Rolling back odometers - is that still a thing?

[BerserkerCatSplat]

So I'm looking at purchasing a vehicle, but there's a pretty major discrepancy between the cluster and what's coming back on the Carproof report. The cluster says 117K, Carproof says it was renewed in February and reported 174K.

Now, I thought with the electronic odometers and whatnot (the car is a 2006) that only dealerships had the ability to mess with the odo since it's stored in the BCM and other places. Is odometer rollback still a common occurrence, or is it more likely to be a misreporting of the mileage at the registry office?

Either way I'll see if the dealer can check the various stored odo readings and check for discrepancies when it's in for inspection. I'm just curious to know if odometer fuckery is still a thing that happens despite electronics and Carproof and whatnot.

[G-ZUS]

It's still a thing unfortunately

[turbotrip]

Can't u also check what the car was last registered at before Feb (174k)? If it was registered at 90k 2yrs before that then u know its probably a mistake.

[BerserkerCatSplat]

Well, that does come as a surprise considering the roadblocks in place to stop tampering. Is it crooked dealership mechanics doing it on the side? I just can't imagine the fee for rolling back a 2006 Dodge would be much compared to the risk of getting caught. Crazy. I still suspect a reporting error but I'm going to do my due diligence.

Originally posted by turbotrip
Can't u also check what the car was last registered at before Feb (174k)? If it was registered at 90k 2yrs before that then u know its probably a mistake.

Yeah the only other reported readings were 1800 in 2006 and 65,000 in 2010, so 117K seems more likely that 174K. ~1100km/month seems reasonable, while ~2200km/month would be less common.

[Mibz]

Originally posted by BerserkerCatSplat
What I drive: Jeep of Theseus

Just noticed. LOLed.

[Sugarphreak]

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[410440]

http://www.calgarysun.com/2015/04/01...raud-operation


"Plyusnin was charged last September with fraud over $5,000 for allegedly purchasing 54 vehicles with locally skimmed credit cards and rolling back their odometers."

[turbotrip]

Cant u pay a small amount and check with the registry to see what it was registered at?

[dannie]

In AB, odometer recording is voluntary. So, if thats whats showing, it could very well be due to an input error by a clerk. My guess is someone mixed up two numbers and didnt catch their error

[E46..sTyLez]

This should tell you what you need to know:
http://www.carfax.com/guides/buying-...meter-rollback

[BerserkerCatSplat]

Originally posted by Mibz
Just noticed. LOLed.

Glad somebody got it, not at all surprised it was you.

Originally posted by Sugarphreak
Keep in mind that Carproof is not immune to error

When I was selling my truck, they reported an ODO reading of 123,456km... when it had only 40K or so on it at the time of sale.

It took me weeks to get that sorted out; what it ended up being was when I brought some loose rims/tires into a shop to get mounted, the system forced them to enter a dummy number to proceed. That went under my truck VIN.


I think a lot of shop guys don't realize that dummy readings, or fat finger mistakes on their internal system, will end up being recorded permanently into the vehicles history.

Haha, yikes. How did you manage to get it sorted out?

Originally posted by turbotrip
Cant u pay a small amount and check with the registry to see what it was registered at?

Not sure what you mean. The mileages I mentioned were from Alberta registry reporting.

Originally posted by dannie
In AB, odometer recording is voluntary. So, if thats whats showing, it could very well be due to an input error by a clerk. My guess is someone mixed up two numbers and didnt catch their error

Yeah, any system that is voluntary, self-reported and unverified seems like it would be pretty fraught with error.

The worst part is that even if it's an error, if I buy it and register it, it's going to look like I was the one who rolled back the odometer, haha.

[Swank]

What is the seller's explanation for the discrepancy? They should want to get that rectified if they don't want to seem like a fishy seller.

[BerserkerCatSplat]

Originally posted by Swank
What is the seller's explanation for the discrepancy? They should want to get that rectified if they don't want to seem like a fishy seller.

I shot him an email this morning about it but I haven't heard back yet.

[Sugarphreak]

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[Mitsu3000gt]

I wouldn't touch it unless the seller can convince Carproof to change the mileage. If he can't be bothered to do that, maybe he doesn't want anyone looking into it because it's not a mistake. Mistake or not, you will also be stuck trying to explain it when someone Carproof's the car when you sell it in the future.

[ianmcc]

Certain cars (eg. 1st gen Ford Focus) have the odometer mileage stored in the cluster so a simple swap can "roll back" the amount of kms.

[jacky4566]

My Datsun only has 5 digits. Just keep driving till it rolls itself back

[BerserkerCatSplat]

Originally posted by Sugarphreak

I got in contact with them (which was awful as they are severely understaffed for doing any kind of customer service) through e-mail. They originally told me there was nothing I could do because it was automatically generated and they don't change any data.

I had to pry it out of them who they got the data from which took a few days of me guessing, and them telling me "No, not them".

After I finally found out I contacted the service shop, and they basically said it was just a dummy number, but they were unable to change it in their internal system.

So after more e-mail back and forth between Carproof and the service center they eventually believed me and removed it from the report.

I'd say it took 3 weeks, and I could have easily lost my buyer in that time.

Brutal, just brutal. I'll bet the guy had no idea that throwing in the 123456 number would get reported anywhere. Wonder how many vehicles they did that to!

Originally posted by Mitsu3000gt
I wouldn't touch it unless the seller can convince Carproof to change the mileage. If he can't be bothered to do that, maybe he doesn't want anyone looking into it because it's not a mistake. Mistake or not, you will also be stuck trying to explain it when someone Carproof's the car when you sell it in the future.

Yeah that's pretty much exactly how I ended up handling it - told him that he'd need to get the mileage issue sorted out before the deal could go anywhere as me eventually having to sell the vehicle as a TMU is a no-go . Felt bad because it's really not his fault and it's probably just a registry screwup, but I'm giving him some time to get it sorted.

[Sugarphreak]

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[Frank_White]

swapped cluster?