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Keith’s Blog: Have I Been Scammed?

Keith Martin

This story is a little complicated, so buckle your seatbelt and get ready for a ride.

It’s now easier than ever to look up the history of your car.

While the wealth of knowledge makes your life simpler, there are still fraudsters out there. Before I bought my 1991 Alfa S4 Spider, I never did a Google search on the VIN. Nor did I did I ask for a picture of the front and back of the title.

I bought the car on Feb 3, 2022. The listing on eBay stated that it had 16,000 original miles and was “like new.”

Part of the reason I bought it without research was the low mileage. Also, the seller was an SCM subscriber. I didn’t bother to do a VIN look-up. An old joke around here is, “Who would screw me? After all I’m the SCM Publisher and have the power of the pen!”

And the answer is, anybody who can.

The friend who picked up the car for me in Palm Springs said it looked like a true 16,000-mile car. No wear to the seats or top, perfect paint, etc. The only thing not working was the A/C (“it just needs a recharge” said the shop $2,500 and a new compressor later.)

It wasn’t until I was registering the car that I noted the VIN on the car I bought (ZARBB42N1M6006871) was different than the VIN in the eBay ad (ZARBB32N8M6010751). Thankfully the title I’d been given had my Alfa’s correct VIN, not the eBay version.

Still, I used a VIN verification program called Bumper and bought a 7-day pass for $5.

I looked up my VIN (the one on the car), and SURPRISE!

The car showed seven previous owners, and sales at mileages of 67,740 to 71,245 when it sold for $3,500 in Columbus, OH. I paid around $15,000 for the car and thought I got a deal.

It also showed a sale in Virginia for $13,000 with mileage of 71,469.

Then, the sale in February 2022 on eBay with 84,469 miles. Hmmm. That was my purchase, but not the right miles.

The oldest sale it shows is in January 2015 from Brambleton Imports in Virginia, with a reported 16,836 miles.

I vaguely recall doing a VIN Google search right after I bought the car. I found a “for sale” listing on the Alfa Bulletin Board (now disappeared) that listed a higher mileage and a variety of repairs. These included a dash cap replacement, which I then verified had been done. Why didn’t I put up a red flag? Frankly, I just didn’t care.

I’ve very much enjoyed driving the car, and it now shows a very believable 26,000 miles. Since I don’t intend on selling it in the near future, let’s just leave well enough alone. Worst case, it ends up having been stolen and the insurance company takes it away from me. Which would be irritating, especially after I just spent $1,900 on a new top.

But in the end, it’s just an Alfa S4 Spider with the dreaded automatic. We are not talking about a million-dollar Ferrari.

Clearly at some point there has been a VIN and title mix-up. Just as clearly, something odd has gone on with the speedometer.

Of course, when I do eventually put the car up for sale, I’ll have a hard time explaining two odometer readings, one of 26,000 miles and another of 84,469.

I’ll leave it to you SCM sleuths to tell me what you think is really going on here.

I look forward to reading your conclusions below. And as a bonus, we’ll send an SCM hat to the most likely solver of the puzzle.

New $1900 top installed!

Read my previous blog posts here.

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Keith Martin Avatar
Keith Martin
Keith Martin has been involved with the collector car hobby for more than 40 years. As a writer, publisher, television commentator and enthusiast, he is constantly on the go, meeting collectors and getting involved in their activities throughout the world. He is the founder and publisher of the monthly Sports Car Market, now in its 37th year. Keith has written for the New York Times, Automobile, AutoWeek, Road & Track and other publications, has been an emcee for numerous concours, and had his own show, “What’s My Car Worth,” shown on Velocity. He has received many honors, including the Lee Iacocca Award, the Edward Herrmann Award, was inducted into the Concorso Italiano Hall of Fame, and more. He has served on the board of directors of The LeMay Museum and Oregon Ballet Theater, and was formerly the chair of the board of the Meguiar’s Award.

16 responses to “Keith’s Blog: Have I Been Scammed?”

  1. Ed Anspach Avatar
    Ed Anspach

    TMU is the term. True Mileage Unknown. The seller should have been aware of this. If the speedometer/odometer broke it may have been replaced, but there is too much other history for the seller to have been unaware.

    Reply
  2. Bob FitzSimons Avatar
    Bob FitzSimons

    OK, let’s get this out of the way:
    SOME PEOPLE WOULD SAY YOU WERE SCAMMED WHEN YOU PAID THAT MUCH FOR THE TOP.

    Having that out of the way, I believe your seller had two different cars and he may have jumbled up various parts, possibly including the VIN plates, the titles, instrument clusters, and what we might call the cars’ identities. I will try to avoid the temptation to talk in terms of identity. This is a car, after all, not a life partner. Trust means something different to an odometer and “having a little work done” isn’t the same as infidelity. Does one of your cars get jealous when you drive another one? You aren’t asking a car – any car- for investment advice.

    On the one hand, you are satisfied with the car. You have enjoyed it and you have been able to write about it. You thought enough of it to spend a fortune replacing the top. So, if someone intended to cheat you, they failed. You have gotten your money’s worth. Complaints are grist for your editorial mill.

    On the other hand, you have lost confidence in the car. You are not going to be able to say in all honesty that you are certain it is quite what it presents itself to be.

    How to fix this? Well, your column is now a part of the record, as lawyers and historians would say. You have admitted the discrepancy. The mystery is now part of your car’s roguish charm. And the final step is simple. Order a new title and check the box that says “True Mileage Unknown”.

    Reply
  3. Don Peterson Avatar
    Don Peterson

    I’ve bought cars just because it looked like a good deal, and I had a use. Even then, I’ve learned to look for the signs that things weren’t as claimed. Alfas have been the top brand for me, and that led to good familiarity with what looks right, and what just isn’t quite cosher.

    Reading your article I had to wonder how a nearly 90,000 mile car could pull off a 18,000 mile look?

    I don’t recall what you paid, but certainly an 80k+ car would not have sold for what a “near new” would bring.

    Still…. Being swindled raises my hackles.

    Humans are overrated as a species.

    Reply
    1. Larry Larratt Avatar
      Larry Larratt

      Unfortunately, as long as people buy and sell any commodity, there will be people who exploit too much eagerness from an eager buyer….. Old cars seem to be, unfortunately, a very easy target for this. The old adage of “if it seem’s too good to be true, it is quite likely too good to be true.
      For now, just enjoy your car and if you sell, “the buck stops here”

      Reply
  4. John N Avatar
    John N

    You weren’t driving the car in Bend yesterday, were you? If not I saw what might be the other VIN driving around.

    Reply
  5. Victor Van Tress Avatar
    Victor Van Tress

    Bet you won’t do that again.

    Reply
  6. David P Avatar
    David P

    I thought this would be a good question for AI, so Perplexity said the following about your situation:

    This isn’t that complicated once you strip it down—there are really only a couple plausible explanations, and none of them are “clean.”

    What the data is telling you:
    Your car’s VIN (…6871) has a documented history showing ~67k–84k miles across multiple sales.
    Yet the car currently shows ~26k miles and cosmetically looks low-mile. The eBay listing used a different VIN* (…0751), which is a huge red flag—not a clerical typo you just gloss over. There’s evidence of prior repairs (dash cap, etc.) consistent with a higher-mile car.

    Most likely scenario
    This looks like a straightforward odometer rollback paired with a VIN listing mismatch to avoid detection.

    Here’s how that likely played out:
    The car actually has ~80k+ miles (consistent with the historical records). At some point, someone rolled back or replaced the odometer (these Alfas are old enough that this is not hard to do). When listing it, the seller used a different VIN tied to a lower-mile car (or at least a “cleaner” record) to avoid buyers pulling the real history. You ended up with the correct title/VIN for the physical car—but the marketing/listing VIN helped sell the low-mile story. That combo—wrong VIN in listing + mileage discrepancy—is almost never innocent.

    Alternative (less likely, but possible)
    Cluster swap: The instrument cluster failed and was replaced with a lower-mile unit. That happens, but:
    It usually gets disclosed somewhere along the line. It doesn’t explain the wrong VIN in the listing.

    VIN clerical mix-up: Possible, but again, paired with mileage issues, it stops looking accidental.

    What’s not likely:
    A benign “VIN mix-up” with everything else being legit. A true 16k-mile survivor that just somehow accumulated a fake 70k+ history across multiple transactions.

    Risk level
    Title risk: Probably low since your title matches the car. If it were stolen or a VIN swap job, you’d likely have seen bigger inconsistencies by now.

    Financial risk: You overpaid for a “low-mile” car that is almost certainly a higher-mile driver-quality car.

    Resale issue: This is the real problem—you’ve got a permanent “TMU” (true mileage unknown) situation.

    Bottom line
    This smells like intentional misrepresentation at sale, not an innocent mistake. The car itself is probably fine mechanically, but the story attached to it is broken.

    Reply
  7. Chuck Meyer Avatar
    Chuck Meyer

    Having been on the receiving end of a transaction similar to yours, I came to accept the fact that I still had a car that I could have fun with, and learned a valuable lesson. It sucks, but I’ve moved on. The best part of your story to me is: “The buck stops here.” The car I currently own will follow the same path. Life’s short….drive ’em.

    Reply
  8. George E. Giese Avatar
    George E. Giese

    The car is 35 years old – who really cares what the ODO says anyway? If it was a true low mileage car, you have the spectre of dealing with everything that can go wrong with prolonged dead storage. If the higher mileages you uncovered are correct, that may explain why the car runs well, assuming it really does.

    As one who frequently peruses used and collector car listings, I’m always amused by the 50 or 60 year old car, obviously worn-out, where the seller makes a big deal of the alleged low miles, at least trying to present the odometer reading as actual when everything else screams 100,000 or more +. What it reminds me is, for too many sellers, they will say anything, whether plausible or not, to facilitate a sale and therefore I don’t accept anything they say as true until proven to be so. In short – they damage their own credibility.

    It was just yesterday that I got a listing from a well known dealer, advertising a classic era Bentley Mark VI as having only 18,xxx miles but one quick view of the wear on the accelerator pedal shows a pattern consistent with 100,000 miles of usage.

    Reply
  9. anatoly arutunoff Avatar
    anatoly arutunoff

    i went to look at the ‘last new arnolt bristol in america’ in ’67. several hundred miles on it–dealer/demo miles. well, it was a bit small for me. i felt like i was sitting on top of it; the floor was above the frame. but what turned me off was the wear on the carpet where the side of the sole of the driver’s shoe had severely worn it. not the sort of thing that’d happen in hundreds of miles.

    Reply
  10. robert frank Avatar
    robert frank

    It’s an Alfa, put the top down and enjoy life you lucky human while you still can. Plus I get the impression big money is not an issue. DRIVE with the top down to a nice restaurant, drink some wine, have a good meal forget about it.

    Reply
  11. William Boyd Avatar
    William Boyd

    Keith does it really matter? You’re quite happy with the vehicle which is the sought after outcome. The VIN records are telling the tale. I just bought a vehicle on BAT that could have been a real pig in a poke and had me very unsure until I reviewed the sellers history which convinced me it was going to be exactly as described. Why ? It was obvious the seller had much more to lose than gain hiding anything especially for the amount of funds involved.
    Buying sight unseen can be a real problem. You’ll move along and fortunately you are able to share it with us so that someone else can gain insight and benefit should they find themselves a similar situation , all positives.

    Reply
  12. Gabriel Hernández Avatar
    Gabriel Hernández

    Keith: this Alfa spider S4 is the car you wanted to have, in the condition you want it to be, and it has a new top. Enjoy it!

    Reply
  13. David Peterson Avatar
    David Peterson

    In 1957, a Chevrolet dealer in Goshen, Indiana gave my father a fuelie Bel-Air hardtop that they couldn’t get to run except at highway speed. Gave him the MSO, too, and said “send me whatever money you can get for it out west”. That was SOP for the men of my father’s age, and the only thing I ever remember him getting beat on was buying a 1955 Coupe DeVille as a 1956. Where did these high standards of behavior get lost? I guess I’m now experiencing the feeling of loss all humans go through in their last years. Was it really that idealistic back then, or am I suffering from selective memory?

    Reply
  14. Doug Taber Avatar
    Doug Taber

    On the brighter side…with the car no longer being an untouched low-mileage original, you’ll no longer have to feel bad that the (iirc) side of the car (or door?) was slightly damaged a few years ago (in a parking lot?). With this S4 no longer quite so virginal, either you or the next owner can have fun driving it like a “real car” – maybe even a daily-driver!

    Reply
  15. Captain Dave Avatar
    Captain Dave

    These days, there’s no excuse for lack of service records. I’ll accept that they may not go back to the dawn of time, but if whoever the current owner is doesn’t have them for the duration of his/her ownership, walk away. As for the A/C system, there’s a wonderful book by Rob Siegal called “Just Needs a Recharge.” The title is ironic, his view being that the only reason a recharge is ever needed is if the system is leaking. It either blows cold or the lines or components need attention. I’ve never heard the phrase the same way since reading it! And it’s well-written to boot.

    Reply

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