Hey Cool Car Fans,

I wanted to take a moment and wish all of my visitors to CoolCarGuy.com a very Happy New Year for 2015!  If you need assistance in buying, trading, leasing, refinancing, selling or figuring out a better solution for your vehicle situation give me a call or send me an email.  I can usually find a solution that other dealers and auto brokers or automotive consultants do not know how to do because of my years of expertise.  I’ve seen and handled just about every type of transaction imaginable and I thought I would take a minute and share a few things to watch out for online.

THE COOL CAR GUY NETWORK: By the way, I also just launched a new Internet property called The Cool Car Guy Network that you can read about why you should join at the following link: http://coolcarguynetwork.com/the-cool-car-guy-system/ You can join the Network for as little as $9.99 for 30 days to list your vehicle or $99 for the entire year and take full advantage of this unique website.  It’s a cool way to take advantage of what I’ve been doing for years as The Cool Car Guy and a great way to showcase your vehicle online, sell your vehicle, write articles as part of The Cool Car Guy Network and even promote your business.  Check it out and feel free to send me feedback since it’s a brand new property.

A Few Online Automobile Scams To Watch Out For

The first one is when you see a late model Mini-Cooper or other popular vehicles being offered for $5,000 or way below market value on Craigslist or Ebay because the people just got transferred overseas or they have some other whacky story.  The reality is that they could go to any local dealer and get the amount of money that they are offering it to you for, if it was a real offer.  It’s not and they will figure out a way to take you for a ride because that is what they do.

I have had people contact me after the fact for advice and you wouldn’t believe some of the stories I have heard.  One included a guy who contacted me and explained how he had showed up in a local parking lot to get his Ebay vehicle at night and when the truck turned out to be “trashed” he declined.   Two guys in another pickup truck pulled out tire irons and were ready to beat him up and take his money and told him that he was going to take the truck or it was going to end badly for him.  He was carrying a gun and that was the only thing that saved him from being left for dead.

There are plenty of con-artists online, who often times do not even own the vehicle they are offering for sale.  Many times they will pull photos off the Internet and use them in their ad or even be so bold as to take photos of a vehicle parked in someone’s driveway and claim it is theirs.  It’s buyer beware!  If it sounds too good to be true it probably is, so just remember that the next time you see the crazy online offers.

Another one to watch out for is the “Take Over My Lease Payments” or “We Will Take Over Your Lease Payments”.  Both of these are a very bad idea.  In order to really take over someone’s lease payments legally, you have to qualify with the manufacturer or leasing company and what you will usually find is the person may be in a really bad lease.  You could end up qualifying for a lease that isn’t all that you thought it was cracked up to be and assuming someone else’s nightmare.

Which leads me to the second option of having someone take over your lease payments.  This is a terrible idea and people do it all the time.  If the person doesn’t qualify with your leasing company and assume the lease with you being off it completely and you just “sub-lease” it to them, first of all you are in violation of your lease agreement and the vehicle can be repossessed.  Secondly, if they trash the vehicle, you are still responsible for the damage or the excess miles, regardless of what the sub-lease company outfit tells you.  And third, if they stop making payments and move out of the State with your vehicle, you could be completely screwed.  The bottom line is DON’T DO IT!

Contact me and I can give you a much better way to get out of your lease than having someone with bad credit that you don’t know try to solve your problem.  Even if you’re thinking of having a relative or friend take over your lease payments it isn’t a good idea. I have seen many people get burned on what seems like a great idea at the time to solve a cash flow problem.  It’s not the same as assuming the payments on a house, like the slick salespeople will tell you at the company charging you their fee because a house is not going to drive across State lines.

Finally, the “Straw Purchase”, is often done by shady dealers and salespeople.  A Straw purchase in the automotive industry is a purchase where a purchaser is knowingly acquiring a loan on a vehicle for someone else. The person purchasing on behalf of the other when the other person is unable to purchase the vehicle themselves.  If a loan is involved it can be considered fraudulent based on signing a credit application and applying for a loan by providing false information.  If you do not disclose to the lender that the vehicle is for someone else, it’s a straw purchase.  The vehicle can be repossessed and your credit can tank.

These are just a few things to be aware of when vehicle shopping in 2015.  Have a great year!