We’ve covered before how people have bought cars they didn’t realize were stolen. Some people think buying from a dealership with a reputation, like Carvana, will protect against that sort of thing. But we’ve seen such places sell stolen rides to customers and it’s happened again, this time with a Camaro in Florida.
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The Polk County Sheriff’s Office confiscated the stolen 2018 Chevy Camaro ZL1 which had been purchased by a guy from Carvana 17 months ago. Imagine having a muscle car like that, which wasn’t cheap at all, making payments on it for almost a year and a half, then one day the sheriff’s department shows up and just takes it.
We would be so upset, but as the victim in this case, Roger Johnston, told WFLA the situation has put him in a financial tailspin. He told the local news station he agreed to a sales price of almost $74,000 for the ZL1, lovingly caring for the muscle car and rarely driving it, only accumulating 1,000 miles during that 17-month period.
Probably because prices are insane, the guy decided to sell the Camaro ZL1 recently. When he took it to another dealership which was possibly interested in purchasing it, that’s when the trouble began. Inspecting the Chevy, that dealer quickly saw the VIN stamped on the hood didn’t match the one in the driver’s doorjamb and on the dash, a telltale sign you’re dealing with a cloned vehicle.
Sure enough, running the correct VIN showed the Camaro ZL1 had been reported stolen out of Texas in July 2022. That was just six months before Johnston bought the muscle car.
How did Carvana miss such a thing? That’s the big question we can’t answer. Carvana apparently won’t do anything until there’s a report from the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, which says since the investigation is new it doesn’t have one yet. In the meantime, Johnston is expected to keep making payments on a stolen vehicle he no longer has.
Since vehicle cloning has become rather common lately, we suggest looking up where all the VINs are located on a ride you’ve just bought and checking them all to see if they match. If not, take the car back to the dealer and let police know what happened.
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