Imported car to Sweden identified as possible death trap – so car buyers watch out

Friday, 16 August 2013
Want to buy a used car in Sweden or from Sweden watch out that the car is originally first registered in Sweden for many cars imported into the country through the say the Balkans have been identified as possible death trap.

Close to 10,000 cars from the U.S. running on Swedish roads had been previously written off the roads from their states of origin before they were imported to Sweden. Since things like the car electronics can turn off while the car is driving, completely, it makes these cars a death trap on Swedish road according to Jan-Erik Lindenblad Heed of the Swedish police.

One danger is that the defects are not visible on the outside, they are not even noticeable when they are being driven and the car papers looks good. In the showroom, it can be difficult to detect that the imported car really have any damaged history.

This phenomenon is blamed on the effective Swedish  and Balkan criminal gangs who buy cars in the U.S.. These cars have been sources from the U.S. off roads cars depots that are no longer allowed to run on the roads there but which can only be exported.

The process work as follows, the cars are shipped to the Baltic and patched up, often using parts from stolen cars and then they are sold on to Sweden.

According to Swedish television, the Company Carfax has compared American vehicles exported to Sweden  and found that at least 9,600 cars have been placed off the road in the USA or even scrapped before there are shipped to Sweden.

“What we have seen is that American cars that have passed through, for example, a Baltic country have a high proportion accident history in the United States and then it is shipped to Sweden,” says Torbjörn Serrander investigators at the organisation Larmtjänst for the Swedish police and the insurance industry.

By Scancomark.com Team