What can I do about Odometer Fraud--help

[BandAid]

Well I have decided to take this to the fullest extent,car was advertized on this Board and Ebay,with 79,000miles ,come to find out it has 121,000 miles...

please list some options,and or links that may help..
Car was registared in Michigan,so I am gathering info on their laws...

Thanks for any help....

 

[Anthony K]

it was advertised as 75xxx, was the odo rolled back to 79xxx? if so how did you know actual mileage? if not ( rolled back ) odo reads 121xxx, then its false advertisement and or "as is" on used cars from private sellers, you could have asked for a pic of the odo. you did not see the car before purchase? how did money exchange hands? paypal? cash in hand? i would need more info like the questions i have posed before i can state laws or advise. feel free to email me if you dont want this on the web

Anthony

 

[1ARUNEM]

Vehicle is over 10 years old. In most states the odometer is exempt.

 

[Anthony K]

unless there is evidence of tampering then it is still a crime

 

[John Larkin]

unless there is evidence of tampering then it is still a crime

Please state that law as it applies to exempt odometers.

 

[JP87GN]

For it to be fraud, you would have to prove he misled you and/or knowingly tampered with it. If you can do that you should have a solid case.

 

[BandAid]

Car was advertised as 79,000 miles and truley has 121,000,,, but reads 79,000 on the odometer

 

[JP87GN]

But did the guy you bought it from know this , or did he unintentionaly mislead you?

 

[BandAid]

Originally posted by JP87GN
But did the guy you bought it from know this , or did he unintentionaly mislead you?

Still waiting to hear back from the DMV about when this actually changed,regaurdless the car was owner by one of his relatives or buddy ,cant remember which...

 

[JP87GN]

Sounds like he should have known the actual mileage, How did you discover it has 120+ on it?

 

[BandAid]

Originally posted by JP87GN
Sounds like he should have known the actual mileage, How did you discover it has 120+ on it?

Car fax(after the fact),can send you the info....

 

[JP87GN]

I never had a car fax before but doesn't it show the mileage and the owner at the time of mileage?

 

[Buick From Hell]

Yes, how DID you discover the "actual" miles? How do you know WHICH miles are actual?

the reason I ask-- because f$@*%#g carfax shows my wife's mustang as a "possible odometer fraud" car, which is bull$#!t...

How it happened? I forget exactly because I don't have the carfax in front of me, but it goes something like this: Car was traded in in Florida with 3x,xxx miles on it. Car was purchased by another dealer, I forget which state (Pennsylvania I think?)... Some clown at the new dealer read the odometer as 8x,xxx
...Car is resold to a dealer in Utah, where I bought it with just barely 42k miles.

When doing the math, the mileage is perfect if driven from Florida to the next 2 destinations. But because some dolt thought a 3 was an 8, the car's "a fraud"....

As you might guess, I'm not a fan of carfax. Just wondering if that's where you're getting your info?

<edit>--just notice you posted while I was typing, it IS where you're getting your info---I'd do more investigating before releasing the lions...

 

[John Larkin]

Kevin's right. Carfax gets their info from title applications and emissions stations so depending on what was logged you can see that garbage in, garbage out applies. Carfax is right 99% of the time so there is room for reasonable suspicion. The only way to really find out is to support Carfax with additional data such as a title history from the state(s) it's been registered in or dealership service data. However, federal law exempts odometers over 10 years old which means it doesn't have to work or even be in the car and still be legal. My GN's title came back as "N/A" from Florida when I registered it down there. I knew the car but that's the deal. Good luck.

 

[TurboDave]

Kevin and John are absolutely right!! DO NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT rely on carfax for any realistic or even legally binding info.

My 86 shows up as an odomoeter fraud car also. I'm the original owner. odometer has never been adjusted or otherwise changed. The problem lies in the idiots at the smog test stations in my case. Since our odomters don't have the "6th" digit, they just wrote down what they saw at some point well after car car had rolled it's first hundred thousand.. Some got it right, early in the 100,000 mile checks, then some screwed it up, so naturally, carfax in thier infinite wisdom calls it odo fraud.

I have two mid 80's cars that I'm the original owner of, and they managed to screw them both up.

That's the main reason I will never use carfax for anything reliable.

Sorry to disagree John, but there's no way I can any longer believe that carfax is anywhere near 99% correct. I'll give them the benifit of the doubt and say maybe 50/50.

 

[BlownZ]

You're wasting your time. It is nearly impossible to prove that he had knowledge of the change and what you'll get out of it is not worth the aggravation...at least to me.

80k and 120k isn't that much of a difference anyways especially if you visually inspected the car and liked what you saw.

JMO.

 

[TR Custom Parts]

I can attest to CarFax not being 100% accurate as well. My 87 GN will show up as having over 125,000 miles on it. It actually has 25,000 miles. Emissions testing it what screwed my GN's history on there. The guy thought since it was "so old" that it couldn't have such a small amount of miles on it. One look at the car by anyone with intelligence would realize what it was, a low mileage, hardly driven car.

 

[TRBON8R]

Don't get me started on this one. My GN comes up as a "potential odometer rollback" from Carfax. All it takes is one idiot smog tech to write the mileage down wrong and you are screwed.

Besides it's a 17 year old car, the odometer must have rolled over right? Carfax sucks hairy ones.

The problem is, how does one go about getting the California DMV to fix the problem with their records? I called and talked to them a while back and no one knew anything.

 

[BandAid]

Welll Car fax has to be 101% correct on this one,,

8-7-98 car reported 100,947

5-29-01 car reported 121,029

and now has 79,990

Cant see someone coming up with wrong numbers 2x's

 

[TurboJunky]

CarFax Sucks

Here's my story with Carfax....

When I registered my TTA here in Michigan I was the 4th owner and it had just under 7,500 miles on the clock....100% original car. Carfax in their infinite wisdom took it upon themselves to assume a 1989 Trans Am couldn't possibly have that few miles and recorded the mileage as "Beyond Mechanical Limits" even though the Pontiac odometer is a 6 digit unit which records up to 1 million miles. Keep in mind this car had a perfectly documented mileage history in every state's DMV it was registered.

When I got the report on my car (a fluke) after I had it registred I was BESIDE MYSELF with Carfax. I went round and round with those incompetent morons and threated them with everything including lawsuits for de-valuing my car. After a month or two of sending them the original DMV documents from Maryland they fixed it.

I'll take everything I read on a Carfax report with a grain of salt.

Now that I'm off my soapbox I believe Michigan law prohibits any type of odometer tampering and/or misrepresenting mileage on a title regardless of the federal statute.

I would start researching the law or regulations on this at www.michigan.gov/sos or contact the Michigan Attorney General's office. I guarantee they'll pursue this. A friend of mine was a victim of this and they were very disappointed he didn't wish to follow through with a criminal complaint.

Good luck....