I owned a 9-year old Dodge Dakota. Had to replace the timing belt and the German mechanic did a lousy job....just never ran right after that episode. I ended up selling to a ‘dealer’ in the local area around Ramstein Air Base for $1,200 in cash. I asked the guy what he wanted the vehicle for and he had a number of particular vehicles that he’d put on a truck going to Bremerhaven’s port in north Germany. It’d get pushed on with 200 other vehicles and go via a small cargo ship to Africa. They’d sell the vehicles off the side of the port there for roughly $3k each....as long as they cranked up. His profit was $500 each, and the ship’s captain probably made at least $15,000 off the load (it was excess cargo).
Same deal probably goes in Texas, with some guy moving the truck to a port, and ends up at a port to be sold as excess cargo from a vessel.
I traded in an old vehicle to the dealer when buying a new one. Imagine my surprise when someone called inquiring about it from an auction 5 states away. They told me it’s common practice to get cars out of state so it’s not so easy to track down previous owners and get the truth about problems.