Paculdo

quick question.. if you are purchasing a car.. a pre-owned car.. and you asked for the carfax and it's documented that the car had already 40k miles but the actual odometer is at 38k - can you go after the dealership and tell them about it? is the dealership liable (DMV)? like this is some sort of false advertisement or something?

is carfax that reliable? thing is, the dealership have let me take the car home.. to drive it.. my wife noticed the descrepancy in the carfax report versus the odometer value..

i like the car.. inspected it.. had a bodyshop and a mechanic check it and they say its all clean.. certified to 100k or 2012..

what's ur thought? thanks in advance.

LILBENZ230

Carfax is reliable but they do make mistakes. Is the dealership in question a Mercedes-Benz dealership? You could ask for someone at the dealership to look at the VMI.

Does Carfax say "ODOMETER FRAUD" or does it just show something like service @ 40,000 miles.

Need more detail.

W203E35

I think it's probably a mistake somewhere not necessarily fraud.

When the car enters the dealer they record the mileage and that's how carfax get's it. Maybe they recorded the number wrong.

for example it might have been 22,444 and some how they might have put 24,222. something like that and over the time it accumulated and in the end you are 2K off.

I think it was human error rather than odometer fraud.

Good Luck

LILBENZ230

I was thinking a dealer might have documented "40,000 mile service" at 37,000 miles or something. Unless it's flagged by carfax, I don't think you've got an issue. If the carfax is flagged, I'm not sure I'd buy it. I definitely wouldn't if I couldn't get carfax to correct it as you would run into woes when you went to sell/trade it later.

OneOfaKindTrini

iT CoulD Be a Mistake... Where Are YOu Buying The Car From?

Paculdo

there's no indication in the carfax report that there's an odometer fraud.. i pointed this out in the dealership and they say they can guarantee that the odometer wasn't tampered.. as you all guys mentioned, it may have been an error when the tech entered the odometer reading during scheduled service.. dealership in houston area...

Paculdo

here's a bit of the detail in the report...
06/02/2008 - 25,069 oil and filter changed, maintenance inspection completed, safety inspection completed
06/02/2008 - passed safety inspection, passed emissions inspection
12/10/2008 - 31,834 - brakes checked, manufaturer's recommended maintenance performed
03/27/2009 - 42,511 - engine/powertrain computer/module checked
09/07/2009 - (no mileage) - no recalls open for repair

do you think that it should have been 32,511 instead of 42,511?

the current odo reading is at 39,118 miles.. there's no other report (carfax) that the car was bought from any auctions, etc.. from 09/07 to present at the dealership.. i added that extra 100+ miles as i had it at 39,010.

i have read that you can call carfax to correct the 'erroneous' entry? anyways, if i ended getting this car, how will it reflect in the report? it'll be less (mileage) than that last entry hence - will be subject for odometer fraud/rollback? when they apply for the title, etc it will be less than 42k.

ATL_MB

Look at the dates from 31,834 miles to 42,511 miles - I don't think it is likely that someone put almost 11,000 miles on the car in approx. 14 weeks (possible, but not likely). Looks like a data entry error.

Also, why would someone would go to the trouble to roll back the odometer by just 4,000 miles?

LILBENZ230

Agreed. Call carfax about the error prior to purchase. You don't want to risk having problems down the road because of it.