Odometer games

I've just come across a '91 TR on sale on Ebay that is in NC that I know was for sale in MA back in Dec '94 to March '05. Now the car has 5k miles less. I know this happens quite a bit, but this is the first time I myself have seen it, including a shot of the odo at 25k. Do you contact the seller of this car (it's a dealer) and let them know, or is it just one of those things where it's like "oh well"?

 

No, you contact the authorities... It's Fraud!

 

You might be able to report it to Carfax. Check it out and let us know.

 

another example of something I have been ranting about for years here. NEVER BELIEVE THE ODOMETER ON A FERRARI!!! (at least up to the late 90's since I don't know if the 355's etc have the same sending unit set-up)

 

You should contact the owner of the dealership and let him/her know. Just be absolutely sure of your facts before pursuing.

More than likely, they bought the car unknowing the odo issue. If so, I'm sure they will go back to whomever they bought it from, and so on, and reverse the chain of buyers/sellers until the culprit is found.

If the dealer is the one who caused the odo issue, which I doubt, it will certainly cause them some concern that they were caught.

Either way, calling 'foul' is the right thing to do!!!

 

i think if anything, the one back in the winter was a small dealership that probably went out of business, and the guy who bought the inventory for resale, probably brought the odo back for a little extra "juice" when selling it to the next person. I remember seeing tons of TRs with 10k on them 10 years ago, and now 10 years after that they still have 10-20 k on them. Find it hard to believe. I just look at the tell-tale signs. The seat bolster on a regular TR is good for 10-12k, longer if minded. If you see a 10k example and the bolster is shot. I start raising my eyebrows

 

Same with the 308's. The classifieds listed them with 30K on the odometer back in the middle 80's and 20 years later they still have 30K. Sure.

 

Grind the sales person for the best deal and then ask for an additional $15K off or you will expose them for selling a car with bogus milage on the OD!

 

I almost bought a low mileage (4K) Testorossa from Ogner (now Auto Gallery) a few years ago. Something seemed wrong and I passed on that and bought a different TR.

I took my new TR to Audio Illusions to have stereo put in, and I saw the Ogner car in the parking lot. I asked Kevin (installer) what he was doing with it, as I almost had purchased it. He told me that he installed stereo and then owner returned car and said that speedometer was not working. Kevin had mistakenly hit a switch under dash (that he did not know about) and it disconnected speedo/odometer.

I am SO glad I passed on that car... and it goes to show that you can even get fooled at a fairly reputable dealer (I'm not implying that Ogner knew that mileage was wrong but I think they might have seen some tell-tale signs of the odometer disconnect).

FWIW...

Eric

 

Well I contacted the seller of this car. Nice response, right away. He's basically selling it for the owner who is in MA. The car basically has not left the owner's possession. So I guess it's a type of off-site consignment sale. Carfax, whom I just emailed, won't consider anything under 3000 miles as odometer fraud, saying it's just input error and it's not worth looking into.
Sure. so why were all the guys who bought new cars from Chrysler back in the '80s *****ing? Anyways, this seems like a fruitless endeavor. But I'm kind of bored so I'll entertain it. I'm going to have to side with the good Dr on this one. Use your head, if a car has 10k on it it should still look relatively brand new. I have a car with 5k on it. You couldn't tell the difference between that and a new car, unless you started looking at her.

 

do 355's get the odo disconnect treatment frequently? and if so, is there any other way to tell other than the obvious condition of the overall car?

 

While I agree there is a lot of odometer rollback/fraud out there...it can also be an innocent mistake. For example, my BB512i has the original Belgium spec speedometer which is in kilometers. However, over the years most service records list miles instead of kilometers which to someone unaware would think my car has been driven approximately 1/3 more miles than it has. When you sell a car in the USA the title always list the mileage in miles which would make a subsequent buyer think you have rolled back the odometer...just something to ponder...

 

I'm sure there are plenty of false mileage claims out there, but there are also lots of low mileage cars. I bareyl cover 1000 per year in the Ferrari due to a busy schedule and usually uncooperative weather (even in the 'Sunshine state').
BT