Always do your homework. TikTok creator Danny Hampton spent over $500 flying from Florida to Virginia for a rare Audi TT RS.
The hype and legend around the Audi TT RS cannot be understated. In terms of bang for buck, it’s one of the best performance cars in its price range — the swift 7-speed dual-clutch transmission and quattro system mean that no matter where you are, and whatever the weather, you’ll get the best performance possible. Sometimes even a simple issue with tires means a performance car won’t give you the promised stats advertised. So it’s not surprising that when Hampton saw an opportunity to own a baby blue Audi TT RS, he put everything on hold to go check out the car.
However, Hampton might have benefitted from doing a little due diligence before he actually followed through on traveling to see the car. It only occurred to him to check the Carfax of the Audi once he had already landed in Virginia.
Maybe it was the $40 deal that made Hampton hesitate to check the Carfax before he traveled, maybe it was something else. But the rule remains: always expect salespeople to do all they can to make a sale. That’s when Hampton found out that the salesperson was lying about certain things. For instance, the car had five previous owners and was from Canada. It also had hail damage that was not reported.
Moreover, when he checked out the seller on various review apps it was all 1-star ratings and warnings from people who said that this is not someone you can trust. But Hampton was already in Virginia and figured he might as well go look at the car itself. And what he found was even worse than what Carfax could reveal: chipped paint, bad fixes, and some wobbly parts.
Everyone in the comment section told Hampton that the biggest mistake he made was making the trip without checking Carfax. It’s undeniable now that you should believe the stats over what someone has to say — after all, the entire reason such tools exist is to protect buyers.
It’s now a very common talking point in the auto industry: buyers are not checking vehicle history only to get burnt when it’s time to finalize the transaction. Experts at Motor1 recommend at least doing one vehicle history report before the transaction.
And Carfax is not the end-all, be-all. CarGurus can also be used, which will connect buyers and sellers across the country — but it’s not linked to Carfax, which means there will be no accident reports, although you can still start a conversation and ask for very recent pictures. It’s easy to spot red flags from that alone, because odds are someone cagey is trying to hide something.
There’s also AutoCheck which can offer the same services as Carfax. The point remains that whenever you do a business deal with thousands of dollars on the line, you need to know exactly what you’re buying. Because a seller always knows exactly what they’re selling.
