A group of Irish Travelers, who aren't Irish called the Mississippi Travelers, they're from Memphis, not Mississippi, they're Welch, not Irish, decided to all trade in their F350s after returning to Memphis, after a season of painting barn roofs in Ohio. The Ford dealer found all the odometers were rolled back and had the whole batch arrested. The were heavily fined but not jailed.
Of all the ways someone could “rig” their vehicle in order to get more money from its resale, odometer fraud has got to be THE most despicable thing ANYBODY can do… -No morals, -No ethics, -No honor, -No decency💔💔💔💔💔💔
Chrysler added the extra digit when they went to electronic speed sensors from cable driven speedometers. Anywhere from 86-87 to 90-91. One of the pasta rocket builders just removed odometer adjustment capability from their dealer service programming. Every heavy truck I've seen that a dealer replaced the analog speedometer, they put a sticker on the doorframe with the date and Mike's off the old speedometer.
How about this: Someone I know, now deceased, was a route delivery person for a bread company, driving a company delivery truck. His biggest customer was at the far end of his route so he would have his daughter drive their car to that store to restock shelves later in the day and then gas up their personal car with the company gas card. To make things look correct, he would use his wife's kitchen mixer to run the miles up on the truck's odometer so the fuel mileage would look right. Other than burning up one of his wife's mixers, no one outside the family new of it. That was about 50 years ago
One of dad's high school classmates spent time in jail for odometer fraud in the 70s. He's also the reason Ohio passed their state law. He shares our last name, but isn't related. His used car lot was called Klein on Vine and the catchy TV jingle was "Klein on Vine, where Paddock meets Vine at the big Indian sign."
Here is my odometer story, choose to believe it or not: A former coworker became the Financial-Guy at a local dealership for a certain national chain of used cars. I made a trade with them, turning in my well-used Honda that was 4 years old, but had 190,000 miles on it. I asked him when it was just the two of us in the room, and per him, they would likely take a car like mine that was SUPER popular in Texas. But in order to make it 'legal', they would ship the car over into Mexico, make the change rolling it back by 2/3 (in this case), then bring it back in and sell it.
Mr L my car is 28 years old w/141,000 miles. I’m the second owner, the first owner was an elderly widow as am I. She saved all the maintenance/ repair bills as well as the brand new sticker that was in the window. I also have saved all my maintenance/repair bills. 1994 Toyota Camry….
If a state has an annual registration and/or safety check, the mileage is recorded. If there's a rollback, it'll show up during inspection, regardless if the odometer is electronic, or rollers.
My son just paid $4350 for a clean 08 Scion in SoCal. The seller had bought it last month from the original owner and stated it had 109,000. The original owner had renewed the registration and had a smog check done 4 days before selling it that showed 208,000. That form had that number “smudged”. My son went and got a replacement copy of the smog check. The “seller”, second owner for less than 30 days, gave my son a bill of sale that had 109 in the first 3 blocks his name and signature with nothing else filled out and said a tag shop near the border only needs this to transfer the title. We will be going in to the DMV to report this and see if he can get the title cleared and correct miles reported. We will offer to go to that tag office to see if they will issue a fraudulent title catching them and the “seller” committing fraud. The Toyota dealerships said there was no way to verify the actual miles which makes no sense.
that’s much more difficult to do than just changing the module. Those modules are VIN specific and and a ROM (read only memory) so you can’t program them unless you have access to the proprietary software the manufacturer uses. Very expensive and almost impossible to do unless you were VERY well connected and those connections were willing to break the law for you!
The most insidious scam these days are electronic devices that you can plug into OBD port that slows down the recording of mileage so that, for example, the odometer only records 5 miles for each 10 driven.
We picked up a 96 Taurus for our teenager. It has the old style "rolling" odometer but doesn't have a speedometer cable, it gets the data from a computer & an electric motor turns the odometer. Because of it's age one of the plastic gears had degraded & fell apart making the odometer not work. We were able to replace the gear & get it working but have no idea how long it was driven with out it working. 96 was the first year for OBD2 so I'm not sure if the data is stored on a module or not. Strangely enough, my truck is a 94, but uses the digital style odometer (LCD screen, can't read mileage if the key is off )
ford's with that dash (rolling digits) dont store mileage in the ECU. you have no way of knowing the true mileage. no worries though, those are good cars as long as it was maintained. don't ignore the trans fluid either. I've had a few of the older style which are basically the same mechanically... they are great.
Mileage on an automobile that has larger or smaller diameters can also alter the odometer readings. When my older brother was switching around Tires on his older automobile, he came to the conclusion that it changed the mileage on his odometer do to the different Tires sizes. Over a period of time, the mileage difference will show up as a difference on the odometer.
I put very, very low gears in my Jeep and never corrected the speedometer gear. It now puts 30% more miles on than I actually drive. But it's 22 years old, odometer reads 215300 miles and it's next owner will be a junkyard.
These days there are a lot of repairing old junker cars for profit due to pandemic pricing and due to new car prices going through the roof. It is not uncommon to see junk yards f parting out wrecked cars to get a high mileage car back on the road with engine or transmission swaps including those ECM to replace one that has gone bad. It is not uncommon to see a high mileage used car with a used module from a low mileage car that was wrecked. I have seen this done on RU-vid. Still best to have your own mechanic check it out before buying a used. The problem is rampant in the used car market car
Signing a Title is signing a security under federal law, much less swearing the mileage is actual miles! I do not know how these people sue odometer fraud to scam the consumer/buyer, when you can simply do a VIN # check to see the actual miles. I recently looked at a vehicle that read 154,000 miles, after checking the VIN # the actual miles are 274.000. However, I have not yet let the seller know that I have all the paperwork for the vehicle from its inception. I will save the best for last.
I'm familiar with stories about attorneys who broke the law and got disbarred, and about doctors who committed egregious malpractice and lost their licenses to practice medicine, and both of these types had to get a job selling used cars. But I've always wondered what do you do if you've been a used car salesman all your adult life, get caught whacking odometers, and lose your license to sell cars for the rest of your life?
Even if a person uses the car just to go to the stores or market, it should have an average of 8000 miles per year . If any vehicle reads 140.000 miles, but the vehicle is 14 years old , it's ok because 10.000 per year. You divide the actual miles for the amount years of the vehicle then you'll know if that's real plus de conditions of the vehicle. Now, you should ask the seller for his ID. To make sure it's on his name and his address, if you see mystery like see the car in a circle k or any corner. You must protect yourself and your money.
I have a question. My wife has 1996 Ford Ranger. While my wife was driving, she noticed the odometer stop working. Later, she noticed that it's working again. However, we weren't sure if it was progressing at the correct rate. I think it's stopping and working intermediately. My wife is the original owner of the truck. How do we handle the odometer when my wife decides to sell the truck?
you would just check the box "true mileage unknown" on the title which would prove you disclosed it. that will clear you of all liability. I've bought a few vehicles like that, it is not an uncommon situation.
Yes it still does happen I just was a victim October 6th 2022 and trying to figure out what I'm supposed to do. I have the finance company investigating and the dealer board but I don't even want to register the vehicle I want to take it back and get my down payment back but don't know if that's an option also wouldn't pass inspection in my state. Sold me a call with 47,000 miles on it Honda Odyssey 2011 and it really has 186,000 miles on it found out when I looked at my warranty contract and can't even believe a finance company with Finance such a high mileage car also someone pissed in my seat First Class Auto in Arlington Virginia don't ever go there
I just bought a truck from a guy who rolled back to mi from 330,000 to 105,000. I called the cops and they said there's nothing they can do, I can't prove he rolled the miles back and it's a private party sale. The same guy keeps doing this, he buys high mileage vehicles rolls them back and sells them on Facebook marketplace, I told the cops but they didn't seem to care and said there's nothing they can do
Had just about the same thing happen to me. I bought it near sunset so even if I wanted to I couldn’t take it to check the vin. Guy said it was 118000 and it actually has about 206000. So I really paid about 2.5 -3 k over than what I should’ve
I have a 2015 Cadillac that has an Odometer issue. We have figured out that at some point in 2018 the miles were flipped to kilometers. So all the oil changes and inspections from 2018-2023 have the kilometers listed as miles! I’ve scanned the car and the odometer and module match at 94,435 miles. But history on Carfax shows 150,000 miles when it should be kilometers. No one will change anything. Even the title shows “actual miles” from December of 2022 being 80,132. And still no help.
Steve, i would love to speak with you regarding a tempered odometer. I purchased a Prevost Liberty Coach Bus from a private party who lied to me about the mileage. The mechanical odometer shows 92K give or take, but after checking the OBD, its showing 165K give or take. The previous owner stated in writing the false mileage. Unfortunately, i have yet to find an attorney who will take my case. This was a $225K cash purchase. I brought this to the attention of the previous owner, and he said good luck, ill see you in court. I need help!!!! Please let me know if you can help, or refer me to someone who can take my case. Many thanks!
The reason I say this is because replaced my truck engine with one that was about 65,000 miles less, but how can I ever prove that to someone if I wanted to resell my truck? I replaced it because I blew the engine in it and it was way cheaper to buy a new engine then to try to buy the same truck with that amount of miles.... it only cost me about $1,600 for a used motor with about 65,000 less
Not likely. they are Read Only (ROM) modules. They are VIN specific and have to be ordered per VIN by the dealer. Only way to re-program would be if you had access to the proprietary software the manufacturer uses. Extremely hard to do.
Hi Steve, I have an old Mercedes with the digital cluster that just started showing over heating, and a full tank of gas. These stayed in this position when the car was turned off and key removed. With my scan tool, I was able to confirm the engine temp was not pinned to overheating. Got a good working cluster from a local U-Pull-It. The car has about 230k and put in a working cluster with about 190k. My intent is not to perform fraud, just to have a working cluster. What can I do to Cover my a**, and show I have no intent on being deceitful?
