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Motoring Scams In Sri Lanka


tinyman

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One of my office colleague is looking for a small size car and found a unregistered Passo 2007 model with an odometer reading of 33k. We had a doubt on the mileage as the car should have done less than 10k per year till it's export to SL in early 2011. the other odd fact we noticed that as to why the car has not got sold for more than 2.5 years. So we requested for JAAI certificate from the sellers.

JAAI dated 20 Aug 2010 clearly indicated a odometer reading at the time of inspection to be 33,117km, so I tried contacting JAAI to verify the certificate. After failing to get thru via call, wrote to them on info at jaai . or .jp with the certificate no, car make model YOM and I intentionally put the Odometer reading 20,000km less than what was in the certificate (Just to make sure they respond).

today morning I received the response, like this

Dear ...............
The odometer reading-13,117km which you said in your e-mail is different from our record.
Our record of the Mileage at the inspection time is 83,117km.
thank you
N.OKANO

JAAI

if you need to know the seller of this car, refer to the topic tag

Edited by tinyman
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In Sri Lanka don't trust any vehicle seller not matter what certificate they produce, what mileage they claim. Inspect the car by your self or someone who has knowladge to do so. Take all actions you need to make sure what you get is worth the amount you pay. Its no biggie that JAAI certificates and all most every car sells here has forged odometre readings.

Since you specify the perticular car seller you need to provide solid evidence too. Why don't you upload copies of original mail conversation you had and copy of the forged ceritificate, which you provided to JAAI in Japan.

I'm not affiliate to the seller here, but this is some serious Sh*t for car seller and good example to general public.

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This is the sad story in SL, Back in 2008 i had a Toyota Corolla CE110 on the clock it shows 178,000 but when i was doing a clean on the car i found the C/belt stickers with 308,000 on it with the date 2006 :speechless-smiley-004: "i guess car is going backward after replace the cambelt"

damn....

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In Sri Lanka don't trust any vehicle seller not matter what certificate they produce, what mileage they claim. Inspect the car by your self or someone who has knowladge to do so. Take all actions you need to make sure what you get is worth the amount you pay. Its no biggie that JAAI certificates and all most every car sells here has forged odometre readings.

Since you specify the perticular car seller you need to provide solid evidence too. Why don't you upload copies of original mail conversation you had and copy of the forged ceritificate, which you provided to JAAI in Japan.

I'm not affiliate to the seller here, but this is some serious Sh*t for car seller and good example to general public.

I would love to post all those details, including JAAI & the mail conversation. but I'm not doing it as my colleague could be easily identified.

However you can inspect this vehicle at their Hyde-park corner show room, Metellic Beige KGC10 2007 model car.

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It's not just the car sellers but the stupid car-buying public in Sri Lanka is also to blame. We have discussed this in detail more than once. So I'm not going to write about this again.

@tinyman - what if the odometer was tampered before the JAAI certificate is taken?

If you are the direct buyer from the Japan car aution you will get the auction sheet and it clearly indicates if the speedometer been replaced and private sellers also put comment if so, coz in NZ and AUS its a "criminal offence" if you change the speedometer/ mileage, if the spedo is faulty you can change but need to certified with testing station (AA or VTNZ) after replace :yahoo:

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machan

this morning i went to see a L200 for my father ( which was advertised on ######)

the meter reading was 117000km

but the same vehicle was seen by my brother last week

then it was 272000

engine fully warn

the bugger ultimately accepeted the fact that he changed the meter (after producing the pics taken by my brother)

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It's not just the car sellers but the stupid car-buying public in Sri Lanka is also to blame. We have discussed this in detail more than once. So I'm not going to write about this again.

@tinyman - what if the odometer was tampered before the JAAI certificate is taken?

I never ruled out the possibilities of such thing happening, verifying that would not be possible at all for a general Sri Lankan. But that doesn't mean that we should let go of our local crooks :)

All what I've done here is doing my due diligence, which others also can do before buying vehicles from so called reputed car sales.

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Wait he's a friend of yours? You rat him out and then you protect him??

Nope, My colleague was the one who went to buy the vehicle, if I post the JAAI here they (Seller) can easily trace down to him. So I'm trying to protect my colleague not those sellers

Edited by tinyman
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Thanks for sharing info.

Can you post a photo of JAAI certificate please? Have they change front of 8 so that it be seen as 3?

Can't think of why people doing this. I don't know when Sri Lanka will be free from this cheaters. Think, what if that car had a timing belt? He will change it at 150k what with lubricant, specially CVT fluid? They should be hanged.

What did car sale said?

Edited by Charith H Jayasinghe
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Nope, My colleague was the one who went to buy the vehicle, if I post the JAAI here they (Seller) can easily trace down to him. So I'm trying to protect my colleague not those sellers

Well you can fade out any identifiable info from mails. Because now you put the sellers details, location and even the vehicle number in subject it'll be fare by the sellers point of view to add more proof for your claim.

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Thanks for sharing info.

Can you post a photo of JAAI certificate please? Have they change front of 8 so that it be seen as 3?

Can't think of why people doing this. I don't know when Sri Lanka will be free from this cheaters. Think, what if that car had a timing belt? He will change it at 150k what with lubricant, specially CVT fluid? They should be hanged.

What did car sale said?

When stupid car-buyers in sri lanka stop judging cars based on odometer readings, this cheating will stop.

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The best option would be to take the vehicle to the agent and get the mileage verified from ECU, apparently this cannot be tampered with. I was told that this facility is even available with D* S***a M****s (Valuer) this is if you could get the seller to agree for this.

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Well you can fade out any identifiable info from mails. Because now you put the sellers details, location and even the vehicle number in subject it'll be fare by the sellers point of view to add more proof for your claim.

If they are fair players they shouldn't have tempered the odometer,isn't.

Anyway I'm posting the mail conversation below

the mail I sent

post-51606-0-48414100-1380263588_thumb.j

the reply I got

post-51606-0-94876800-1380263664_thumb.j

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It's not just the car sellers but the stupid car-buying public in Sri Lanka is also to blame. We have discussed this in detail more than once. So I'm not going to write about this again.

@tinyman - what if the odometer was tampered before the JAAI certificate is taken?

Good question :)

But depending on where/how the exporter bought the car from it may be a bit difficult to change the mileage and get the JAAI certificate.

To get the JAAI certificate they do request you for the auction sheet (which again would inspect the car and the shaken and records) and/or the "shaken" and de-registration (for example in an instance where you bought the car from a private party or is your own personal car), which would have last official inspected mileage (sorry no idea how to translate that in to english in a better way) when the car was still road registered in Japan. So if the mileage doesn't add up from that point onwards it gets valued as a car where the mileage is "Unknown". But then...where there is a will there is a way so there is no 100% safeguard against it and knowing that in countries like SL and in Africa ppl blindly buy cars the will is quite strong.

Couple of things to the OP though...sometimes it is not abnormal to find cars that have done less than 10K per year in Japan actually it is quite frequent in large places like Tokyo. I have a friend (an old guy in his 60s) who has a 94 Toyota Corolla...and the last time i saw him and his car it had only close to 87000kms on it. Also my mom's RAV4 which is a 2007 had done only 23000km when she took it SL beginning this year (she got it new).

But kudos to you and your friend for not purchasing a car simply by looking at a mileage :)

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When stupid car-buyers in sri lanka stop judging cars based on odometer readings, this cheating will stop.

Agree with you crosswind, but Sri Lanka also should establish law for tampering (I don't know whether they are exist). Thanks to AL I know these now but what about our rest of Sri Lanka? Specially people who don't know English. Sometimes those farmers and small businesses fellows buy vehicles as lifeline after morgue all they have and paying unfair taxes. If they face major repair due to this kind of thing everyone around them fall in to trouble. Therefore these laws needed at least those emissions check places also should equipped with above facility.

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machan

this moring i went to see a L200 for my father ( which was advertised on ######)

the meter reading was 117000km

but the same vehicle was seen by my brother last wee

then it was 272000

engine fully warn

the bugger ultimately accepeted the fact that he changed the meter (after producing the pics taken by my brother)

If you have photographic proof of the before and after and the vehicle itself I would think it would be social justice to share this information with the general public. Defame such sellers/vehicles such that others too learn from it.

Edited by Watchman
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If you have photographic proof of the before and after and the vehicle itself I would think it would be social justice to share this information with the general public. Defame such sellers/vehicles such that others too learn from it.

I second it

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Agree with you crosswind, but Sri Lanka also should establish law for tampering (I don't know whether they are exist). Thanks to AL I know these now but what about our rest of Sri Lanka?

Dude, its not the lack of laws that's a problem in this country. It's the enforcement that's a problem. Forget a simple odo-mete tampering.. Even laws regarding murder are enforced based on the suspect and victim. So do you really expect justice for these minor issues?

In fact, the current (slightly vague) law saying "you cannot modify a vehicle without the written permission of the commissioner of motor vehicles" can be applied for this if the enforcement officials care to.

Which is why I believe community should regulate and watch out for itself. You see a fraud or cheat, shout out loud so that everyone hears it, rather than write a letter to the consumer affairs commission or whatever.

Edited by Watchman
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Most sellers don't show the original JAAI certificate, they have put a photocopy inside the vehicle to you to see.

Even you get the JAAI certificate, there are no mentioning of original body conditions, you can get this only through the Auction sheet. Get the actual auction sheet URL from the seller and if the auction date is within 2-3 years, the links will be still there and you can see the original body condition, what parts was replaced etc etc.

High Mileage vehicle from Japan would look same as low mileage vehicle, even an experienced mechanic would not feel the difference driving 100,000Km driven car in Japan and 10,000Km car. The situation is different if the car is used in Sri Lanka. you can see worn out suspensions while driving.

Most commercial vehicles (buddy vans, vans, pickups, buses, lorries) are normally come with high mileages. Some are even nearing 700,000Kms. I have seen one Toyota Hiace commuter in auction recently with 697,000Kms. They are going very cheap and our buggers get them and tamper the ODO meter.

I had very bad experience with sellers and also the registered vehicles bought.

1. Once we bought a FB15 car from reputed car seller in Peliyagoda, ODO meter was having only 29,000, We didn't drove 10,000Km at most, we had to replace CV joints, Rear wheel racer hubs which are signs of mileage close to 100,000Kms.

2. I was a third owner of a CR42 vehicle, we bought it because we had it's previous model at our house, that was early days of choosing vehicles, went with experienced person about vehicles,he said conditions are good, so we bought it and within few days we felt very low pulling power and no body able to corrected it, Accelerating black smoke, a mechanic later said it would have done more than 200,000Kms, but that time we had only 70,000Kms in the clock. The emission test kept failing even after injector pump services which cost more than Rs. 10,000.

Now I am an owner of car bought directly through auction by myself, used more than 25,000Kms in sri Lanka, ODO meter now 55,000KMs, didn't had a slightest issue with the car, didn't even changed break pads yet, Only regular servicing.

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Actually Ishara seems to have a habit of clocking cars. because this is not the first time i came across something like this in one of their cars.

A friend of mine bought a ksp90 from them in 2011. When he showed me the car i asked him how much its done. he said 15k. so a pretty decent mileage. I casually checked the Jaai sticker on the windscreen and It had a mileage of 75000 kms on it!

I wouldn't advise depending on a windscreen sticker to verify mileage. cos jaai stickers are easy to tamper with or reproduce and bureau veritas stickers have no information on them.

The best way to check the mileage on newer cars, even though its not always practical, is to plug in an analyzer. the odometer reading can be manipulated but the vehicle computer always shows the genuine reading unless it has been replaced with another vehicle's. tried it on my insight and it showed 25k current mileage against a 12500 when imported on the jaai sticker. Also it was brought down by a small importer. and they seem to be more honest compared to bigger compaines

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