Am looking at purchasing a 2008 F250 Long bed 4x4 crew.. Truck looks great, runs very well. Only issues are the RPM gauge does not work (not major problem) and when I pull the VIN up on Carfax and auto check it says the truck is a F350. I am worried that something major could have happened to the truck and the dealer I am buying from swapped vin numbers around. Is there an alternate spot I could check besides the drivers door and dash? Has anyone ever heard of a problem like this before? This is the only reason I did not purchase the truck when I first looked at it... Would it be ok to purchase this truck or should I keep looking? It is a XL model with 123k miles, dealer is asking $14k..

 

With any luck the build sheet will still come up here:

services.forddirect.fordvehicles.com/inventory/WindowSticker.pdf?vin=

Put the vin number in after the = sign and look it up.

 

Just did that, said it was a F350... All the options are correct.. So could it be that someone just out F250 tags on the side although it's really a 350?

 

But I am just worried that maybe the dealer changed out the dash and drivers door vin.. I'm sure this could be done relatively easy??? Is there another spot I can check the vin on the truck before I purchase it?

 

F350 will have overload springs and 4" blocks on the axles. What about those items?

 

I did not have the sense to look for those. I will double check next time I look at the truck. I'll also have to try and look up a picture on google of the difference as I will not be 100% sure on what I am looking at.. I wish I was more mechanically inclined, but that gift is not in my bloodline...

 

Altering the VINs is a violation of 18USC511. If this is a reliable, licensed dealer I would think that they would not have changed a VIN. However, I would certainly pin the dealer down on this as it could have been changed somewhere else along the line.

 

Perhaps through your insurance co...as a quote you can have them check the vin. Probably going to have a problem with that anyway as you will say...no...that is not what I have.

 

Might ask them to have a look at the actual title...
Joe

 

The body panels should have vin stickers.

Sent from my mind thanks to the Internet and an app.

 

Update for everyone with the truck.. I checked the only two vins I could find (drivers door and dash) both read the same and 1FTWW (F350), it does have the 4" blocks on the rear axle, my insurance company says it is a F350, and the title says F350 as well. Dealer said he never switched the emblems and didn't know it was a F350 until after I went over the above points.. I'm sure that he was lying about that though, because at some point he would have had to see the title, although his wife was the signature on the actual title, so maybe not... Anyways, I got the price down a fair bit for the confusion between 250 and 350, as well as a few other things and went ahead and purchased it. So now I guess I will be hunting for 350 emblems to switch them over to what they should be.. Thanks for everyone help, you guys allowed me to buy the truck with confidence that it was a 350 with 250 emblems for some reason..

 

So no evidence of a wreak on the fenders..or repainting.

Maybe the po made a mess and just replaced and painting them.

 

No evidence of a wreck, didn't look like they had been repainted, check Carfax and auto check no wrecks reported there either.. I thought about that as well.. But all the lines are straight, no damage underneath..

 

Were they the correct color? i.e. black for gas engine-- red for diesel. Wonder if one or both were vandalized and the PO just found whatever they could cheap and stuck them on instead of taking a hit on a trade in with broken emblems.

 

That's what I was thinking.. What colors are you referring to? The emblems? They are chrome with black writing..?