Proof positive the old days and setting back the Odometer!

[Doug Novak]

On the older cars you can usually spot a rolled back Odometer because the numbers don't line up perfectly. Also after 99,000 how can you tell if it's hitting 100K, or 200K, even worst it may read 20K when it's actually 120K. 

[padgett]

Guess I am surprised by all the interest. Back in the day I remember being taught what to look for in a car (pedals, seats, steering wheel,...) and what they should look like for various mileages. About the last thing you trusted was the odo since was so easy to alter. Also back then rent cars charged by the mile and people expected warranties to last the full five years.

[Larry Schramm]

13 hours ago, padgett said:

Guess I am surprised by all the interest. Back in the day I remember being taught what to look for in a car (pedals, seats, steering wheel,...) and what they should look like for various mileages. About the last thing you trusted was the odo since was so easy to alter. Also back then rent cars charged by the mile and people expected warranties to last the full five years.

 

Me too.  Door sill plate, drivers seat, wear on the steering wheel, brake pedal wear, dash for evidence of removal and replacement, speedometer cables that might have been left unconnected, trunk wear, and the list goes on.

 

When I was a rep had a car come in that only had maybe 6,000 miles on the odometer. Started looking closely and found the speedometer cable removed at the cruise control transducer.  The cable and end was very dirty.  Reconnected the speedometer cable and super glued the cable to the transducer.  No more complaints on that car. 

 

We also found gas receipts from Detroit and Alabama that indicated it was being driven between the two cities almost weekly for some reason.

[JACK M]

Kind of a backwards twist on this topic.

My neighbor bought a Powerstroke pick up from another neighbor,

It had incredibly low miles as the seller rarely drove it. So we all know the miles were indeed low and original.

After about a year something went wrong with something in the dash assembly. (I don't know much about these)

The pick up was taken to a Ford dealer with something like 40,000 miles on an almost 20 year old truck.

The repair was going to be very expensive to replace the cluster with new so the new owner sent out a search for a used one.

Now this pick up in immaculate condition and being 20 years old and has about 50,000 miles on it shows 250,000 miles on the dash.

But its fixed and the new owner knows how many miles are really on it.

 

People are telling me that my 1995 Powerstroke with 130,000 miles on it is just getting broken in.

[JWLawrence]

One could also use an electric drill with a speedo cable in the chuck to turn back mileage. This is a slow process and takes many hours to get a thousand miles off.

 

(o[]o)

 

[Dandy Dave]

Here in New York state at least where you list the mileage on the forms at the Department of Motor Vehicles there's a clause that read's, Not applicable if the vehicle is over 10 years old on the title at least. I guess they figure old stuff is going to have a problem and the speedometers are going to be replaced or repaired after so many years. They do ask what the odometer reads at the time of registering the Vehicle however.    

Edited March 2, 2017 by Dandy Dave (see edit history)

[padgett]

Florida has three checkboxes under the odo box,

1. reflects ACTUAL MILEAGE. 2. is IN EXCESS OF ITS MECHANICAL LIMITS. 3. is NOT THE ACTUAL MILEAGE.

[junkyardjeff]

After reading all the posts I am going to doubt the mileage on any old vehicle I buy.

[Guest GT52]

On ‎3‎/‎2‎/‎2017 at 4:59 PM, junkyardjeff said:

After reading all the posts I am going to doubt the mileage on any old vehicle I buy.

LOL, that would be a real good idea...buy the car, not the story.  Having been a part of the muscle car era I have to laugh at all the "low mileage" muscle cars available today.  It's funny, in 1975, when they weren't worth anything, most of them already had at least 40-60K on them.  And they still seem to have 40-60K on them today, 40 years later.  Remarkable.

 

I actually think that "rolling them back" was less common among "consumers" than just not putting the miles on in the first place.  Everyone was aware that there was a huge difference in resale value, and acted accordingly...if you traded your car in with high mileage, the dealer was going to turn it back anyway.  I'm not sure that I had one friend who had their speedometer hooked up even most of the time, it taking all of about 30 seconds to reach under the dash and unhook the cable at the back of the speedometer.  We'd hook them up to pass PA State Inspection, put a few hundred or a thousand miles on them to make the mileage at least believable, then unhook them until the next inspection.  Many of the speedometers were grossly inaccurate anyway, because of gear changes, and it was just as easy to use the tachometer to gauge your speed. 

[D Yaros]

On 2/28/2017 at 8:55 AM, Bhigdog said:

I wonder, how long would it take to roll back 5,000 miles when jacking up a car and letting it run in reverse gear?

[padgett]

You may live long enough assuming it does not have an anti-reverse cog.