Yahoo Finance Aussie driver’s $45,000 Tesla warning: ‘Don’t touch it’
Jeff Zarif was about to buy a secondhand Tesla off Facebook Marketplace until he found out something wasn’t quite right.
A driver has issued a stark warning for Aussies looking to buy a car second hand, after he nearly blew $45,000 on a dud electric vehicle. He said one thing stopped him from making the costly mistake.
Jeff Zarif told Yahoo Finance he was about to pull the trigger on a secondhand Tesla after he saw it advertised on Facebook Marketplace. Zarif had managed to haggle the seller down from $56,000 to $45,000 for the car but was told he needed to make a move ASAP.
The Wollongong resident decided to quickly text his mechanic, Mitchel Pedavoli, to see if he could do a pre-purchase inspection on the car before he dropped the cash. Luckily for him, Mitchel quickly spotted a massive issue with the car.
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“I got the VIN and sent it to Mitch. He said, ‘Don’t touch it with a 10 foot pole, mate, because it’s been written off’,” Zarif said.
It is currently illegal in NSW to sell a written-off car for anything but parts or scrap metal. But Zarif claims the seller was able to get around this rule because it was registered in Queensland where the rules are different.
Queensland is currently looking to introduce new regulations which could make it harder for written-off vehicles to be registered again and has proposed introducing mandatory quality of repair inspections. Other states have had this process in place since 2010.
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“Thank god for Mitch because it wasn’t going to have a warranty or anything. I would have been stung because those Tesla’s are only as good as their warranty really,” Zarif said.
Zarif ended up not proceeding with the purchase and said the seller later took down the advertisement for the vehicle.
It’s not the first time he has avoided making a costly mistake either. Zarif said he was previously looking to buy a Jeep Grand Cherokee but after doing a pre-purchase inspection found out it had a cracked cylinder head, which would have cost him another $5,000 to $6,000 to fix.
‘Peace of mind’ on big purchases
Pedavoli, who offers pre-purchase inspections through his business Inspection Dr and via Airtasker, said they can offer people “peace of mind”. They usually will set buyers back around $250.
“You want to know beforehand. Some people are putting their life savings into a car and if you find out it is dodgy it’s probably not the best feeling,” Pedavoli told Yahoo Finance.
During a pre-purchase inspection, mechanics will thoroughly inspect the car to ensure it is safe to drive and roadworthy.
This includes checking for accident damage or leaks, and verifying the car’s vehicle identification number (VIN).
The number is essentially the car's fingerprint. Not only will it have a record of if there's money owed on the vehicle or warranty details, it's also how you can find out if a car has been written off in a collision, flood or fire - or if it has had parts dismantled and replaced
Pedavoli said accident damage was the most common problem he saw on second hand cars, along with oil leaks and tampered odometers. Buyers can also run into issues when it comes to warranties.
“Some manufacturers have a seven year warranty but that warranty is only really valid if you get it serviced. So a lot of times people don't get the car serviced, or there are no records of it being serviced,” he said.
“So it’s a ‘he said, she said’ kind of deal. Whereas, if you’ve got all the evidence that it’s fully serviced, it should be fine for the warranty period.
“Not to say there’s anything wrong with the car but you don’t want to buy the car and then a year later something happens and there is no warranty on the car because you didn’t check it properly.”
Zarif said he is still hoping to purchase a second hand Tesla for himself and said he would now “never buy a car” without getting it inspected by a mechanic first.
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