Buckle up, this is a tasty one.
Earlier this summer I cautioned of cars that took vacations to Finland for few years and came back to the US with some well below average miles added. And by Finland, I meant shipped to Finland and driven straight into Russia before the needle could even move off the C peg in the instrument cluster. This is a scam with some high-end luxury cars, but has no paper trail and the numbers are fudged just enough that it has plausible deniability. The perfect crime. Wouldn’t you know it, another car that took a two-year vacation is up for sale in Las Vegas, and this Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG also got some cosmetic surgery while it was there. Red carbon fiber anyone?
CLICK FOR DETAILS: 2011 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG on eBay
Year: 2011
Model: SLS AMG
VIN: WDDRJ7HA9BA000950
Engine: 6.2 liter V8
Transmission: 7-speed dual-clutch automatic
Mileage: 16,411 mi
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada
Price: Buy It Now $151,900
2011 Mercedes SLS AMG.
Don’t miss out on this special 2011 Mercedes SLS AMG. It has a one-of-a-kind interior customized in the country of Finland. From 2013 to 2015 it spent time in Finland receiving this very special interior and a few exterior customizations. It has a clean car fax report and runs great. It has the Bang and & Olufsen 1000 watt sounds system and is finished in Iridium Silver Metallic.
-FULL SERVICE just completed 5-6-2020 at the Mercedes Dealership
Please let us know if you would like to video chat with the car.
Looking at the Carfax on this one, this one left the US with more than 9,600 miles on it and came back two years later 12,300. Now it doesn’t say that it specifically left with 9,600 miles, but rather than was the last entry four months before it was exported. So the car went to Russia and did roughly 2,000 miles in two years? All while getting a hideous make-over with a bunch of red carbon fiber? Sure. Yep. I totally believe that. Nothing suspicious at all.
Another piece of info I manage to dig up was the import record back to the US in 2015. Two other cars were also paired with this SLS and they just happened to be a pair of Rolls-Royce Phantoms. The importer for these three cars was a company by the name of ES AUTO FINANCE INC. A quick search shows that a man by the name of Sergei Slastikhin is the agent of ES AUTO FINANCE INC. His name is also a registered agent to about two dozen other companies in Florida. Why am I telling you this? Because of course he was put on the international wanted list by Russia for allegedly embezzling hundreds of millions of rubles. Russian authorities say he fled to the US and also stole state secrets after working for the Russian space agency Roskosmos. Just to pile on, it looks like American Express is suing Mr. Slastikin as well. Apparently allegedly rolling back a few odometers is the least of his worries for now.
Either way, another cautionary tail of always doing your homework when buying a car and never ever, I don’t know how enticing, buy a car that has been exported to Finland.
– Andrew
