Scammed and got a lemon... what to do now?

Sorry to hear about all this. I’d agree with the folks suggesting to move forward getting it repaired. At $10.5k there’s a bit of room before you’re in the red. After all is said and done, you’re definitely going to lose money on the deal either way, but you’ll lose much more if you part it out, or sell it with all that’s wrong with it. The one benefit that will outweigh the loss in value is the joy you’ll get from the truck and after you’re done repairing it, it’ll be on the road for another 20 years with proper maintenance.

Have you run an obd2 scan? I apologize if you’ve already stated this in earlier replies.

 

Yes I think that makes sense. I have not done any scans yet. I'm not sure when I'll be able to find the time but I'll keep you updated here.

 

I have a very small update

It has been determined that this is an extremely sophisticated fraud scheme tied to the Romanian mafia... there are people working on the case, but I can't say more than that... for fun you should google "romanian fraud california" and just look at all the articles from this year alone

This is an offerup profile they have up with a bad tacoma that they are selling: https://offerup.com/p/154549892

If you have friends or family looking to buy any toyota/honda vehicles in LA area, beware. they're selling upwards of 3 vehicles per week and as far as I know they will not be stopped anytime soon.

Regarding the truck I purchased from them, I'm going to have to get rid of it... I just don't have the money for the project. How much do you guys think I could for it? 2003 Tacoma TRD 4x4 with ~300k miles with current Utah registration and Salvage title BUT motor is bad, odometer has been tampered with, wiring under the dash has been modified (presumably for the odometer reversal), there is also a hole in the muffler. It looks great, drives great, but needs papers, rewiring and a motor. Thanks

 

Post some photos and more details and we could see what you are dealing with

 

You'll probably get more for it parting it out...

 

PM’d you

 

Definitely look into this. Varies by state but in Massachusetts it's as @Kwikvette said. State doesn't allow wage garnish for a civil judgment so basically the winner might see the loser of the suit eating at the restaurant every night and drinking like a fish, but no way to legally force payment.

 

Ok here's a bunch of photos of the truck. It is really dusty right now. In person it really does look like a great truck. To be honest, it might not even need a new motor. The transmission was also just serviced by the actual owner in January at a good shop, they spent almost $5k. The CA DMV also does free ODO repairs for this exact kind of situation (I don't have the info, but that's what an officer told me and I could find out more on this if needed).

To be clear, I paid $10,500 for the truck, then spent $1,500 on replacing the braking system (booster, master cylinder, front calipers, pads, professional bleed) before I found out about the fraud.

What I'm thinking is that if I could get $8k for it that would be my personal best-case scenario.

What do you all think?

 

Also, regarding the civil suit, it is an option. However, I would be suing a non-citizen who is an integral piece of an international Romanian fraud organization... The DA is going to eventually aprehend this member of the mob and charge him with many felonies and tens of thousands of dollars in fines, which includes damages to myself. If I were to sue him before the DA puts out a warrant for his arrest, there is no good reason to believe he will just stay in the country. Overall, I'm between a rock and a hard place and the only real thing I can try to get compensation from is this truck.

 

Is the Utah owner the current legal owner? Have you contacted him to confirm he actually sold it and has no financial or legal interest remaining in the truck? I have dealt with a few of these messes in Ca and I wouldn’t sell it on till you have more info to keep your liability to a minimum.

 

Sorry to hear. I had something similar happen, and it really does stink. I bought mine as-is, so chalked it up to a learning lesson, reflected on my impulsive mistake, and took the L. The financial loss sucked, but getting burned was really the worst part haha. Bought my ‘23 a couple years later and it’s allll goooood now

 

I still have the truck, I’ll fix it up someday…

 

The current registered owner of the truck has not been able to be contacted.. It is a very strange situation, but overall there is no reason to believe that the vehicle was taken illegally.

 

Do not sell it, do not fix it, do not do anything other than park it in your garage. It is a piece of evidence, anything you do will allow them to say you accepted it like that when you bought it. If it gets seized as a stolen vehicle, you are out even more money.
Do not do a damn thing to or with it until you go to civil court.

 

Thank you for bringing that up, but the detectives have already inspected the truck and collected all of the information they needed from it. To be extra safe though I will ask them if it's ok for me to get rid of it.

 

Oh damn, it’s a first gen four door 4x4. Didn’t know that part.

 

Ok, the detective working on the case has confirmed that the truck was legally sold by the original owner and is not stolen, so I am OK to sell it. I'm still trying to see if I can get it in my name before selling it though.

In the mean time I went ahead and took it to a local smog shop and was informed that the cats are not CARB compliant, but other than that the truck would pass. I also reached out to a friend's dad who is a mechanic and he was unable to find any evidence of the motor being bad. He said the only oil in the coolant system was isolated to the overflow resevior, and that the coolant hoses showed no signs of being exposed to oil. He did find a substantial leak in the radiator though so I had him replace it for me.

I'm now trying to drive the truck around to see if oil comes back into the overflow resevior again. In doing so a handful of other small problems have popped up though, like the A/C only blowing hot air even when the A/C is off, as well as the brake pedal feeling a little sticky.

Regarding the cats, I spoke to the owner of the SMOG shop and he informed me that if I were to replace the current exhaust system with one taken from another truck (with CARB compliant cats) then so long as the E/O numbers matched there would be no way for him to know that the exhaust didn't come with that truck from the factory. Does anyone know where and how much I could find a used exhaust assembly (cat 1, cat 2, and muffler)? Thanks in advance

 

With the CAT theft of SoCal running rampant for the last few years and their value might make them hard to source at a pick your part/pull a part yard. But here’s the link for their website to try and search for some near you.

https://locations.lkqpickyourpart.com/us/locations-list/ca/

this thread might also have some info for you

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/1st-gen-oem-catalytic-converters-are-being-discontinued.820600/

 

AFAIK pick and pull places aren’t allowed to sell used cats. That said, down in Otay Mesa there are tons of junkers who left you being your own tools to pull want your want and pay cash. I’d try that. The for sale section here might yield something too.

OP, that truck looks nice. Given the circumstances you have told us, I would just fix and keep it.

 

Ah I hadn't considered the for sale section on this site, I'll check that out too. I'm definitely considering keeping it given this update.