When I went used car shopping back in the old days, I always put a strip of black tape over the odometer. I found a 1957 Buick at a Buick dealer where the dealer hadn’t removed the service sticker from the door jamb and the car had lost 10,000 miles. In 1964, I saw a 1960 Buick. LeSabre that had just been traded at the Ford dealer. The odometee read 75,000. After the car was cleaned up and back on the lot, the odometer read 45,000. Later that year, I saw a nice 1959 Ford Galaxie at the same dealer. The odometer had been reset to all zeros,as had seven other cars on the lot. My dad bought a 1952 Dodge that had been ademonstrator. The car had 5000 miles and the dealer reset the odometer to 4000 presumably so he could honor the 4000 mile new car warranty. I bought a 1968 Javelin in 1971. When I checked the car out, the dealer forgot about the state inspection and the record was,in the glove compartment. The,Javelin had been inspected. In February with 55000 miles. By May, it had lost 22000 miles and the odometer read 33000. When I showed thiis, to the dealer I bought the car for wholesale book. It turned out to be a a great car.
I don’t hold it against Jay Leno for working for a dealer that did odometer modification. It was,a common practice with dealers.
I remember getting advice about buying used cars way back then, as odometer rollbacks must have been thought of as an issue. The advice was to look at the brake pedal. One truck I remember looking at, 40,000 miles and the rubber on the brake pedal was worn to the metal. Red flag for that one!
Back in the '50s (and possibly earlier), it was SOP for Cadillac dealers to roll back the odometer on Caddies that were traded in, and they would roll them back to ZERO!
GM’s slogan at that time was something along the lines of “a pre-owned Cadillac is as good as a new car of any other make”.
In the days before government regulations regarding odometer roll-backs, Cadillac dealers were able to get away with this outrageous chicanery.
Back then it was common and not illegal, although highly questionable. My dad drove 100 miles a day in his 58 Chevy wagon. I think it had about 60-70,000 on it when he traded it for a 61 Chevy Wagon at the Chevy/Buick dealer. A week later it appeared on the OK Used Car Lot at the dealer. I checked the odometer and it read 26,000. It was late model and looked good.
What I wonder about though is how many miles it actually had on it. It had been a company car that they replaced every year so it was a one year old car, but something tells me the company might have put a lot of miles on it to trade every year. We bought it with maybe 15,000 on it. So who knows, it might have had 150,000 on it which would have been good for a 58.
But yeah, a lot of people did it back in the 60’s and you just had to be careful. Especially late model cars with a lot of miles on that otherwise looked like pretty good cars.
It was fraud back then too, but not as uncommon as people think.
I do the same thing Barky does; look at the wear on the pedal pads and other common wear items. Just a few years ago I was helping a friend look at used cars and saw one that definitely was well beyond the odometer mileage. It probably had a boneyard ECU installed at some point.
I wonder; is that the new version of the ol’ electric drill trick?
Now though you need to report the mileage when selling a car or report that the mileage is unknown due to a change in the odometer or chip. Back in those days there was no such requirement, at least in Minnesota.
@thesamemountainbike, I think there are some YouTube videos where people show how to roll back electronic, digital odometers.
Bing, I don’t think reporting the mileage is required in NH. All that’s required here is a Bill of Sale, and it can be as simple as a hand-written note with the identifications of the buyer, the seller, the car, and the amount I believe must be at least $1 for the sale to be binding… basically that comes from contract law which requires compensation, identified deliverables, and identification of the parties. If the vehicle is over 15 years old, a title isn’t even necessary, 15 years old or younger it is and it must be clear.
Bing, I don't think reporting the mileage is required in NH.
If you trade in a vehicle then you MUST sign a mileage report. Private sales don’t seem to require it.
Rolling back odometers was common in the old days. Now it’s illegal and they are “tamperproof”:.
The mileage report is to protect the dealer from possible accusations of falsifying mileage. It isn’t required by law.
When I “sold” my pick to my daughter and my Camry to my son (for $10 each to make sure the transfer was legal) I checked into it, and all that was required was a handwritten bill of sale as described in my earlier post. My pickup, being over 15 years old, didn’t even require a title.
Rolling back odometers was common in the old days. Now it's illegal and they are "tamperproof":.
Tamperproof…but you can still buy a vehicle with mileage on the OD that doesn’t match the actual mileage. Go to EBAY and you’ll find hundreds if not thousands of used OD’s for sale for your specific vehicle with LOWER miles.
When I bought cars in the 1960s, the question was not “Has the odometer been wound back?” but was,"How far back did you,wind the odometer? " The question wasn’t “Has this car ever been in an accident?” but instead was “How bad was the accident?” I never asked “Does this. car burn oil?” My question was "How much oil does it burn?"
Odometer readings don’t mean much. It is,the overall condition of the car that is important. What would really be useful is a meter that told the number of hours the engine has been run. Then, one could judge from the odometer reading how the car was used–highway driving vs city driving.
They don’t mean all that much with regard to actual vehicle condition, but I’d argue that they mean a lot with regard to vehicle value.
A 100,000 mile car commands a lower price than a 40,000 mile car. If someone rolls back the odo on the car that I buy, I’m paying more than I should, which will not make me happy.
There’s also the problem of maintenance. So I’m supposed to replace the T-belt at 105k in my Acura. If they’d rolled the odo back when I bought it, I might have passed 105k 40k ago and never know it. That’s a problem.
Every time I’ve gone to a local “pick-it-yourself” junkyard, I’ve noticed the majority of the wrecked vehicles were missing the instrument clusters. Now I know why!
I agree that hour meters in addition to odometers would be more useful. My lawn mower didn’t come with one but I added it day one and is a good tool.
Seems to me the mileage on my Buicks was recorded on the Prom or chip or something either in the ECM or the BCM. Don’t remember anymore. I think I could have easily changed the mileage from 530,000 to maybe 80,000 just by swapping the box but what would be the point? High mileage is a matter of personal pride.