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Swapped VIN Numbers or Really Lucky Coincidence

15Pony

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Well this seems a little fishy. Last spring my '15 V6 was declared totaled after a storm. A tree fell on the left rear quarter, damage estimate was $14k which was basically for all sheetmetal on the left side from pillar to trunk. I always wondered what happened to it after the auction. mycarfax.com does not show anything after it was sold.

Well the other day I happened across a listing for the same model, trim, and color at a buy here pay here place about 80 miles away. So of course I looked at the listing. Identical car but different VIN number. Well they had some pictures posted and I was pretty shocked at a couple of them. I always record my odometer when I buy gas & reset the trip meter (I have the records stored in a database to track my expenses and mpg, its just habit). One of the pictures showed the odometer screen: 40,618 miles and 5,879 on the trip. That means it was reset at 34,739. The last gas purchase I made before I took it to the body shop was 34,739! I did not know it would be totaled when I put that gas in so I recorded it as normal; the shop had previously told me they could fix it so I fully expected to get it back. Also they had a picture of the key fob which has a piece of the silver strip missing. Well I remember that my key fob had the same piece of silver missing! Sadly the listing says "sold" though its still on their site, otherwise I would have gone to take a look at it.

To me it appears that they swapped the VIN number! That's very illegal if they did. The history on the other Mustang seems a bit odd according to mycarfax.com. Its from McAllen, Texas and was serviced at a Ford dealer there 3 times between June and August last year with only around 200 miles put on in 3 months and only 3,000 miles on it since. It had a Texas registration in 2016 but nothing since and no record of it being offered for sale.

If it really is a different car then its a hell of a coincidence that two identical Mustangs from different states can reset their trip meters at the exact same mileage! What do you guys think - kind of weird huh? I think its possible to swap VINs if you swap the ECM & BCM but where would the "good" VIN come from? It had to be an identical model without a branded title and no negative history. That's not too common in a junkyard for a 3 year old car. I was thinking since McAllen is down the street from Mexico there was some funny business going on with exporting the other car but I don't know. It sure seems fishy to me!!
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DukeGaGa

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I think it's kind of normal for lazy people to just use someone else's pictures instead of going out and take their own if they can find something that'll do the job of demonstrating what is what in a car, and I can totally see that is the case here: some dude said "go take a few pics and we'll post it on the website for sale", the other dude said "yeah", but instead of actually taking the pics of the car, he just re-used some old photos he had because everything on the car is identical.
 

ahl395

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Wow, that's crazy if so. Too bad it wasn't at the dealer to take a look at it and confirm
 
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15Pony

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Well if they were lazy then that would mean they would have had an exact duplicate of this car - ruby red with foundry wheels and Eagle F1 tires and no mods. That would be an incredible coincidence too!

Another thing was you know how the S550 has a Flat Rock logo sticker in the corner of the driver's quarter window....well in the damage my glass was broken so would have been replaced so it would not have that sticker - and this one does not.
 

DukeGaGa

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Well if they were lazy then that would mean they would have had an exact duplicate of this car - ruby red with foundry wheels and Eagle F1 tires and no mods. That would be an incredible coincidence too!

Another thing was you know how the S550 has a Flat Rock logo sticker in the corner of the driver's quarter window....well in the damage my glass was broken so would have been replaced so it would not have that sticker - and this one does not.
Who said anything about the photos are theirs... if it's on the internet, it's available for everyone, they could have just taken it off another website and used it, which is way way easier than swapping a VIN.
 
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15Pony

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Well, they did post a picture on their facebook page of the person who bought it standing next to it, and the car was in the same position as when they took the photos of it. With the name of their building in the background.
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