Looking to buy a car, check the VIN on carfax, and the repair history
there conflicts with the seller's story about where the car has been.

So maybe I copied the VIN wrong, probably just one digit, but the make
and model of the car that carfax reports is the same as the one I'm
looking at. Does that mean I have the right VIN?

OTOH aren't the last 6 or so digits just a sequential number from the
assembly line that makes, at least for a period of time, just one make
and model, and maybe 2 or 3 submodels?? So that would mean that I still
might have used the wrong VIN, right? If I got the last digit, or even
the next to the last, I might have the car that came off the line next,
right?

On Sun, 17 Sep 2017 14:29:52 -0400, micky
wrote in

So that would mean that I still
might have used the wrong VIN, right?

Yes, I believe so.

On 2017-09-17 2:29 PM, micky wrote:
Looking to buy a car, check the VIN on carfax, and the repair history
there conflicts with the seller's story about where the car has been.

So maybe I copied the VIN wrong, probably just one digit, but the make
and model of the car that carfax reports is the same as the one I'm
looking at. Does that mean I have the right VIN?

OTOH aren't the last 6 or so digits just a sequential number from the
assembly line that makes, at least for a period of time, just one make
and model, and maybe 2 or 3 submodels?? So that would mean that I still
might have used the wrong VIN, right? If I got the last digit, or even
the next to the last, I might have the car that came off the line next,
right?

A VIN has a check digit, which will help verify the VIN, same as your
SSN and your credit cards, not sure if carfax checks it properly though.

In rec.autos.tech, on Sun, 17 Sep 2017 19:14:48 +0000, Stormin' Norman
wrote:

On Sun, 17 Sep 2017 14:29:52 -0400, micky
wrote:

Looking to buy a car, check the VIN on carfax, and the repair history
there conflicts with the seller's story about where the car has been.

So maybe I copied the VIN wrong, probably just one digit, but the make
and model of the car that carfax reports is the same as the one I'm
looking at. Does that mean I have the right VIN?

OTOH aren't the last 6 or so digits just a sequential number from the
assembly line that makes, at least for a period of time, just one make
and model, and maybe 2 or 3 submodels?? So that would mean that I still
might have used the wrong VIN, right? If I got the last digit, or even
the next to the last, I might have the car that came off the line next,
right?

A suggestion; in the future, use your phone to take a picture of the
ID plate on the car. I have been doing this with all my equipment, so
that when I need to find a manual online, I don't have to rely on my
nearly indecipherable handwriting.

I did take pictures of it, at the seller's suggestion, but when I got
home, I couldn't find the pictures. Glad you reminded me. I'll look
again. The flash went off so a picture must have been taken, but I
always have trouble find the pictures from Android Camera.

On 09/17/2017 12:32 PM, micky wrote:
In rec.autos.tech, on Sun, 17 Sep 2017 19:14:48 +0000, Stormin' Norman
wrote:

On Sun, 17 Sep 2017 14:29:52 -0400, micky
wrote:

Looking to buy a car, check the VIN on carfax, and the repair history
there conflicts with the seller's story about where the car has been.

So maybe I copied the VIN wrong, probably just one digit, but the make
and model of the car that carfax reports is the same as the one I'm
looking at. Does that mean I have the right VIN?

OTOH aren't the last 6 or so digits just a sequential number from the
assembly line that makes, at least for a period of time, just one make
and model, and maybe 2 or 3 submodels?? So that would mean that I still
might have used the wrong VIN, right? If I got the last digit, or even
the next to the last, I might have the car that came off the line next,
right?

A suggestion; in the future, use your phone to take a picture of the
ID plate on the car. I have been doing this with all my equipment, so
that when I need to find a manual online, I don't have to rely on my
nearly indecipherable handwriting.

I did take pictures of it, at the seller's suggestion, but when I got
home, I couldn't find the pictures. Glad you reminded me. I'll look
again. The flash went off so a picture must have been taken, but I
always have trouble find the pictures from Android Camera.

Do you have a 'gallery' app? The one that came with the Motorola works
really well. The default album is 'camera' and you can make others to
move photos into.

--
Cheers, Bev
"If you watch TV news, you know less about the world than
if you just drank gin straight from the bottle."
- Garrison Keillor

On 09/17/2017 02:14 PM, Stormin' Norman wrote:
On Sun, 17 Sep 2017 14:29:52 -0400, micky
wrote:

Looking to buy a car, check the VIN on carfax, and the repair history
there conflicts with the seller's story about where the car has been.

So maybe I copied the VIN wrong, probably just one digit, but the make
and model of the car that carfax reports is the same as the one I'm
looking at. Does that mean I have the right VIN?

OTOH aren't the last 6 or so digits just a sequential number from the
assembly line that makes, at least for a period of time, just one make
and model, and maybe 2 or 3 submodels?? So that would mean that I still
might have used the wrong VIN, right? If I got the last digit, or even
the next to the last, I might have the car that came off the line next,
right?

A suggestion; in the future, use your phone to take a picture of the
ID plate on the car. I have been doing this with all my equipment, so
that when I need to find a manual online, I don't have to rely on my
nearly indecipherable handwriting.






Damn good idea


My wife also suggested I take pix of the numbers in the parking ramp

On 09/17/2017 02:32 PM, micky wrote:
In rec.autos.tech, on Sun, 17 Sep 2017 19:14:48 +0000, Stormin' Norman
wrote:

On Sun, 17 Sep 2017 14:29:52 -0400, micky
wrote:

Looking to buy a car, check the VIN on carfax, and the repair history
there conflicts with the seller's story about where the car has been.

So maybe I copied the VIN wrong, probably just one digit, but the make
and model of the car that carfax reports is the same as the one I'm
looking at. Does that mean I have the right VIN?

OTOH aren't the last 6 or so digits just a sequential number from the
assembly line that makes, at least for a period of time, just one make
and model, and maybe 2 or 3 submodels?? So that would mean that I still
might have used the wrong VIN, right? If I got the last digit, or even
the next to the last, I might have the car that came off the line next,
right?

A suggestion; in the future, use your phone to take a picture of the
ID plate on the car. I have been doing this with all my equipment, so
that when I need to find a manual online, I don't have to rely on my
nearly indecipherable handwriting.

I did take pictures of it, at the seller's suggestion, but when I got
home, I couldn't find the pictures. Glad you reminded me. I'll look
again. The flash went off so a picture must have been taken, but I
always have trouble find the pictures from Android Camera.




Your story sounds fishy to me, it you took a picture why did you bother
to write it down?

All you have to do is look in your photo gallery.

My 91 year old mother has no problem doing that, it's not even close to
being difficult.

On 09/17/2017 02:51 PM, Stormin' Norman wrote:
On Sun, 17 Sep 2017 14:46:43 -0500, philo wrote:





Your story sounds fishy to me, it you took a picture why did you bother
to write it down?

All you have to do is look in your photo gallery.

My 91 year old mother has no problem doing that, it's not even close to
being difficult.

91? She is a spring chicken and should be able to do such
things..... ;-)





My mom had a computer and a cell phone before I ever did.

Maybe not a typical 91 year old.

On 09/17/2017 02:50 PM, Stormin' Norman wrote:
On Sun, 17 Sep 2017 14:45:03 -0500, philo wrote:

My wife also suggested I take pix of the numbers in the parking ramp

Not sure what this means, would you elaborate?





If I go to an indoor parking lot, the floors and the rows are numbered,
so I take a picture.

Pretty much everything...even the pedestrian door I exit from.

Street signs outside.

Since I've been doing this, never again have I gotten lost looking for
my car and the pictures can just be deleted when I'm done

In rec.autos.tech, on Sun, 17 Sep 2017 15:19:59 -0400, FrozenNorth
wrote:

On 2017-09-17 2:29 PM, micky wrote:
Looking to buy a car, check the VIN on carfax, and the repair history
there conflicts with the seller's story about where the car has been.

So maybe I copied the VIN wrong, probably just one digit, but the make
and model of the car that carfax reports is the same as the one I'm
looking at. Does that mean I have the right VIN?

OTOH aren't the last 6 or so digits just a sequential number from the
assembly line that makes, at least for a period of time, just one make
and model, and maybe 2 or 3 submodels?? So that would mean that I still
might have used the wrong VIN, right? If I got the last digit, or even
the next to the last, I might have the car that came off the line next,
right?

A VIN has a check digit, which will help verify the VIN, same as your
SSN and your credit cards, not sure if carfax checks it properly though.

I've thought about check digits. If I made mistakes on two numbers, it
could defeat the check digit. But I doubt I made two mistakes.

Carfax pretty much has to check it becuase I'm sure it has to look at
all 17 numbers, and if it's not there, that's what it would say.


Back to my camera, the pictures are in Gallery, though how one is
supposed to know that, I don't know. I took a new picture to make sure
where they were going and I found the new one but nothing for weeks
before. And once I got a message that Gallery is not available. Plus
I've got several photos from just before those weeks where only 1/4 or
more of the screen is photo and the rest is blanks. I think maybe
there's a problem with the SD card. Phone is broken in other ways too.

I'll know if I had the VIN right by tomorrow. I could go look right
now, but somehow I can never read it off the dash, even with a
flashlight.

On Sun, 17 Sep 2017 13:57:09 -0500, VinnyB
wrote:

On Sun, 17 Sep 2017 14:29:52 -0400, micky
wrote in

So that would mean that I still
might have used the wrong VIN, right?

Yes, I believe so.
Except the check digit would not match and you would (ormshould) get
an "invalid VIN" message. The 9th digit in the serial number will
cgange with the combination of digits in the production sequence
number. This means you need at least 2 numbers wrong - one of them
being the 9th digit, to possibly have the wrong VIN and have it valid.

I think the seller is "snowing" you.

On Sun, 17 Sep 2017 14:46:43 -0500, philo wrote:

On 09/17/2017 02:32 PM, micky wrote:
In rec.autos.tech, on Sun, 17 Sep 2017 19:14:48 +0000, Stormin' Norman
wrote:

On Sun, 17 Sep 2017 14:29:52 -0400, micky
wrote:

Looking to buy a car, check the VIN on carfax, and the repair history
there conflicts with the seller's story about where the car has been.

So maybe I copied the VIN wrong, probably just one digit, but the make
and model of the car that carfax reports is the same as the one I'm
looking at. Does that mean I have the right VIN?

OTOH aren't the last 6 or so digits just a sequential number from the
assembly line that makes, at least for a period of time, just one make
and model, and maybe 2 or 3 submodels?? So that would mean that I still
might have used the wrong VIN, right? If I got the last digit, or even
the next to the last, I might have the car that came off the line next,
right?

A suggestion; in the future, use your phone to take a picture of the
ID plate on the car. I have been doing this with all my equipment, so
that when I need to find a manual online, I don't have to rely on my
nearly indecipherable handwriting.

I did take pictures of it, at the seller's suggestion, but when I got
home, I couldn't find the pictures. Glad you reminded me. I'll look
again. The flash went off so a picture must have been taken, but I
always have trouble find the pictures from Android Camera.




Your story sounds fishy to me, it you took a picture why did you bother
to write it down?

All you have to do is look in your photo gallery.

My 91 year old mother has no problem doing that, it's not even close to
being difficult.
Remember who you are talking to/about. It's Mikey. Not trying to be
hardon the poor lad - but - - - - -

In alt.home.repair, on Sun, 17 Sep 2017 15:57:33 -0400,
wrote:

On Sun, 17 Sep 2017 13:57:09 -0500, VinnyB
wrote:

On Sun, 17 Sep 2017 14:29:52 -0400, micky
wrote in

So that would mean that I still
might have used the wrong VIN, right?

Yes, I believe so.
Except the check digit would not match and you would (ormshould) get
an "invalid VIN" message. The 9th digit in the serial number will
cgange with the combination of digits in the production sequence
number. This means you need at least 2 numbers wrong - one of them
being the 9th digit, to possibly have the wrong VIN and have it valid.

Agreed, except one wouldn't have to be the 9th digit. Add one and
subtract one, or interchange 2 numbers, and it would check out.

I think the seller is "snowing" you.

Maybe. Though the car that comes up has had lots of maintenance from the
same repair shop, including new timing belt and water pump. So that
would be good. But he wants me to believe it was his daughter's car
and she lives 30 miles south of where the car was maintained. If it had
only been one event, sure, but there are 10 or 20. I saw the auction
papers in the glove box and noted the price but forgot to note the date.
It was probably last week.

Anyhow, it's good to understand this vin stuff for this time and future
times too.

In alt.home.repair, on Sun, 17 Sep 2017 19:45:36 +0000, Stormin' Norman
wrote:

On Sun, 17 Sep 2017 12:39:23 -0700, The Real Bev
wrote:

On 09/17/2017 12:32 PM, micky wrote:
In rec.autos.tech, on Sun, 17 Sep 2017 19:14:48 +0000, Stormin' Norman
wrote:

On Sun, 17 Sep 2017 14:29:52 -0400, micky
wrote:

Looking to buy a car, check the VIN on carfax, and the repair history
there conflicts with the seller's story about where the car has been.

So maybe I copied the VIN wrong, probably just one digit, but the make
and model of the car that carfax reports is the same as the one I'm
looking at. Does that mean I have the right VIN?

OTOH aren't the last 6 or so digits just a sequential number from the
assembly line that makes, at least for a period of time, just one make
and model, and maybe 2 or 3 submodels?? So that would mean that I still
might have used the wrong VIN, right? If I got the last digit, or even
the next to the last, I might have the car that came off the line next,
right?

A suggestion; in the future, use your phone to take a picture of the
ID plate on the car. I have been doing this with all my equipment, so
that when I need to find a manual online, I don't have to rely on my
nearly indecipherable handwriting.

I did take pictures of it, at the seller's suggestion, but when I got
home, I couldn't find the pictures. Glad you reminded me. I'll look
again. The flash went off so a picture must have been taken, but I
always have trouble find the pictures from Android Camera.

Do you have a 'gallery' app? The one that came with the Motorola works
really well. The default album is 'camera' and you can make others to
move photos into.

Yeah, thanks. They're not there.

You can also log into Google Photos from your computer, your images
should be automatically backed up to the Google account associated
with the phone.

That's scarey. I have to check it out some day.

Looking to buy a car, check the VIN on carfax, and the repair history
there conflicts with the seller's story about where the car has been.

So maybe I copied the VIN wrong, probably just one digit, but the make
and model of the car that carfax reports is the same as the one I'm
looking at. Does that mean I have the right VIN?

OTOH aren't the last 6 or so digits just a sequential number from the
assembly line that makes, at least for a period of time, just one make
and model, and maybe 2 or 3 submodels?? So that would mean that I still
might have used the wrong VIN, right? If I got the last digit, or even
the next to the last, I might have the car that came off the line next,
right?

A suggestion; in the future, use your phone to take a picture of the
ID plate on the car. I have been doing this with all my equipment, so
that when I need to find a manual online, I don't have to rely on my
nearly indecipherable handwriting.


Be sure to check the ownership history - a car that has been
flipped a few times in recent years is a huge red flag.
Here in Ontario Canada - law says that, for private sale, the seller
must provide the "used car info" .. but there are tricks that the
curb-siders use to con the unwary buyer ..
https://www.ontario.ca/page/used-veh...mation-package
... not to mention what the low-life dealers do !
ps : expect a flood of Flood-Cars in months & years to come !
pps : not all insurance write-offs are all bad - if you are aware
of the reasons and get them for the proper price.
John T.

In alt.home.repair, on Sun, 17 Sep 2017 14:46:43 -0500, philo
wrote:

On 09/17/2017 02:32 PM, micky wrote:
In rec.autos.tech, on Sun, 17 Sep 2017 19:14:48 +0000, Stormin' Norman
wrote:

On Sun, 17 Sep 2017 14:29:52 -0400, micky
wrote:

Looking to buy a car, check the VIN on carfax, and the repair history
there conflicts with the seller's story about where the car has been.

So maybe I copied the VIN wrong, probably just one digit, but the make
and model of the car that carfax reports is the same as the one I'm
looking at. Does that mean I have the right VIN?

OTOH aren't the last 6 or so digits just a sequential number from the
assembly line that makes, at least for a period of time, just one make
and model, and maybe 2 or 3 submodels?? So that would mean that I still
might have used the wrong VIN, right? If I got the last digit, or even
the next to the last, I might have the car that came off the line next,
right?

A suggestion; in the future, use your phone to take a picture of the
ID plate on the car. I have been doing this with all my equipment, so
that when I need to find a manual online, I don't have to rely on my
nearly indecipherable handwriting.

I did take pictures of it, at the seller's suggestion, but when I got
home, I couldn't find the pictures. Glad you reminded me. I'll look
again. The flash went off so a picture must have been taken, but I
always have trouble find the pictures from Android Camera.




Your story sounds fishy to me, it you took a picture why did you bother
to write it down?

Why would I possibly lie to the people here? You are too suspicious.

I'd write it down because I was born before there was photography and I
don't trust them there new-fangled idees.

Or, I'd write it down before I thought to take a picture. Or, I'd write
it down because I couldn't read the dash and didn't know it was on the
door frame. Like I say, you're too suspicious and you don't hide it by
omitting at least the first 5 words, which is insulting.

All you have to do is look in your photo gallery.

My 91 year old mother has no problem doing that, it's not even close to
being difficult.

Well, I was right to be cautious because they're not there.

On Sun, 17 Sep 2017 14:29:52 -0400, micky
wrote:

Looking to buy a car, check the VIN on carfax, and the repair history
there conflicts with the seller's story about where the car has been.

So maybe I copied the VIN wrong, probably just one digit, but the make
and model of the car that carfax reports is the same as the one I'm
looking at. Does that mean I have the right VIN?

OTOH aren't the last 6 or so digits just a sequential number from the
assembly line that makes, at least for a period of time, just one make
and model, and maybe 2 or 3 submodels?? So that would mean that I still
might have used the wrong VIN, right? If I got the last digit, or even
the next to the last, I might have the car that came off the line next,
right?

I understand the VIN is also tied to other large components of the
vehicle. As an example; the rear axle of a rental truck used in the
OKC bombing flew a long distance and landed in the street. The numbers
on the rear axle was directly to the VIN, make model and such.

Check your state laws. Can a "totaled" car, paid out by insurance, get
a legal title?

You could sell your current used car for a higher price. Houston lost
~500,000 cars flooded. Be careful out there. You could pay for never
ending electrical problems.

In alt.home.repair, on Sun, 17 Sep 2017 19:59:24 +0000, Stormin' Norman
wrote:

On Sun, 17 Sep 2017 14:55:30 -0500, philo wrote:

On 09/17/2017 02:50 PM, Stormin' Norman wrote:
On Sun, 17 Sep 2017 14:45:03 -0500, philo wrote:

My wife also suggested I take pix of the numbers in the parking ramp

Not sure what this means, would you elaborate?





If I go to an indoor parking lot, the floors and the rows are numbered,
so I take a picture.

Pretty much everything...even the pedestrian door I exit from.

Street signs outside.

Since I've been doing this, never again have I gotten lost looking for
my car and the pictures can just be deleted when I'm done


Ahhhh, good idea. Kind of like taking a picture of where you park in
the public airport lot.

It is a good idea. I'm going to start taking pictures when I go out
for the day of my house and the street sign nearby.

I couldn't find my car after a Mets game once, and had to wait until
almost everyone left to find it. The girl I was with didn't seem to
hold it against me, though.

In alt.home.repair, on Sun, 17 Sep 2017 20:14:21 +0000, Stormin' Norman
wrote:

On Sun, 17 Sep 2017 16:09:34 -0400, micky
wrote:

I'd write it down because I was born before there was photography and I
don't trust them there new-fangled idees.

You're older than me?

I guess so.

Photography has been around since the early
1800's which predates even me.

My pappy was huntin b'ars in Kaintucky then.

At least I was born before cellphone photography.

On Sun, 17 Sep 2017 15:32:10 -0400, micky
wrote:

I did take pictures of it, at the seller's suggestion, but when I got
home, I couldn't find the pictures. Glad you reminded me. I'll look
again. The flash went off so a picture must have been taken, but I
always have trouble find the pictures from Android Camera.

There is an App for that. Called Photos. I came right on your Ando
rid OS. I moved to Open Camera. So many more features.

On Sun, 17 Sep 2017 15:57:14 -0400, micky
wrote:

In rec.autos.tech, on Sun, 17 Sep 2017 15:19:59 -0400, FrozenNorth
wrote:

On 2017-09-17 2:29 PM, micky wrote:
Looking to buy a car, check the VIN on carfax, and the repair history
there conflicts with the seller's story about where the car has been.

So maybe I copied the VIN wrong, probably just one digit, but the make
and model of the car that carfax reports is the same as the one I'm
looking at. Does that mean I have the right VIN?

OTOH aren't the last 6 or so digits just a sequential number from the
assembly line that makes, at least for a period of time, just one make
and model, and maybe 2 or 3 submodels?? So that would mean that I still
might have used the wrong VIN, right? If I got the last digit, or even
the next to the last, I might have the car that came off the line next,
right?

A VIN has a check digit, which will help verify the VIN, same as your
SSN and your credit cards, not sure if carfax checks it properly though.

I've thought about check digits. If I made mistakes on two numbers, it
could defeat the check digit. But I doubt I made two mistakes.

You would have to make pretty "smart" mistakes. One digit off leaves a
1 in 11 chance the check digit would match 2 digits off reduces the
odds considerably.

see
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicl...it_calculation
to see how to check the check digit - -

Carfax pretty much has to check it becuase I'm sure it has to look at
all 17 numbers, and if it's not there, that's what it would say.


Back to my camera, the pictures are in Gallery, though how one is
supposed to know that, I don't know. I took a new picture to make sure
where they were going and I found the new one but nothing for weeks
before. And once I got a message that Gallery is not available. Plus
I've got several photos from just before those weeks where only 1/4 or
more of the screen is photo and the rest is blanks. I think maybe
there's a problem with the SD card. Phone is broken in other ways too.

I'll know if I had the VIN right by tomorrow. I could go look right
now, but somehow I can never read it off the dash, even with a
flashlight.

On Sun, 17 Sep 2017 16:05:04 -0400, micky
wrote:

In alt.home.repair, on Sun, 17 Sep 2017 15:57:33 -0400,
wrote:

On Sun, 17 Sep 2017 13:57:09 -0500, VinnyB
wrote:

On Sun, 17 Sep 2017 14:29:52 -0400, micky
wrote in

So that would mean that I still
might have used the wrong VIN, right?

Yes, I believe so.
Except the check digit would not match and you would (ormshould) get
an "invalid VIN" message. The 9th digit in the serial number will
cgange with the combination of digits in the production sequence
number. This means you need at least 2 numbers wrong - one of them
being the 9th digit, to possibly have the wrong VIN and have it valid.

Agreed, except one wouldn't have to be the 9th digit. Add one and
subtract one, or interchange 2 numbers, and it would check out.

It's not that simple. Transposing numbers WILL cause the check digit
to fail (most common problem when entering numbers)

I think the seller is "snowing" you.

Maybe. Though the car that comes up has had lots of maintenance from the
same repair shop, including new timing belt and water pump. So that
would be good. But he wants me to believe it was his daughter's car
and she lives 30 miles south of where the car was maintained. If it had
only been one event, sure, but there are 10 or 20. I saw the auction
papers in the glove box and noted the price but forgot to note the date.
It was probably last week.


30 miles and you are thinking he's not telling the truth?? I had
customers coming from 75-95 miles away to have me (or my team) service
their vehicles. When I was in Elmira, a gentleman used to bring his
'68 Firebird from Toronto for even oil changes and lightbulb
replacement because I was the only guy, after having taken it to
several Toronto dealers as well as out of town dealers - to be able to
make the car run properly for him. When I told him I was leaving the
garage where I worked he put an add in the paper to sell it the very
next day.... When I was service manager at the dealership in Waterloo
I regularly serviced cars from Toronto, London, Woodstock and all over
south-western Ontario.A good 10-15% were from more than 30 miles away.
Anyhow, it's good to understand this vin stuff for this time and future
times too.

On Sun, 17 Sep 2017 13:15:34 -0700, Oren wrote:

On Sun, 17 Sep 2017 14:29:52 -0400, micky
wrote:

Looking to buy a car, check the VIN on carfax, and the repair history
there conflicts with the seller's story about where the car has been.

So maybe I copied the VIN wrong, probably just one digit, but the make
and model of the car that carfax reports is the same as the one I'm
looking at. Does that mean I have the right VIN?

OTOH aren't the last 6 or so digits just a sequential number from the
assembly line that makes, at least for a period of time, just one make
and model, and maybe 2 or 3 submodels?? So that would mean that I still
might have used the wrong VIN, right? If I got the last digit, or even
the next to the last, I might have the car that came off the line next,
right?

I understand the VIN is also tied to other large components of the
vehicle. As an example; the rear axle of a rental truck used in the
OKC bombing flew a long distance and landed in the street. The numbers
on the rear axle was directly to the VIN, make model and such.

Check your state laws. Can a "totaled" car, paid out by insurance, get
a legal title?

You could sell your current used car for a higher price. Houston lost
~500,000 cars flooded. Be careful out there. You could pay for never
ending electrical problems.
Here in Ontario, the seller is required to produce the "sellers kit"
- dealers are not - but you can go to any Service Ontario office or
kiosk and request the "sellers information" package - at your own
expense - and it will tell you if the vehicle was ever registered
out-of-province, and the registration history of the vehicle.


A vehicle written off by insurance can be re-registered with a
"salvage" branded title - but if the write-off was out of province and
it was repaired before importation, it may not have the "branded"
title - but you WILL know it was from out of province - and quite
possiblt the last province or state it was registered in.

On Sunday, September 17, 2017 at 4:05:11 PM UTC-4, micky wrote:
In alt.home.repair, on Sun, 17 Sep 2017 15:57:33 -0400,
wrote:

On Sun, 17 Sep 2017 13:57:09 -0500, VinnyB
wrote:

On Sun, 17 Sep 2017 14:29:52 -0400, micky
wrote in

So that would mean that I still
might have used the wrong VIN, right?

Yes, I believe so.
Except the check digit would not match and you would (ormshould) get
an "invalid VIN" message. The 9th digit in the serial number will
cgange with the combination of digits in the production sequence
number. This means you need at least 2 numbers wrong - one of them
being the 9th digit, to possibly have the wrong VIN and have it valid.

Agreed, except one wouldn't have to be the 9th digit. Add one and
subtract one, or interchange 2 numbers, and it would check out.

I think the seller is "snowing" you.

Maybe. Though the car that comes up has had lots of maintenance from the
same repair shop, including new timing belt and water pump.

What do you mean by "same repair shop"? Same shop that the seller
told you has serviced the car? If that's the case, why would you
ever think the VIN number could be wrong? The chances of the same
year, same model, same everything of another car with a different
VIN being at the same shop is lottery odds.





So that
would be good. But he wants me to believe it was his daughter's car
and she lives 30 miles south of where the car was maintained. If it had
only been one event, sure, but there are 10 or 20. I saw the auction
papers in the glove box and noted the price but forgot to note the date.
It was probably last week.

Anyhow, it's good to understand this vin stuff for this time and future
times too.

On Sun, 17 Sep 2017 14:45:03 -0500, philo wrote:


My wife also suggested I take pix of the numbers in the parking ramp

There must be an App for that: Google set reminder my parking is XYZ.

Goole: Remind me where my car is. No?

So that would mean that I still
might have used the wrong VIN, right?

Yes, I believe so.

Except the check digit would not match and you would (ormshould) get
an "invalid VIN" message. The 9th digit in the serial number will
cgange with the combination of digits in the production sequence
number. This means you need at least 2 numbers wrong - one of them
being the 9th digit, to possibly have the wrong VIN and have it valid.
I think the seller is "snowing" you.


The seller has ~ all the advantages, in these situations -

1. he's a pro rip-off salesman - using your vulnerabilities
2. he knows the laws - fine details
3. he knows ALL the tricks - working your emotions
4. he has done this before - many times

You are an innocent, idiot, gullible rube - but you hold the
Trump Card - your cash - protect it.
Put all the "unbelieveably-great-deals" out of the picture -
sop up your greedy drool - and buy a good car at a fair price ..
from a respectable seller.
.. or spend about 2 years, driving all over the countryside -
test driving and haggling over poor examples of what you want.
Just my 2 copper-pennys worth.
John T.

On Sun, 17 Sep 2017 16:09:34 -0400, micky
wrote:

I'd write it down because I was born before there was photography and I
don't trust them there new-fangled idees.

Are you really sure about that??!

There are photos from the War Against the States. Ya'll call a civil
war.

In alt.home.repair, on Sun, 17 Sep 2017 16:06:50 -0400,
wrote:


Looking to buy a car, check the VIN on carfax, and the repair history
there conflicts with the seller's story about where the car has been.

So maybe I copied the VIN wrong, probably just one digit, but the make
and model of the car that carfax reports is the same as the one I'm
looking at. Does that mean I have the right VIN?

OTOH aren't the last 6 or so digits just a sequential number from the
assembly line that makes, at least for a period of time, just one make
and model, and maybe 2 or 3 submodels?? So that would mean that I still
might have used the wrong VIN, right? If I got the last digit, or even
the next to the last, I might have the car that came off the line next,
right?

A suggestion; in the future, use your phone to take a picture of the
ID plate on the car. I have been doing this with all my equipment, so
that when I need to find a manual online, I don't have to rely on my
nearly indecipherable handwriting.


Be sure to check the ownership history - a car that has been
flipped a few times in recent years is a huge red flag.

I don't know if this applies to Canada too, but I came across
mycarfax.com which is free, and it doesn't give owners names but all the
maintenance, and there was a lot of it, was done first at a dealer, then
at an auto and tire store, then one time at a car care center that used
to be a muffler shop, and then back to the dealer again, where they
replaced the crankshaft pully and balancer. That was a month ago. All
4 shops are within 2 or 3 miles of each other.

If this doesn't apply to Canada, and it might, other people might be
interested that the free version has far more information than I
expected and the piad version, that I got from a dealer on another car,
doesn't have much more, though for that one it does say "one owner".
(Now that car was a bit newer, a better color, but not as nice and 2.5
times as much money. But either way, that is not the point.)


**It says under Garage "1 of 8 cars". I've only looked up one car, and
that is all that they show in "my garage", so that must mean that one
can look up 8 cars total before they come to your house and remove your
computer.

Here in Ontario Canada - law says that, for private sale, the seller
must provide the "used car info" .. but there are tricks that the
curb-siders use to con the unwary buyer ..
https://www.ontario.ca/page/used-veh...mation-package
... not to mention what the low-life dealers do !
ps : expect a flood of Flood-Cars in months & years to come !
pps : not all insurance write-offs are all bad - if you are aware
of the reasons and get them for the proper price.
John T.

Yes, I read that 500,000 or 700,000 cars in Houston alone were flooded.
The guy who towed me home Sunday told me how a lot of tow truck drivers
were headed for Houston, though he had a wife and kid and worked all the
time as it is and he wasn't going, and when we passed the
rest/restaurant plaza, he pointed out all the trucks for home repairmen
which had stopped there. And this is Maryland, pretty far away.

He said they tow them to car carriers and the car carriers take them...
I don't know.

On 9/17/2017 4:05 PM, micky wrote:


Maybe. Though the car that comes up has had lots of maintenance from the
same repair shop, including new timing belt and water pump. So that
would be good. But he wants me to believe it was his daughter's car
and she lives 30 miles south of where the car was maintained. If it had
only been one event, sure, but there are 10 or 20. I saw the auction
papers in the glove box and noted the price but forgot to note the date.
It was probably last week.

Anyhow, it's good to understand this vin stuff for this time and future
times too.


I don't see that as a problem. If you were to check my car service
records for various cars over the past 20 years, the only places used
were 22 miles and 26 miles from my house. Maybe daddy took care of it
for her using a local to him shop.

I'm also glad to see everyone used the proper term VIN. I hate when
people call it a VIN number or an ATM machine.

In alt.home.repair, on Sun, 17 Sep 2017 15:57:14 -0400, micky
wrote:

In rec.autos.tech, on Sun, 17 Sep 2017 15:19:59 -0400, FrozenNorth
wrote:

On 2017-09-17 2:29 PM, micky wrote:
Looking to buy a car, check the VIN on carfax, and the repair history
there conflicts with the seller's story about where the car has been.

So maybe I copied the VIN wrong, probably just one digit, but the make
and model of the car that carfax reports is the same as the one I'm
looking at. Does that mean I have the right VIN?

OTOH aren't the last 6 or so digits just a sequential number from the
assembly line that makes, at least for a period of time, just one make
and model, and maybe 2 or 3 submodels?? So that would mean that I still
might have used the wrong VIN, right? If I got the last digit, or even
the next to the last, I might have the car that came off the line next,
right?

A VIN has a check digit, which will help verify the VIN, same as your
SSN and your credit cards, not sure if carfax checks it properly though.

I've thought about check digits. If I made mistakes on two numbers, it
could defeat the check digit. But I doubt I made two mistakes.

Okay, I went back to look at the car again. It's only 0.7 miles away.
That's by chance but it's good because I've been there 5 times.

And I had the number right, and not only that, it doesn't have plates
but on the front is a dealer advertising "plate" that names the dealer
where carfax says the owner had his early and late work done. (I think
he had his warranty work done there, the later work at a tire store, and
when he traded it in, he went back to the same dealer. They changed the
pully and balancer and auctioned it, around a month ago, and the guy I'm
dealing with has had it on craigslist for a little over 2 weeks.

So he's lying, but I can tolerate a little bit of lying, esp. since it's
hard to avoid. Today he said explicitly that drving to Virginia means
mostly highway driving, and he's also told me the belt and pump were
just replaced, when actually I'll need another one in 2 or 3 years.
After the deal is finished, I'll ask him if he's sure he did the belt
and pump on this car, or maybe he's thinking of another car, and maybe
he'll set me straight. I'll point out that if I wait too long, the belt
will break and the car will be in trouble, and I don't think he's
malicious, only looking for a sale. I'll try to report back.

And the town isn't 30 miles from here, it's 68, and where it is, much,
maybe most of the driving probably was highway after all, though the
seller doesn't know one way or the other. Anyhow, the car looks
beautiful, better than the more expensive ones I saw.


Carfax pretty much has to check it becuase I'm sure it has to look at
all 17 numbers, and if it's not there, that's what it would say.


Back to my camera, the pictures are in Gallery, though how one is
supposed to know that, I don't know. I took a new picture to make sure
where they were going and I found the new one but nothing for weeks
before. And once I got a message that Gallery is not available. Plus
I've got several photos from just before those weeks where only 1/4 or
more of the screen is photo and the rest is blanks. I think maybe
there's a problem with the SD card. Phone is broken in other ways too.

I'll know if I had the VIN right by tomorrow. I could go look right
now, but somehow I can never read it off the dash, even with a
flashlight.

I had the right vin. It's the story that's false. Can't have
everything.

In alt.home.repair, on Sun, 17 Sep 2017 16:38:17 -0400,
wrote:

On Sun, 17 Sep 2017 16:05:04 -0400, micky
wrote:

In alt.home.repair, on Sun, 17 Sep 2017 15:57:33 -0400,
wrote:

On Sun, 17 Sep 2017 13:57:09 -0500, VinnyB
wrote:

On Sun, 17 Sep 2017 14:29:52 -0400, micky
wrote in

So that would mean that I still
might have used the wrong VIN, right?

Yes, I believe so.
Except the check digit would not match and you would (ormshould) get
an "invalid VIN" message. The 9th digit in the serial number will
cgange with the combination of digits in the production sequence
number. This means you need at least 2 numbers wrong - one of them
being the 9th digit, to possibly have the wrong VIN and have it valid.

Agreed, except one wouldn't have to be the 9th digit. Add one and
subtract one, or interchange 2 numbers, and it would check out.

It's not that simple. Transposing numbers WILL cause the check digit

Okay, if you say so, but as you say, it is possible by making to
mistakes to have the wrong thing and still pass.

to fail (most common problem when entering numbers)

I think the seller is "snowing" you.

Maybe. Though the car that comes up has had lots of maintenance from the
same repair shop, including new timing belt and water pump. So that
would be good. But he wants me to believe it was his daughter's car
and she lives 30 miles south of where the car was maintained. If it had
only been one event, sure, but there are 10 or 20. I saw the auction
papers in the glove box and noted the price but forgot to note the date.
It was probably last week.


30 miles and you are thinking he's not telling the truth?? I had
customers coming from 75-95 miles away to have me (or my team) service
their vehicles. When I was in Elmira, a gentleman used to bring his

It depends on where people are coming from and to. In this case, he
tells me she livs and home and commutes to Va. The town where the car
actually resided is 30 (I thought. Actually 68) miles in the opposite
direction. There are plenty of places around here to get the car fixed
and no one is going to go 30 miles to find someplace better. And it's
not even one favorite place. It's 3 different places over the years.

Or she could get it fixed in Va. where she's been going to school. He
says she doesn't drive during the week, so that's a perfect time to have
the car fixed. Not to drive 100 miles north.

'68 Firebird from Toronto for even oil changes and lightbulb
replacement because I was the only guy, after having taken it to
several Toronto dealers as well as out of town dealers - to be able to
make the car run properly for him. When I told him I was leaving the
garage where I worked he put an add in the paper to sell it the very
next day.... When I was service manager at the dealership in Waterloo
I regularly serviced cars from Toronto, London, Woodstock and all over
south-western Ontario.A good 10-15% were from more than 30 miles away.

I knew more about this situation than you did when I reached my
conclusions.

Anyhow, it's good to understand this vin stuff for this time and future
times too.

In alt.home.repair, on Sun, 17 Sep 2017 13:48:24 -0700 (PDT), trader_4
wrote:

On Sunday, September 17, 2017 at 4:05:11 PM UTC-4, micky wrote:
In alt.home.repair, on Sun, 17 Sep 2017 15:57:33 -0400,
wrote:

On Sun, 17 Sep 2017 13:57:09 -0500, VinnyB
wrote:

On Sun, 17 Sep 2017 14:29:52 -0400, micky
wrote in

So that would mean that I still
might have used the wrong VIN, right?

Yes, I believe so.
Except the check digit would not match and you would (ormshould) get
an "invalid VIN" message. The 9th digit in the serial number will
cgange with the combination of digits in the production sequence
number. This means you need at least 2 numbers wrong - one of them
being the 9th digit, to possibly have the wrong VIN and have it valid.

Agreed, except one wouldn't have to be the 9th digit. Add one and
subtract one, or interchange 2 numbers, and it would check out.

I think the seller is "snowing" you.

Maybe. Though the car that comes up has had lots of maintenance from the
same repair shop, including new timing belt and water pump.

What do you mean by "same repair shop"? Same shop that the seller
told you has serviced the car?

No. He didnt' tell me any shops.

I mean that year after year they went to the same shop. Actually a
dealer. Then they changed to an "auto and tire" store and went there
year after year, (and when they were ready to sell, I think they traded
it in at that first dealer.)

If that's the case, why would you
ever think the VIN number could be wrong? The chances of the same

Because the stories didn't match and there is almost** always a
possibility that someone is telling the truth.

**We won't get into that here. There are enough other threads.

year, same model, same everything of another car with a different
VIN being at the same shop is lottery odds.

You didn't like my theory that vin numbers might be assigned
consecutively in a given plant that turns out basically the same car for
hours or days at a time?





So that
would be good. But he wants me to believe it was his daughter's car
and she lives 30 miles south of where the car was maintained. If it had

68 miles.

only been one event, sure, but there are 10 or 20. I saw the auction
papers in the glove box and noted the price but forgot to note the date.
It was probably last week.

Anyhow, it's good to understand this vin stuff for this time and future
times too.

In alt.home.repair, on Sun, 17 Sep 2017 17:13:06 -0400, Ed Pawlowski
wrote:

On 9/17/2017 4:05 PM, micky wrote:


Maybe. Though the car that comes up has had lots of maintenance from the
same repair shop, including new timing belt and water pump. So that
would be good. But he wants me to believe it was his daughter's car
and she lives 30 miles south of where the car was maintained. If it had
only been one event, sure, but there are 10 or 20. I saw the auction
papers in the glove box and noted the price but forgot to note the date.
It was probably last week.

Anyhow, it's good to understand this vin stuff for this time and future
times too.


I don't see that as a problem. If you were to check my car service
records for various cars over the past 20 years, the only places used
were 22 miles and 26 miles from my house. Maybe daddy took care of it
for her using a local to him shop.

But he lives right here too, and that I knew already. I didn't know
how old she was or if she was still living at home, but he said today
that she is, when she's not at college.

I'm also glad to see everyone used the proper term VIN. I hate when
people call it a VIN number or an ATM machine.

I see your point. I'm glad you're glad.

On 9/17/2017 5:12 PM, micky wrote:

If this doesn't apply to Canada, and it might, other people might be
interested that the free version has far more information than I
expected and the piad version, that I got from a dealer on another car,
doesn't have much more, though for that one it does say "one owner".
(Now that car was a bit newer, a better color, but not as nice and 2.5
times as much money. But either way, that is not the point.)


**It says under Garage "1 of 8 cars". I've only looked up one car, and
that is all that they show in "my garage", so that must mean that one
can look up 8 cars total before they come to your house and remove your
computer.



I just tried it and put my car in. It shows registration and emissions
due dates, but no service at all. Only one oil change and tires was not
done by the dealer so I guess they do not all participate.

In alt.home.repair, on Sun, 17 Sep 2017 20:23:11 +0000, Stormin' Norman
wrote:

On Sun, 17 Sep 2017 16:18:14 -0400, micky
wrote:

At least I was born before cellphone photography.

So what, you're in your 40's?

70's. Born before it, not after it.

In alt.home.repair, on Sun, 17 Sep 2017 13:29:24 -0700, Oren
wrote:

On Sun, 17 Sep 2017 15:32:10 -0400, micky
wrote:

I did take pictures of it, at the seller's suggestion, but when I got
home, I couldn't find the pictures. Glad you reminded me. I'll look
again. The flash went off so a picture must have been taken, but I
always have trouble find the pictures from Android Camera.

There is an App for that. Called Photos. I came right on your Ando
rid OS. I moved to Open Camera. So many more features.

Sounds good. I'll look into it. Current phone broken in 2 or more ways
but new phone with more space arriving within a month.

Though I usually use a camera when I plan to take photos.

On 09/17/2017 02:59 PM, Stormin' Norman wrote:
On Sun, 17 Sep 2017 14:55:30 -0500, philo wrote:

On 09/17/2017 02:50 PM, Stormin' Norman wrote:
On Sun, 17 Sep 2017 14:45:03 -0500, philo wrote:

My wife also suggested I take pix of the numbers in the parking ramp

Not sure what this means, would you elaborate?





If I go to an indoor parking lot, the floors and the rows are numbered,
so I take a picture.

Pretty much everything...even the pedestrian door I exit from.

Street signs outside.

Since I've been doing this, never again have I gotten lost looking for
my car and the pictures can just be deleted when I'm done


Ahhhh, good idea. Kind of like taking a picture of where you park in
the public airport lot.





Yep.

Would have saved me a major problem once when I memorized where my car
was with regard to the door but on return could not find it because a
took a /different/ door!

On 09/17/2017 03:15 PM, micky wrote:
In alt.home.repair, on Sun, 17 Sep 2017 19:59:24 +0000, Stormin' Norman
wrote:

On Sun, 17 Sep 2017 14:55:30 -0500, philo wrote:

On 09/17/2017 02:50 PM, Stormin' Norman wrote:
On Sun, 17 Sep 2017 14:45:03 -0500, philo wrote:

My wife also suggested I take pix of the numbers in the parking ramp

Not sure what this means, would you elaborate?





If I go to an indoor parking lot, the floors and the rows are numbered,
so I take a picture.

Pretty much everything...even the pedestrian door I exit from.

Street signs outside.

Since I've been doing this, never again have I gotten lost looking for
my car and the pictures can just be deleted when I'm done


Ahhhh, good idea. Kind of like taking a picture of where you park in
the public airport lot.

It is a good idea. I'm going to start taking pictures when I go out
for the day of my house and the street sign nearby.

I couldn't find my car after a Mets game once, and had to wait until
almost everyone left to find it. The girl I was with didn't seem to
hold it against me, though.




Yeah I'm like that too.

Good thing my wife knows where we are 98% of the time

On 09/17/2017 03:51 PM, Oren wrote:
On Sun, 17 Sep 2017 14:45:03 -0500, philo wrote:


My wife also suggested I take pix of the numbers in the parking ramp

There must be an App for that: Google set reminder my parking is XYZ.

Goole: Remind me where my car is. No?




Never tired it but I suspect it might not work in an underground lot.
Some of the ones I use are several stories underground

On 09/17/2017 01:10 PM, Stormin' Norman wrote:
On Sun, 17 Sep 2017 16:06:07 -0400, micky
wrote:

In alt.home.repair, on Sun, 17 Sep 2017 19:45:36 +0000, Stormin' Norman
wrote:

You can also log into Google Photos from your computer, your images
should be automatically backed up to the Google account associated
with the phone.

That's scarey. I have to check it out some day.

I think it is great, it allows one to delete pictures from your device
to free up space and still have the pictures available.

I can't remember if it happens automatically or if you need to first
enable the feature on the phone.

I think it happens automatically -- I would never have wanted to do this
because I only upload edited photos that I actually want to upload.
Since I don't have a data plan, it must wait until I'm logged in to my
home wifi. I don't like this, and I suppose I could defeat it, but I
don't care that much.

I transfer my photos from the phone to my computer by FTP. It works
wirelessly, but photos would frequently be damaged in transit (only half
of a photo went through, strange colors, other aberrations); never
happens if I do the same thing but plugged in via USB.

Micky, you might try reformatting your sdcard in the phone. Sometimes
**** happens for no reason at all.


--
Cheers, Bev
The stone age didn't end for lack of stones.
-- Troy the Troll