Tsurugi

Hey there,

I'm looking to purchase an RX-8 and have thoroughly read through this forum as looking up other information on the car. I went to this dealership that was selling a 2005 silver RX-8 (98k miles) for $6,900. The car is in good condition (only a few cosmetic blemishes), as well as everything being in working order (minus the oil pan needing to be replaced due to leaking) since I had it checked out by a family member who is a mechanic.

When I arrived, they easily offered up the printed CarFax report which states the car only had one owner, and other than that, it doesn't seem to have much information on it. It's odd, going through the reported history, because the car started out in New Mexico, never had the mileage reported other than when it was first purchased, until it was randomly brought to Virginia 4 years later, where the miles were then registered at 40,166. From then on, the miles were updates as normal until June 29th, 2015, where it was left off at 98,258.

Now, all of this would seem fine and not too sketchy, if only the VIN number on the car itself didn't say the car was a Shinka edition car. I've read quite a bit into Shinkas and know that the 2005 Shinkas only came in Black Cherry (which this car is not). It was only in 2006 that they began releasing Shinkas in varying colors. Also, this car has none of the cosmetic add-ons that a Shinka should have, such as the colored steering wheel stitching, parchment leather seats in light beige, Bose sound system, heated mirrors/seats, power sunroof, power driver's seat, etc. I'm not sure about what's under the hood (Shinka-wise), but I'm going to have my mechanic pull up the service records under the VIN number provided and see if anything clashes.

Basically, I was just wondering what your guys' take on this whole situation was. I do want the car, a lot. It's very difficult to find a working and in-good-condition RX-8 for a decent price because of how people don't know how to treat/run the car. If it turns out that this is a fake VIN added to the car from a possibly totalled Shinka, is this something that I could (or should) haggle with for a lower price? This guy is very stubborn on lowering his price (would only offer $400 less), but having an incorrect VIN is pretty bad. In one instance, I can see it making him lower the price, since it does lower the value of the car.. But on the other hand, I don't think many people would look this far into the CarFax and the VIN number. I could see people seeing a clean CarFax record and just wanting the car, so there'd be no reason for him to lower the price for me.

Is this even something that could be a reportable offence? That they're selling cars with incorrect VIN numbers? On their Yelp account, there was another account where someone was looking for a car from them and was shown another clean CarFax record with, again, only one owner. They ended up purchasing it and a year or so later, they got into an accident and reported it to CarFax. Upon looking at the new CarFax for their car, they discovered that the one they had been given was fake/incorrect and the car they had had actually been in numerous accidents, etc.

Again, I'm just trying to get a feel for what I should do. I really need a car and I really want an RX-8. I feel like this is a decent price for the area I'm in (Northern Virginia) and although the VIN may be incorrect, it's still in good, working condition. What do you think I should do?

Thanks so much, guys.