need help immediately

So the car had 34,289 showing and they replaced the speedometer and set the new one to the old mileage. Then, according to the trip meter in the new speedo, they drove it 222.4 miles. So now it should show 34,511, right? But...

It's not a big deal. The car probably has more than 34k on because speedo #1 above isn't even the first one in the car.

There has been a rule that all 308's for sale have approximately 35k miles on them. How that happens is a mystery. It is subsiding recently, probably the advent of CarFax isn't a coincidence.

 

Damn. Glad you're OK. Funny what stays with you when your life is turned upside down.

 

The speedometer on my '79 GT4 would showe well past the 85 mark, and the cars did not have governors/speed limiters at that speed. It was just the face of the speedometer was changed to reflect the laws.

From a wikipedia page:
"On September 1, 1979, in a regulation that also regulated speedometer and odometer accuracy, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) required speedometers to have special emphasis on the number 55 and a maximum speed of 85 mph (135 km/h). However, on October 22, 1981, NHTSA proposed eliminating speedometer and odometer rules because they were "unlikely to yield significant safety benefits" and "[a] highlighted '55' on a speedometer scale adds little to the information provided to the driver by a roadside speed limit sign."
(There are links to attribute those quotes ,but I didn't copy/paste them)

 

That was a bad 12 month stretch for me. Sept 84 I was thrown from a flipping car, Mar 85 I went sliding off a road in a rainstorm and off the side of a small cliff (that one broke my back). Then this hit and run thing in July 85. The hit and run was pretty bad, 4 cars totaled. Two rested upside down.

I was a passenger in all of those. If I were a cat, I'd be down to 6 lives by now.

 

You need to hang with better drivers! Haha I would guess that the sudden humidity change is a sure reminder that you've broken your back also.

 

It really wasn't that big of a deal. Compression fracture of L1. The car fell straight down and landed kinda flat. My injury sounds worse than it ended up being.

That particular accident was on the way home from a party. Oddly enough, on the way TO the party I was riding with that guy's brother and HE had a wreck. Fender bender on a slick road. No one was hurt but he messed up his mom's car pretty good.

I should have gone home right then...

 

Hello Jason,
As you have probably read, I am also in the process of buying a vehicle.
What are your plans now? Will you proceed with the purchase?
Is the car at a dealer or private party?
Good luck.

Jim

 

Hey Doc,
Wow, that was some night. Lol.

Jim

 

You are going to be fine. Even if you didn't have affidavits, etc. no way it is going to be ridiculously high mileage. As long as the mechanics check out and the title is clean, I think you are going to have a nice car.

Enjoy

 

If it is a legit swap because of a problem with the old speedo (they do break), people would certainly keep record of it and also keep the old speedo with the car.

My speedo was swapped and I have the receipts for the speedo-change and also the original speedo. This is the way to do it, if there is nothing to hide.

 

Unfortunately, not everyone thinks this way.

The other point is these cars have been handed around so much, it can get to a point that the latest owner/seller could have no idea. Things can get lost over the course of 30-40 years.

Not everyone is out to screw someone but the sad thing is I see more of that than the other.

 

It definitely came with '79 US spec cars are per DOT regs.

 

The 400i was never officially imported by FNA right? If so then it could have been a grey market import, and I bet the importer, when 'federalizing' the car, did not bother with the 85mph speedo.

My 82 is such a grey market car. It has what I think is the UK speedo face, same as the one in the OP's first photo. But my odometer racks up kilometers, not miles.

 

My 82 308, November 81 build date, USA car had an 80 mph speedo as well.