A car mechanic is warning buyers of a scam in which sellers will cover a vehicle's 'check engine' light with tape to hide possible issues with the car.
ATLANTA - Wanda King-Whitby was cruising through the listings on Autotrader and Craigslist when she found the right car at the right price.
Like most car buyers, King-Whitby opted to skip a pre-purchase inspection. Almost immediately after the purchase, she said, the car had issues.A mechanic at Theo’s Automotive in Peachtree City, Georgia, performed a post-purchase inspection and found issues that should have kept the car off the road. The car had been poorly repainted and there were signs the roof had been crushed.
In King-Whitby’s case, the original instrument cluster had been removed and replaced with one with fewer miles on it. Samantha Stout, a service adviser at Theo’s, found the discrepancy on the vehicle’s Carfax report.