Used car buyers beware! Fraudsters will take you for a ride

Manama : The public should be more vigilant while buying used cars as chances of getting tricked by the fraudsters are high in the market, according to experts.

According to a source, the fraudsters are using an electronic chip in cars without airbags to appear as if it does. 

By installing a chip behind the steering wheel the car’s programming system shows that the airbags are in place, said the source.

“These frauds are unidentifiable to laymen and even professionals may not be able to tell the difference. This makes purchasing a used car risky business”, said Automobile expert Mohammed Reihan.

“Under normal circumstances when a car with an airbag system has an accident, airbags comes out and the emergency light turns on and stays. It helps any one using the same car to know that the airbag will not function.”

Even if the owner of the car disables the light, professionals can identify it in detailed checking.

“But when this chip is installed, there is no way to find out except to physically check for it, and in that case the car would be damaged”, said Reihan.

He explained that his family was also tricked in the same way. 

“When my father was driving to Saudi Arabia for Umrah, he met with an accident but the car’s airbags were not deployed. Since the car did not have the airbag light on and did not show any sign to indicate the airbag was missing, we never suspected anything. It turns out the sellers have manipulated the car. Fortunately, he escaped without any major injuries. “ he said.

Manager at Al Dana Cars Thomas Jain agreed that such fraudsters are in the market. “People use technology to manipulate the cars and it is almost impossible to detect it. The solution to this is by having an expert inspect the car or to buy the car from a trusted seller,” he said.

The experts added that another trick deployed by fraudsters is rolling back the odometer. Most of the cars, even the newer ones with electronic odometers can be manipulated to bring down the reading. 

“ Suppose a car ran 100,000 km. The fraudsters  roll down the reading to be 10,000km or any number they want to keep. It is much harder to do this on newer models and it may not work for the latest models but a large percentage of the cars can be manipulated this way” adds Reihan.

Zuhair, a representative from Gulf Garage admitted that many customers approach him to manipulate odometer reading. 

“We have had customers who ask for services such as rolling back the odometer. We do not provide such a service, as it is illegal. Once such a manipulation is done, it is difficult even for experts to find it. We can provide a guesstimate about it, but we cannot tell for certain,” he said.