Used Car Scam?

I recently purchased a 1995 Camry from a person on a forum. I test drove it, looked at the VINs, and everything checked out.

However, after I purchased it, I realised that the car required three keys... one for the left front door, one for the right front door, and one for the ignition. This leads me to believe that the doors were changed (as was the back trunk lid). However, the VIN sticker on the door is legit, and was stickered with a certification sticker. Also, a VIN lookup on the car indicates that it was never in an accident. Has anyone ever heard of something like this?

maybe they changed the locks?

i have 2 hondas with broken locks..only driver side works.. if that stops working, i'll be forced to change that

It can be many things. I know when I had my old Ford, the lock cylinder needed replacing and to get it to 1 key, required me to replace 4 locks (driver door, passenger door, ignition, and trunk). The costs of locks on an old car may not be cost effective. You would have to look at the doors carefully if the color, hindges, and paint codes all seem to match before accusing the seller of any wrongdoing. Also, by law, if the car is in an accident, it must be disclosed to the buyer. A good idea is to get in writing from the buyer that there are no liens, incumbrances, oweing on the vehicle and the vehicle has not been involved in an accident by him and has no knowledge or should have no knowledge that the car was ever in an accident.

Personally, if the seller does not agree to this, I walk away.

Originally Posted by GreenTeaKitKat

Also, a VIN lookup on the car indicates that it was never in an accident.

Where did you look it up? Carfax, Carproof, etc. often omit accident information. I've found that the best source of accident data is the Carproof Claims report.

vin lookup was done using an insurance company's VIN lookup. I don't know how reliable that is...

could be that only some of the locks were changed. Another question I have is how hard is it to install keyless entry? I'd be nice if i could unlock the doors with a remote instead of having to try keys endlessly.

The lock could have broken easily and was just replaced without repositioning the pins inside the lock to match the original key.

My mom's old Corolla had a different key for the trunk and doors because the lock broke on the trunk.

OK.. being a former 94 Camry owner I had the ignition lock break on me while I was out at a friend's house.

Toyota didn't want to rekey the tumblers on a new ignition lock (strange enough Nissan would do it for my brother's car), instead they wanted us to replace ALL the locks. so that's 4 locks.... Driver, passenger, ignition & trunk.... bottom line... screw that...

What probably happened was that the locks could have broke during the lifespan of the car.. instead of paying to replace all 4... they just get the locks salvaged from other cars... hence multiple keys...

Could have been in an accident, or a chop shop car...hopefully it's just lock changes, though.

'Also, by law, if the car is in an accident, it must be disclosed to the buyer'

Only true if you buy from a dealer, private sellers have no such disclosure rules.

I have a 92 Camry at home, the locks sometimes die, but if you open the door panel and remove the pwr lock console and clean it up in the inside, it should be up and running again. Or else you'd have to replace them. If your car is manual locks, then it could have been broken due to rust or failure. Imagine how many times you'd have to unlock the door, compound that with winter and summer conditions. The extreme heat that your car has to endure. If the car was stored in a garage, then it will last longer, if not, too bad.