Utah's 'buyer beware state' status should prompt car buyers to investigate car's history


Save Story
Leer en español

Estimated read time: 5-6 minutes

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

SALT LAKE CITY — If you’re looking to buy a used vehicle, there’s a chance you could end up with a wreck and not ever know it.

Utah is a buyer beware state, which means it’s up to the buyer to determine if the vehicle they’re purchasing was in a crash or not.

“What do I do now that I found out that we bought this car with a clean title and a clean Carfax, and yet they’re telling me it’s been in a wreck?” said Debbie Knies.

Knies purchased a used car last September to replace an old one that wasn’t big enough for her family. She found what she was looking for online at a local used car dealership, a nearly new 2014 Chevrolet Malibu that had low miles and looked good.

“It looked really nice," she said. "The body style was nice and everything."

Before she bought the car, Knies took it for a test drive and checked its history on the websites carfax.com and autocheck.com.

“It had a clean Carfax report,” she said. “No accidents. Nothing reported.”

She also took it to a mechanic to have it inspected for frame damage, which could be a sign of a past crash.

“They said this car is fine. It’s going to be covered under our service warranty, bumper-to-bumper. It’s still under the manufacturer’s warranty, bumper-to-bumper. All OK at this time. No visible signs of frame damage,” said Knies. “I felt good. I bought the car.”


Utah's a buyer beware state and so as a consumer it's up to you to do your homework. Not all states are like that but we are.

–Charlie Roberts, spokesman for the Utah Division of Motor Vehicles


A couple of days later, that good feeling was gone as problem after problem started popping up. The garage door opener wouldn’t sync, some of the trim was loose, and the door locks didn’t work right.

“You would put the car in gear and they would lock and then they would all unlock after you started driving. It was odd,” she said.

She claims she tried to get the problem fixed under the warranty, but was told it wasn’t covered because the problem only happened if the car had been involved in a crash. Knies did a little more digging and discovered a bulletin from General Motors. It said the problem with the locks might happen after an accident “where the vehicle’s airbags and/or seat belts have been replaced due to being deployed.”

“I thought to myself, well I haven’t been in an accident,” she said.

But it turned out the car had. She traced its roots back to a rental car company in Idaho. After about 900 miles of operation, the car was, in fact, crashed and sold “as is” to a damaged vehicle wholesale auction, according to a statement from the rental car company.

“Three airbags had deployed. There was paint issues on the car,” said Knies. “You could see stitching on the driver’s seat where they had replaced the airbag and stitched it up.”

The car had been repaired and resold in Utah with a clean — or unbranded — title. Knies filed a complaint with the Utah Motor Vehicle Enforcement Division to find out why.

“In this instance the cost of repair was less than the value of the vehicle so there’s no need to brand it,” said Charlie Roberts, spokesman for the Utah Division of Motor Vehicles and Motor Vehicle Enforcement Division.

Debbie Knies purchased a used car last September to replace an old one that wasn't big enough for her family. She found what she was looking for online at a local used car dealership, a nearly new 2014 Chevrolet Malibu that had low miles and looked good.(KSL TV)
Debbie Knies purchased a used car last September to replace an old one that wasn't big enough for her family. She found what she was looking for online at a local used car dealership, a nearly new 2014 Chevrolet Malibu that had low miles and looked good.(KSL TV)

In Utah, a car title is branded “salvage” if repairs cost more than the car is worth and the car is unsafe to drive. However, if repairs cost more than the car is worth, but the car can be repaired for safe operation, the title is branded as “rebuilt/restored.”

Branded titles warn potential buyers of past problems, but if the repairs cost less than the car’s value, the title remains clean and the seller is not required to say a thing about the accident.

“Utah’s a buyer beware state and so as a consumer it’s up to you to do your homework,” said Roberts. “Not all states are like that but we are.”

The Utah DMV says buyers should check for things like improper door gaps, mismatched paint, and chips in the dashboard. It also says to always run a vehicle history report through the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System, a national database that currently stores the history of 87 percent of all vehicles in the country.

Knies says she did her homework and that may not be enough.

“We should have been told that the car had been in a wreck and been fixed, and then we could have decided if we wanted to buy an amazing car that was really in a wreck,” she said.

The accident Knies’ vehicle was in did eventually show up on the Autocheck report, more than a month after she bought the car. The car dealership allowed her to return the Malibu and refunded most of her money, but in many cases that isn’t possible.

“I’m curious how many other people might have the same situation and the fact that there’s really nothing that the consumer can do about it. You have no recourse,” said Knies.

The Utah Motor Vehicle Enforcement Division says situations like Knies’ can happen, but it doesn’t receive complaints about them very often. However, it says if you have a concern about a vehicle you’ve just purchased, you can file a case with the MVED and its officers will launch an investigation.

Related links

Related stories

Most recent Utah stories

Related topics

Utah
Mike Headrick and Linda Williams

    STAY IN THE KNOW

    Get informative articles and interesting stories delivered to your inbox weekly. Subscribe to the KSL.com Trending 5.
    By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

    KSL Weather Forecast