Ebay mileage is a joke on 308's

Funny you should ask. I was talking with a fellow 308 owner recently and we began to wonder. What is the highest millage you have ever see on a 308, and who has it?

 

Yeah, I think there are definite shenanigans going on with mileage on these cars. I know I can order a brand new speedo for my f355 that has zero miles...and there are plenty of part outs going on on low mile wrecked cars. To prevent any future issues, I've put the mileage of my car in the 355 registry, not sure if there's one for 308's that has that ability but it may make sense to start logging S/N's and mileage to see if there's any funny business going on or to prevent it from happening...

 

Common knowledge

never trust the milage on ANY 308 - this is "308 101"

My car has had at least two sending units. The first was replaced when the car was only 5 or 6 years old. I have no idea how far it was driven while broken. It did it again about 10 years later on me in Florida. This was in about 2000 - pre Ferrarichat days and I had no idea what was wrong. I remember driving it about 2000 miles broken ( I was using it for trips so it was a pretty good guess)

And that is just MY car...

Anyway it has 112,000 showing now which is really 114,000 plus whatever when it was broken the first time long before I bought it.

 

I remember seeing them in ads back in the early 80's with 30,000 miles on them.

Whenever one pops up now - 30 plus years later it STILL has 30,000 something miles .

 

So I have a question for the collective: If you have your car just about restored as many of you have seen my project, what correlation can now be made between mileage which will soon hit the 100K (at least by the odo) and the condition of the car? I am only asking opinions as I have no plans on altering the odo. Would someone be justified in altering the mileage under any circumstance? How about a complete redo like Brett's level of restoration? This question is just to generate some discussion not to provoke fights, please.

 

Simple,

Keep all the documents in a binder of the full restore....and lets be clear, a full restore is considered full nut and bolt...anything else is not a restore.

If the ODO says 55,000, you leave it and mark it. If and when you sell, the books go with the car, and you say it had a full restore and here is the paper work at the 55,000 mile mark. The car is then looked at as a either a fresh restore, or older correct restore.

Simple.

 

Can the odometer on a 328 be trusted anymore than a 308? This thread focuses on 308s, so I'm curious if 328 odometers are any more difficult to disconnect.

 

No

Jedi

 

I bought my 308 GT4 new in 75 - it has recently had a ground-up restoration at 203,364kms and now reads 10,560kms (plus twice around the clock). Not a bad distance. Anyone higher than that?

 

In the UK the mileage has to be recorded each year as part of the annual MOT (roadworthiness) test so its more difficult for people to fiddle mileage. Is there nothing like this in the US?

One 328 I looked at showed 4 miles difference between subsequent MOT tests. But the tests were recorded as having taken place in different towns which are 30 miles apart! Yes it could have been trailered but extremely unlikely!

 

Mine showed under 40K when I bought her and a look at the shape of the suspension bushings tells me it is at least close to the correct mileage. Personally I drive for pleasure and never in the winter or rain therefore I beleive it is possible but in allot of cases the speedo would be easy to change out. I focus on the wear items like suspension bushings and interior wear. just sayin, Lost

 

There are an equal amount of reasons as to why the odometers could be correct as well. Sometimes it depends upon where the car is located. If you are living in the North and only able to get the car out during the Summer months that will certain keep the number of miles/kilometres down. I bought my 308 just prior to moving to Canada and can tell you that I maybe had 6 months worth of driving time and most of those miles were spent only on the weekends. The rest of the time the car just sat in the garage. Also, when these cars go in for service, they tend to stay there for a period of time and off the road. I have had so many upgrades and repairs made over the past 5 years that it certainly cut into the time that the car was on the road. The prior owner of my 308 said that the car had been sitting in his garage for no less that three years before I bought it. I am currently on an international assignment and wasn't able to take the car with me, consequently, my 308 is bundled up for a few years waiting for my return. At times, I swear that I can hear it calling my name. Lastly, my odometer only has 5 digits, so theoretically one could have past the century mark and you wouldn't know the difference.

 

Mine had a change of speedo; you can identify it in the history. The actual part isn't there but it's clear from the other mileage records.

As Andy mentions, in the UK we're lucky that the annual tests here mandate mileage records. So even if there is incomplete history, you can usually track it pretty well. It doesn't stop nonsense like rewinding between tests but is pretty reliable otherwise.

Speedos do fail, so don't assume the worst until you've checked the paperwork. If the history doesn't join up, then suspect.

 

I just got mine inspected here in NY and the inspector usually writes the milage on the back of the sticker. On removing last years sticker I only traveled 2200 miles. This seems to be my average (+/-) as I look back when I bought the car in 99 with 31K on it. I don't drive it in the rain or snow and I've only had to wash it twice since I've owned it LOL. To have a 30K car someone would have had to store it. Ifit were stored then it should be in excellent condition.

 

Indeed so, but its so easy to unplug the Speedo/Odo on these things you could easily run around not accumulating mileage if you felt like doing so. As with others, my speedo sensor broke a couple of years ago (in August in Italy when all the dealers are closed for 6 weeks!). I don't know exactly, but I "lost" probably 12-1400 miles by the time I got it home & fixed it. I always understood that it was easier to spot a clock that had been wound back though - the numbers never quite align properly if its been messed with (or is that an old wives tale?)

 

Very true. Though I, for one, wouldn't want to drive around only knowing rough speed from engine note, gear and how fast I seemed to be travelling past things. In a country with so many cameras and speed limit changes, there are times you really need to know. I suppose Lost's method of checking overall wear comes into play, but that's much easier to do on younger cars than our 30 year+ vehicles.

 

How many 80-82 USA cars have we seen with a 180 mph speedometer?

A lot!

Think about that for a minute

 

(Some say) that's what Sat Navs with speed camera notifications are for

 

I thought that as well, but almost every picture or real-life odometer I have seen on a 3x8 has numbers which dont line up. Either they have all been wound back or the old wives were involved.

 

Perhaps is it the way they were designed to be, and the ones with aligned numbers are those that should be suspect...clever indeed isn't it?

Rgds

 

When I had my 82 speedo changed over it came back with the wrong mileage so I corrected it. It was pretty easy to do. I can only assume that the one I got back was a different unit and mine was kept as a core return? Although not as easy as a Jaguar odo. Seems they were made to alter.

 

Agree that you can't trust an odometer alone in one of these. But in sub-20k mile cars, it's usually going to be obvious if there's a significant fib... seat wear, pedal wear, interior condition, suspension, appearance of the engine bay... and any signs of major restorative work would be suspect. Time does take its toll, but not always in the same ways that wear does.

Not to mention anyone expecting to get a low mileage premium should have complete paperwork, some of which will generally show some sort of record of odometer readings over the years, although it might be spotty. I think where you're more likely to see odometer fibs (and people get away with it) is high-mileage cars being listed as mid-mileage cars after a speedometer swap at some point.

Sure, a couple thousand miles could have gotten lost over the years, regardless, on any of these cars for one reason or another. But unless you're going for a time capsule, I know I wouldn't lose any sleep over it. Higher mileage cars with tens of thousands of miles missing, now that would be cause for concern.