Hi all,
We went to look at a 2015 Pathfinder SV tonight at Shift's warehouse. If you are unfamiliar with Shift, they are a tech company that buys and sells vehicles using various online means, including bringing the vehicle to to your home for a test drive and having the ability to provide close the whole sale on the spot using a iPad. In my case I was too excited to wait to see it so I drove up to where the vehicle was stored to take a look.
Anyway, once we got there and the brought the vehicle out, the first thing I happened to notice was the the VIN under the glass had significant scratches on it. That was really weird considering the metal VIN plate is typically sealed off from access (unless of course you remove the windshield for some reason.
Further inspection of the door jambs (where the front driver and passenger side doors are hinged to the vehicle) revealed a weird foam like substance that looked like it had expanded and burned.
A brief history of the vehicle: it was a rental car in Hawaii that was shipped to California and sold at auction, presumably to Shift.com. The Carfax revealed a spotless history, but in my experience, Carfax is often inaccurate.
Needless to say, we didn't buy the car and I was a little miffed for having driver 45 minutes up to South San Francisco only to see significant problems with the car. Sure, it was my decision to drive there, but Shift.com supposedly documents all cosmetic damage on their website for the sake of transparency and conducts a "200 point" check of the car for problems. There is no way anyone could have missed the issues we found. Had those images been posted, I never would have wasted my time.
When I came home, I checked the vehicle's history in a second source I have access to called a CLUE report. (This is a report that insurance carriers use to verify driver and vehicle accident history and is far more accurate that Carfax). The CLUE report indicated the car had been involved in an accident in May of 2015, that nothing had yet been paid, and the claim was in subrogation.
So, sorry for the long post, but it was all very weird and I am posting here to get your thoughts on what might have caused the VIN to be partially scratched and what would cause that weird foam to be in the door jambs. Is it normal for a 2015 Pathfinder to have large, bulbous black foam in that area? I have pics I can send. I am new here and don't see an option to upload images.
Thanks for reading.