Hi Everyone,

I'm looking at a 2006 Porsche 911 Carrera, it's quite clean and I've driven it. I just need to make sure that I'm getting a car that isn't dodgy.

It's a German import and not US. I've checked all the Databases I could get from google, no records except for the Porsche identifier which pulls up accurate records of the model and specs.

Does anyone have any ideas?

 

Not sure about your part of the world but how about DMV (dept of motor vehicles) and local police?

 

Thanks for responding. I'm in Nigeria, these cars are hard to find here, and when you find them they go pretty cheap mostly because nobody wants them and everyone believes it will break and no one can fix it. And once in a while some obviously stolen ones pop up, these ones usually have their VIN scratched out, but this one 's VIN is intact.

Unfortunately we do not have anything like the DMV locally, as for the police, only if it was reported stolen by interpol or something. The thing is there isn't even a single record of this car so far on sites I've been able to check worldwide, maybe I'm not looking at the right places.....

 

Where does the vin show the last owner? If you know. Maybe someone here can check the vin#?

 

The car came from Germany and online car checks don't seem to be common there. There are no records about the last owner online. Thanks again!

 

Is there a German Embassy or Consulate anywhere in Nigeria? It won't be a normal request but if you explain your concerns maybe someone in an official capacity could reach back and have German authorities run a quick check to see if anything pops up hot on their end.

 

That's a very good idea I will give that a shot, thanks!

 

You have the VIN, and it was imported into Nigeria, right? So I assume Nigeria has a way of recording the import and where it came from. Maybe use the VIN to check in the country of origin (maybe there is an EU database) to see if the car is stolen?

 

You're quite right, even though it's a German Porsche it really could have come from any country in the EU. I will see if I can get hold of the import documents. But so far all available EU databases have brought out no results......thanks!

 

This is a bizarre one, good luck. What if it was stolen in Germany, what would be the consequences? No one is going to come and get it.
Was it imported legally? In first world countries you couldn't import a car without proving ownership with documentation. In emerging countries, I suspect this is not the case. Most Porsches have scratched out vin's? What happens to those cars? Do they get confiscated?

 

Hi, no most Porsche's do not have scratched out VINs I just saw one that had that recently, once in a while you will get to see obviously dodgy cars.

Importing a car is as simple as getting fake documentation from the exporting country, there are car thief rings all over the world that do this.

If the police stops you and see a car with scratched out VIN, the car will be confiscated and so will the driver all the way into jail if he cannot prove ownership.

When I asked the seller to get me the VIN of that car which was a lovely 06 Carrera S, he stopped picking up my call.

 

Sounds like a Nigeria scam. Sorry couldn't help myself. If he stopped picking up your calls then it's probably not the right vehicle for you.

 

I've been expecting this trust me! Yes I figured that this wasn't my car, I've sent an email to the German Embassy, hope to hear from them

 

If the seller identifies himself as the prince of Nigeria, I would just walk away lol

 

Sadly you heard the word Nigeria you figure = Scam....terrible thing the bad Nigerians did to their reputation