Used cars missing spares and owners manuals?

[JH27N0B]

I bought a used 2008 car from a dealer a week ago, before signing the papers I had noticed that it was missing its spare (actually this car had one of those stupid pumps full of fix a flat, which was what was missing), they put in the sales paperwork they would find me one to replace the missing one, after I drove off the lot I looked for the owners manual and it was missing too! 
The '71 Challenger I bought 3 months ago was missing an owners manual and spare.
The last used car I bought prior to these 2 recent purchases was a Lincoln in 2003 from a car lot that specialized in late model generally "off lease" cars, its spare and owners manual were both missing.  I found that out right away and they got me a spare and grabbed an owners manual from another similar car on their lot for me when I complained.
Is this just a coincidence, or have sellers including dealers been removing small items they figure many buyers won't notice missing and then turning around and selling these things seperately to make a few extra bucks?
I bought a manual for my new used car off ebay last week, and found there was no shortage of these manuals for sale.  Makes me suspicious!
I was wondering if anyone else has had this issue with used car purchases or is it just me?

[AARCUDADEN]

I think alot of the missing owners manuals is do to the previous owners removing them from the glove box and placing them elsewhere  and why i 've never understood it  maybe to prevent it from getting lost or stolen    Far as spares go god only knows. I was shocked when i bought my Cuda it still had the owners manual and colapsable spare with bottle and bracket along with the complete jack  and this car seen many careless owners of the past

[don340-4]

 
  That is something that really iritates me too, any used vehicle that goes through a dealership, the detailers are told to get rid of any paperwork, records or manuals of any kind as part of the detailing & toss everything in the trash including floor mats. I think the spare tires are just taken out & not put back, unless you as a buyer demand a spare. They don't want the new owner to have any record of the previous owner.

       

[Aussie Challenger]

I bought a used car a few years back and it had special dress style wheels, the spare was missing so I wrote it put into the contract that the spare must be the same as the other wheels on the car. Fortunately I wrote a personel check, the car had a standard spare wheel in the trunk when I came to pick it up, I removed it saying that the contract said same as the others and I would not take the wrong wheel and said I would call them back. They stalled me for a couple of days so I stopped the check, all hell broke loose, they found a spare within 2 hrs and the manager lost his job for trying to cheat me and taking a personel check.   
Dealers still play around with service records so any manuals can bring them undone so they remove them.   

[hpe600rt]

you know what i hate is the hige prices for the crape they are trying to sell you likr a ram truck with 150k or so 5500

[gkring]

I work at a dealership. The privacy is one thing where we do not want to keep any service records at all in a car and really can not leave any previous owner information in the car. The next thing is that every stop a car makes, being traded in, going to auction, going through auction, make ready at the dealer, dealer trades, etc is a chance for the manuals to get stolen. Many auctions remove books, keys, shift knobs, navigation discs, etc and only mail them to the dealer after the car is delivered and paid for. Often times those cars sell before the books arrive via mail or the books arrive but never get matched up.

[JH27N0B]

I only got one set of keys with this car too.  I did just order a manual for it off ebay for $15 which included shipping so not that big a deal, but still, you spend a bunch of money on a car, it certainly should have an owners manual.  I still haven't figured out how to set the damn clock! 
My '71 Challenger was somewhat of a different deal.  It didn't have anything in the trunk except a cheap floor mat, not even the hold down stud for the spare!  Missing most of the seat belts, odds and ends under the hood.  The guy had been trying to sell it online for a while before putting it in the Mecum auction I bought it at, for far less than he'd been trying to get when he had it listed for sale on line.  I can't help but to think if you are selling a vintage car, the stupidest thing in the world you can do is remove some parts to use on your other cars or sell seperately.  Really penny wise and pound foolish, somebody is thinking of spending 40, 50 70K on a car and then sees everything missing from the trunk and some other stuff and thinks WTH else is missing or wrong with this car??? And then walks away. 

[BIGSHCLUNK]

Around here a dealer cant sell a car w/o a spare... which is good for me.. hehehe. Unfortunately it is a common occurance to get cars in (here & and by dealers) with no spare. Owners manuals on the other hand end up in the "junk" drawer never to be seen again.