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Salvaged Vehicles: The Nigerian market is now flooded with vehicles from all parts of the world. A good number of these vehicles are salvaged vehicles. This means that they were involved in a serious accident and then repaired. Some are even "total loss" vehicles which means that the damage done to them were so great that the insurance company had to write them off.

Some of these salvaged vehicles are sold to un-suspecting Nigerians without disclosing this major flaw. The dealers often ask for prices comparable to clean vehicles. There is nothing wrong with selling a salvaged vehicle if it is sold as such. Disclosing this fact is essential because salvaged vehicles cost much less than clean ones. 

But there are few Nigerian car dealers who will voluntarily market a salvaged car as such. Don't rely on what the dealer says. Some of them may not even know that they are selling a salvaged car. Read the last paragraph "Check Before You Buy" for important advice.

Odometer Rollback: In the US, one of the primary factors that determine a car's value is the mileage or odometer reading. The lower the mileage, the higher the value. Considering it's importance, it is therefore a serious offense in the US to roll back the odometer.

But in Nigeria, that does not seem to be the case. Unscrupulous car dealers sometimes roll back odometers to give the impression that the cars they are selling are better than they really are. I once saw a car that was advertised for sale in Lagos with a 63,000 mile odometer reading. I became suspicious because the car was a 2001 model. When I checked the VIN on the internet, the odometer turned out to be 163,000 miles (yes, a rollback of 100,000 miles).

Check Before You Buy: So before buying a used vehicle in Nigeria, USA or anywhere else, check the VIN or Chasis number to ensure that it has not been involved in an accident, stolen or had odometer rollback. You can check this via Carfax, Autocheck or NICB. If you do not have access to any of these websites, send your VIN to us, we may be able to help you free of charge. Submit Your VIN Here.

The NigeriaDigest.Net Team
August 15, 2009.