Gilberto Auto Imports and Auto Prestamo Financing

TeacherAshley

New member
Apr 25, 2011
2
0
0
I am looking into buying a car and found one listed on supercarros.com. It is being sold through Gilberto Auto Imports in Santo Domingo and can be financed through a company Auto Prestamo. Does anyone know anything about either of these companies? Everyone has told me to be ware of people trying to rip me off as I am an American and a woman, so I am trying to do my homework on this before I go in. Any information would be helpful. Thank you!!

Also - can anyone explain how car insurance works here? I have heard that it is done in one yearly payment, is this true? Again, any insight/suggestions would be great.
 

Hillbilly

Moderator
Jan 1, 2002
18,948
514
113
I would stay away from anything like this. Interest rates, sneaky contracts and rolled back odometers.
If you are anyplace outside of Santo Domingo, try Espaillat Motors, go slow, and check out the cars.

HB, sorry I just do't trust anyone in that business....
 
Feb 7, 2007
8,005
625
113
Carfax is your friend. Unlimited costs I think 19.95, so that is your best bet. Check VIN. Do not tell them what you are doing, just write down VIN and odometer reading. Then check Carfax. If the car came from USA (as most do) it should be in there. When it's exported, final odometer reading is listed in Carfax. Compare the export date to current date and then-odometer reading to now-odometer reading. Check for any lemon claims, recalls, etc. plus floods, salvage etc. Also you do not want a rental car. Auctions are OK if the vehicle is in good conditions. Jewels are hard to find, but they are there.
 

william webster

Platinum
Jan 16, 2009
30,247
4,329
113
The odometer rollbacks are usually pretty simple, I'm told..... they just roll off the first digit, so 140,000 miles becomes 40,000.

WW
 

zoomzx11

Gold
Jan 21, 2006
8,367
842
113
Car Fax is about $35 US and it will tell you the miles when the car was last in the US. You buy the Car Fax online. Soon asa used care enters the DR its rolled back. Plus they are experts at making old dogs look like new. Most of the cars on the used car lots are bought at auction in the US and are high mileage. You will be safer buying from an private individual. The used car sellers in the DR are very very slick. Be careful. Good idea to stick with Toyota here for ease of repair and parts availability.
 

Expat13

Silver
Jun 7, 2008
3,255
50
48
Unless the vehicle has a digital odometer. Digital odometers are supposedly tamper proof.

FYI, I have looked at 4 2012 used KIA in the used car dealers in SD. "All with digital odometers" They all looked rather clean and in good shape and reasonable mileage anywhere from 20,000to 38,000km/miles. Then after doing "carfax" on all of them! Surprise! they all came from USA and mileage were all tampered with, triple the real. One that said 29,000 actually had 118,000 miles.
 

AlterEgo

Administrator
Staff member
Jan 9, 2009
23,097
6,247
113
South Coast
FYI, I have looked at 4 2012 used KIA in the used car dealers in SD. "All with digital odometers" They all looked rather clean and in good shape and reasonable mileage anywhere from 20,000to 38,000km/miles. Then after doing "carfax" on all of them! Surprise! they all came from USA and mileage were all tampered with, triple the real. One that said 29,000 actually had 118,000 miles.

Wow. Wow to the rollback, and wow to how a person could rack up 118,000 miles on a 2012 Kia.

It's the reason we're going through the hassle of shipping our own car down.
 

Criss Colon

Platinum
Jan 2, 2002
21,843
191
0
38
yahoomail.com
I looked a 5 Toyota Corollas.
Each had about 80,000 miles on the digital odometer.
They looked fantastic!
Then I spotted the "Jiffy Lube" sticker on the windshield.
It said, "Next Oil Change due in 3 months, or at 311 thousand miles!
Dominicans can "Fudge" anything, if there is a "Peso" to be gained.
CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
 
Dec 26, 2011
8,071
0
0
I looked a 5 Toyota Corollas.
Each had about 80,000 miles on the digital odometer.
They looked fantastic!
Then I spotted the "Jiffy Lube" sticker on the windshield.
It said, "Next Oil Change due in 3 months, or at 311 thousand miles!
Dominicans can "Fudge" anything, if there is a "Peso" to be gained.
CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

They would tell you the guy at Jiffy Lube put the wrong sticker on the windshield.
 

Expat13

Silver
Jun 7, 2008
3,255
50
48
I confronted two of the 4 with my findings of mileage tampering, they were not fazed and no denying it. One said almost all used cars here get the same "mileage reduction" this is why the mileage doesn't matter when buying a used car in the DR. It only matters how good it looks and the interior. With a culture that is so accepting of lying and theft its a no brainer to commit this type of fraud!
Maybe this Caribbean air gives the motor a new life.
 

the gorgon

Platinum
Sep 16, 2010
33,997
83
0
I confronted two of the 4 with my findings of mileage tampering, they were not fazed and no denying it. One said almost all used cars here get the same "mileage reduction" this is why the mileage doesn't matter when buying a used car in the DR. It only matters how good it looks and the interior. With a culture that is so accepting of lying and theft its a no brainer to commit this type of fraud!
Maybe this Caribbean air gives the motor a new life.

any computer geek with a laptop can roll an odometer back.
 
Sep 4, 2012
5,931
57
48
Carfax is your friend. Unlimited costs I think 19.95, so that is your best bet. Check VIN. Do not tell them what you are doing, just write down VIN and odometer reading. Then check Carfax. If the car came from USA (as most do) it should be in there. When it's exported, final odometer reading is listed in Carfax. Compare the export date to current date and then-odometer reading to now-odometer reading. Check for any lemon claims, recalls, etc. plus floods, salvage etc. Also you do not want a rental car. Auctions are OK if the vehicle is in good conditions. Jewels are hard to find, but they are there.

Carfax is a good starting point, however; take it with a grain of salt and use at your discretion. Many vehicles have zero Carfax history, yet have been in accidents and incidents that were never reported. Just don't rely solely on a Carfax report.
 
Sep 4, 2012
5,931
57
48
I confronted two of the 4 with my findings of mileage tampering, they were not fazed and no denying it. One said almost all used cars here get the same "mileage reduction" this is why the mileage doesn't matter when buying a used car in the DR. It only matters how good it looks and the interior. With a culture that is so accepting of lying and theft its a no brainer to commit this type of fraud!
Maybe this Caribbean air gives the motor a new life.

Agree but the main reason why mileages is not a show stopper in the DR is because as long as the body, interior and main suspension components are somehow ok, any other major repairs is comparatively cheap due to the labor. The opposite of the USA for a change.
 

the gorgon

Platinum
Sep 16, 2010
33,997
83
0
Carfax is a good starting point, however; take it with a grain of salt and use at your discretion. Many vehicles have zero Carfax history, yet have been in accidents and incidents that were never reported. Just don't rely solely on a Carfax report.

Carfax cannot give you accident history if you self insure, but you can get mileage history, since it is recorded annually by the inspection certificate.
 

chrisrose97

Member
May 2, 2010
302
11
18
Look around a lot, if something seems to good to be true, it probably is! Use Carfax as a tool to get a feel for the cars history, and it would say if it was to be exported with the number of miles at the moment of export. I was looking into bringing a car from Miami, and using whatever law was the cheapest to bring it in, but there's always a catch and you never know what can go missing with a car or how much they will charge you. I finally bought at Velozmovil in Santiago whom I know for a long time. They had just brought cars in, as they do frequently. I checked the cars out(I had two prospects, a '08 Accord and a '10 Camry, drove them and then looked them up on CARFAX. The better one was the Camry and was even cheaper. Carfax confirmed it was just exported with the matching number of miles. Toyotas are the way to go in DR. Good luck!
 
Jan 9, 2004
10,897
2,224
113
No kidding. That's like 300+ miles a day!!

Those are dream cars for exporters, high mileage newer cars. US dealers do not want them due to high mileage....so the exporters buy them cheap, export them and roll back the odometer.

Rolling back odometers is so easy. With the right equipment (easily bought online) it is almost childs play;

Odometer-Rollback-Odometer-Fraud-Mileage-reset-Mileage-Correction. PHONE: 01149-176-53322224 - YouTube



Respectfully,
Playacaribe2
 

Expat13

Silver
Jun 7, 2008
3,255
50
48
Those are dream cars for exporters, high mileage newer cars. US dealers do not want them due to high mileage....so the exporters buy them cheap, export them and roll back the odometer.

Rolling back odometers is so easy. With the right equipment (easily bought online) it is almost childs play;

Odometer-Rollback-Odometer-Fraud-Mileage-reset-Mileage-Correction. PHONE: 01149-176-53322224 - YouTube



Respectfully,
Playacaribe2

Yes, this scary when you could easily pay many thousands above and beyond the normal DR high prices as is so easy to do a mileage rollback, and what Dominican dealer wont do it for a slightly used car. None!!! The question is there a way to check to see if the mileage is correct??? Carfax seems only to work on USA or EURO imports. What about a KIA or Hyundai that has come from Korea new to Viamar and then sold later on? I am looking at one that doesn't show in Carfax, the dealer says because came new thru the legal KIA dealer here Grupo Viamar. Of course rarely does anyone have their past maintenance records and most little shops don't issue an invoice with mileage on it either, just the sticker on your W/S. How does one checkout one of these?