Last weekend, we all got very interested in a fishy sale that cropped up on Bring A Trailer—a 2007 BMW 116i hatchback from Scotland that couldn’t exactly prove it got to the U.S. legally. Thanks to some detective work from the community, the listing has now been withdrawn.
Who doesn’t want a manual BMW 1-Series hatchback with (American) unicorn status?
The owner’s story of how the car made it to its current home in Florida was already fishy enough, saying it came from Scotland in a shipping container, which may mean it slipped by customs. The owner does claim the car has a clean title in Florida with insurance and has been registered with BMW of North America with no issues.
But some of the Bring A Trailer community did some digging and found that, according to Road & Track, the car had the VIN number for a two-door model, which it isn’t. It was also discovered to possibly have a lien against the vehicle in Scotland, which is essentially an outstanding lease, which may mean the vehicle is considered stolen in the UK if it’s over here, cruising the Florida coastline.
Due to the uncertain circumstances of the car, Bring A Trailer withdrew the listing, stating in the comments:
More and more interesting developments with this one. We’re pretty sure this is the first listing to reference Interpol.The seller has not provided any additional documentation to substantiate the import status, and now the title lien issue seems to be as real a concern as the importation. We are going to go ahead and withdraw the auction.
The background of the car is pretty sketchy, but even under clearer circumstances, buying the car would probably eventually lead to Uncle Sam hunting you down without mercy.