Everyone knows cars make for a terrible investment. Outside from collectibles, the vast majority of cars depreciate with the passage of time and the accumulation of kilometres… until a government agency gets involved, that is.

Viewers of Rebel News may recall the baffling case of Brian Presement of Richmond Hill, Ont.

Presement was planning on selling his 2011 Scion tC. But Service Ontario somehow deemed that the value of this high-mileage chariot had more than DOUBLED in the past six years!

That means the tax threshold would make this car a very tough sell indeed. (Service Ontario is responsible for issuing driver's licences, vehicle permits, and licence plates.)

The backstory: Presement purchased the 2011 tC in 2018. It was seven years old at the time, and it had 130,000 km on the odometer. Service Ontario appraised it in 2018 at $7,000.

Presement recently decided to part ways with the Scion. He was planning to sell it, some six years after he purchased the vehicle — for $3,500, or half of what he had originally paid for it. Of note: the mileage had doubled during the ensuing six years he owned it. The Scion currently shows 260,000 km on the odometer.

Yet, somehow, some way, Service Ontario appraised the car’s value at… $15,000!?

How is that even possible?

Alas, Service Ontario wouldn’t budge — nor would it explain how it came to this evaluation. Rebel News reached out repeatedly to the Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery and Procurement (which oversees Service Ontario.) No response was ever received.

Clearly, this is either utter incompetence or a screw job by bureaucrats who do not give a rodent’s rectum about fairness nor logic.

We felt bad for Brian Presement, so we reached out to Nissan dealer Greg Carasco (and the host of The Greg Carasco Show on Sauga960). He arranged for a professional appraisal of the car. And the verdict is… this Scion tC is worth only $1,500!

In other words, the car is worth 10% of the value that Service Ontario deems to be accurate!

And get this: the car needs four new tires (approximately $1,200) plus about $3,400 in mechanical work. It’s condition was rated as “poor.” But Service Ontario thinks this clunker is a $15,000 cream puff? That’s insane.

As well, Carasco researched how many other 2011 Scion tCs are for sale in Canada. Including Presement’s vehicle, the precise total is seven. The cheapest car is listed at $3,000 (219,000 km) while the priciest is $12,900 (likely because it’s in good condition and only showing 71,000 km on the odometer.)

Bottom line: the marketplace reality does not mirror the fantasyland Service Canada resides in.

Armed with an official appraisal, by someone who actually knows a thing or two about cars, Presement returned to Service Ontario to make the case that his Scion did NOT more than double what n value over time; that the tC is only worth $1,500 as opposed to $15,000.

And this just in: Presement succeed in swaying Service Ontario to accept the third party appraisal. Success!

There is, alas, just one unanswered question: how did this even happen?

Is Service Ontario really THAT incompetent? Or is the unspoken strategy simply a blatant cash grab? After all, the higher the valuation (even if that valuation has no basis in true market value), the more revenue the government receives in sales tax. And if that is indeed the case, Service Ontario is guilty of committing a blatant disservice against Ontarians…

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