Case Study: How a Vin Check Saved Me From Buying a Lemon

The first Family Truckster. Oologah Lake, Oklahoma.

What we do here at Dirt Legal can help in a bunch of different applications. You can clear up title issues, save money on sales tax, and say goodbye to smog testing. But sometimes, writing about them feels abstract and disconnected. Well, I did use a Dirt Legal product a few months ago, and it saved me from buying a lemon, guaranteed. 

This is my story of how a simple, inexpensive VIN check saved me a lot of misery by identifying serious discrepancies in the vehicle’s history. 

Backstory

My family is big. Really big, in fact; my wife and I just welcomed our sixth child.

We like to travel cross country with our RV travel trailer. Unfortunately for us, we are too big for a pickup truck, so a 3/4 -ton or 1-ton is out of the question. But since we are such a large family, we need a fairly large travel trailer (34’). A ½-ton Suburban is okay for short-distance trips, but we like to drive long distances. Also, we don’t want the awful fuel mileage you’ll have in a gas-powered Suburban full of people and a big trailer. 

That leaves a diesel passenger van or a diesel Ford Excursion. 

We owned a 2005 Excursion with the problematic 6.0l Powerstroke. While I loved the torque curve of the 6.0, it was closing in on 300k miles and was bone stock, and I didn’t feel like it was worth bulletproofing. So I took advantage of the insane used car market last year and sold it. The local BMW dealership picked it up, buying it for $4,000 over what I had bought it for two years prior. Insane. 

But that left us needing a large vehicle again that could tow. So we looked for another Excursion. 

Surprisingly, we found a few samples in our price range, including a couple 2000 models with the 7.3l Powerstroke. I got so excited for one in particular that I almost bought a for-sure lemon, except I ordered a VIN check from Dirt Legal that opened my eyes. 

A few examples of what is included in your VIN check.

Why Should You Order a VIN Check for a Vehicle?

Really, why wouldn’t you buy one? For about the price of a sub sandwich from Jersey Mikes, you get a comprehensive report on the entire history of the VIN in question. And man does it lay out everything:

• Vehicle specifications

• Title records

• Junk/salvage/insurance records

• Theft records

• Lien/impound/export records

• Accident records

• Problem checks 

Truth is, there isn’t a reason not to order a VIN check if you are buying a used vehicle. It is a level of security to ensure you are getting the vehicle as advertised. It is easy to say that a vehicle is in great shape with a clean title, but do you really know? No, you don’t know until you know. 

Why Did I Order a VIN Check?

The first Excursion I test drove looked good. For a 22-year-old truck, the paint was sharp, the body was straight, and it fired right up, an impressive feat since it wasn’t plugged in and the temp was in the low 30s. 

It idled like a boss, and the tires were BRAND NEW meats which was a great selling point on a truck that size. But once I got on the road…

It wouldn’t go. As in, it has zero acceleration. As an owner of a 1996 F-350 with the 7.3l, I knew that these trucks aren’t impressive off the line, but this Excursion would not go. The throttle was mashed to the floor, and it felt like I had 15,000lbs behind it, but of course, it was empty. So I thought it was cold and drove it for a while until the temperature was well into normal operating range. It made no difference. 

After talking to the seller, he’d only had it for less than four months and had never taken it on the road beyond driving it to his family farm. I went home and thought about it. We needed the truck quickly, so I tentatively told him I’d buy it. But doubt lingered in my mind about this truck. 

What I Found on My Vin Check

I’d already been writing for Dirt Legal for a while and had even written articles about VIN checks, so it was on my mind. I decided to throw out a few bucks on a VIN check before shelling out seven grand on the truck. 

I ordered the VIN check and was honestly stunned when the report hit my inbox. 

First, mad props to the Dirt Legal team for their quickness in this process. From order submission to receiving the VIN check was 15 minutes flat (see receipts). 

“What Do You Mean It’s Not a Diesel?!”

Well, it is currently a diesel truck. Whether or not it has always been a diesel is another matter. 

The seller was skeptical of my claim, so I sent him a copy of the VIN check. I do agree that it seems far fetched that the truck began its life as a V-10, but that is the data attached to the VIN. I took a picture on my phone of the VIN, so it was the correct number. Whatever the vehicle's true history is I will never know, but it was enough to make me walk away from the deal. 

The truck in question absolutely had a 7.3l Powerstroke in it.

Maybe the truck didn’t start out as a V-10 (I confirmed it was running a Powerstroke when I drove it), but the VIN number says it did. It has also changed hands six times since new, so there has either been a problem with the title sometime as it changed hands, or it has always been wrong and never been caught. But whatever the truth was, it makes you question every other thing with the truck. What else is wrong? Are there going to be other title issues cropping up later? I didn’t want to find out. 

Moving On

I went ahead and hard-passed on this truck and kept looking. After scouting out a couple of real turds, I found another 2000 Excursion with a Powerstroke that the original owner was selling. One test drive told me this one was good to go, and there was something seriously wrong with the other example. 

I didn’t end up requesting a VIN check for the one I bought; there wasn’t anything suspicious about it, but admittedly that was still taking a chance.

Lessons Learned on Lemons and VIN Checks

Key lesson learned: buy a VIN check if you’re buying a used car. There isn’t any reason not to. Especially if your gut is telling you that there’s something wrong or it doesn’t quite add up, definitely order a VIN check. At least, you will know the vehicle's true, recorded history. Maybe it’s exactly what the seller says it is, or maybe it reveals something like mine did, something that didn’t add up. 

Wrapping Up

If I am even only interested in buying a vehicle, it’s getting a VIN check order. Period. No questions asked. There are too many potential pitfalls in a vehicle's transaction if a title problem turns up. What if it turns out to have a history of water damage? Or was it actually remanufactured? Maybe those things don’t matter, but they might. 

The second Family Truckster with a CLEAN VIN. Lake Texoma, Texas.

Here’s the deal: 

A bunch of title brand issues effectively destroy your vehicle; you can’t ever do anything with the vehicle. Once you buy the vehicle, whatever problems it has are yours now, not theirs. And good luck trying to get someone to take back a lemon in good faith. It’s likely they are trying to ditch it to get rid of the problem, and you are the sucker who took that problem off their hands.  

Buy the VIN check. Make sure you know what you’re getting into. I got off easy because I found out what was really going on with the records of a truck, and I’m dang glad I did. You will be glad, too. 

Editor’s note: This sounds 100% like a case of title issues or title fraud simply because it is difficult to convert a vehicle from gas to diesel. We’re talking about replacing every fuel line, all fuel tanks, fuel pumps, gauge cluster, and a substantial amount of the wiring harness at bare minimum, not to mention all the Excursion-specific things some of you are surely thinking about right now. What’s more, there’s no way a seller wouldn’t brag about that if they managed to pull it off. Whether the title was botched by a DMV or one of those six previous owners messed with the VIN - or did extensive modifications with an unknown level of expertise - I’d say John dodged a bullet either way. - Justin