edited July 16, 2011 by KARTer