Thanks to some sleuthing by readers and my own digging, the history of that random Rolls Royce Wraith at the Hyundai dealer in Long Island City has been found out. And it’s interesting as hell.
Depending on what you read, the Rolls in question has changed hands a lot. No matter what you read though, it’s suspect. Shoutout to VBinNV for this report, that shows it has changed hands over 18 times since 2014, with mileage reporting not making much sense and the vehicle being sold multiple times a year. Sometimes being sold within a couple of days. For instance, October of 2017 shows that the vehicle was listed for sale on 10-27 with 33,911 miles. But exactly two months later on 12-27, it was listed for sale with 33,239 miles. How’d it lose 672 miles?
Shoutout to kirkhilles who shared a link to the Carfax, which is more detailed because of course, it’s Carfax. Carfax shows five previous owners, rebuilt and salvage titles along with a last reported odo reading of 48,923 miles. The last owner was someone here in California in North Hollywood. Five owners is a bit suspect for a Rolls Royce. It also shows the car was often making rounds in the same states:
- The first owner had it since it was new, owning it just over four months from December of 2013 in Florida to April of 2014 when it was listed for sale in New York with a little over 1,500.
- The second owner purchased it in November of 2014 in Tennessee. Whoever owned it had it a while and actually drove it. An incident wasn’t reported with this owner until over a year later in December of 2015 when it was involved in a fender bender with some light front damage. It was back in Florida for service and then listed for sale in New York again in April of 2018. Odo read just under 34,000 miles
- The third owner bought it in North Carolina in May 2018. By June 2019, it weirdly is offered for sale at the exact Hyundai of Long Island City it eventually ends up with again. Somehow, two weeks later it’s back in North Carolina where it’s listed for sale. By November, its declared a total loss in Missouri due to fire damage and vandalism.
- Owner four seemed to be a temporary owner with owner five being issued the rebuilt title. From there it’s unknown how it ended back at the Hyundai dealer. Photos of the fire damage can be seen here. It was sold at a Missouri auction last year for $48,500. Estimated repair costs were a whopping $162,818. Makes you wonder who thought it was worth it to repair.
Whoever had this vehicle was up to...something. Whatever it was, it was back and forth and probably changed hands with the same people. And with its interior being totally destroyed, they had deep enough pockets to completely repair it enough to where one couldn’t probably guess it was destroyed. This just shows that it pays to get a vehicle history report because you just never know.