I bought a new vehicle and traded in the old one. But to make an offer on the trade in, they checked the Carfax report. I went to the dealer for the last few repairs and they entered the wrong odometer mileage! The mileage number was entered incorrectly on multiple Instances.
In evaluating the trade in, they assumed the odometer was rolled back (that is embarrassing). They gave me an offer thousands of dollars lower that what I expected.
The first time, I actually noted the discrepancy at the time of the service, but the service department just shrugged it off. And I did not understand the consequences at the time. I mention it here because we have to be watchful as consumers.
(of course, I chose not to purchase the same brand as before).
You don’t have to accept their offer, you can sell your truck to a different party.
I see incorrect “mileage out” entered on repair orders by grease monkeys once a month, they enter one million miles instead of 100,000 miles, it is not proof of tampering.
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How much of a difference in mileage was it? Who here has not felt getting ripped off when buying a car? last few I felt fine, but there is always a doubt I could have done better.
Not a bad idea to make sure the mechanic is entering the correct mileage but mistakes do happen as @Nevada_545 pointed out. We’ve come to rely on Carfax more than looking at the actual service history (If available)
Doesn’t surprise me that a dealer would lowball on a trade in, Dad eventually got $2,000 more on his trade in at a Honda dealer for his '07 CR-V than they offered to start with, the deal ended up at a fair number but would have been even better without all the extras they tried to pitch in the finance office for about double what they discounted the new CR-V.Buying through Costco wasn’t the smooth process he was expecting but Costco was more interested in making things right than the guys at the dealer.
Take it back to the dealer that made the error and see if you can get the mileage in CarFax changed.
A Carfax (or similar type of report) is not a legally-binding document. The seller’s odometer statement, typically located on the back of the title itself is a legally-binding document, and should override any claims made by Carfax or a similar service, unless there is clear evidence of fraud.
That being said, dealers almost always find any excuse possible to lowball customer trade-ins. If your trade-in still runs, and you have a clear title (not still making payments on the vehicle), you can always do better selling it yourself. Think about it. To a dealer, the car is only useful as a widget to resell. They are only going to offer you an amount which allows them a decent profit margin upon resale, plus enough “spread” to cover commission on the sale, any cleaning and reconditioning needed to ready the car for resale. On the other hand, a private party sale will result in someone buying the car to drive, and it’s worth a lot more to this person than it is to a dealer.
I test drove a Ford at one dealer, then went to a second Ford dealer! The second one did not want to work with me on the trade in, so I went back to the first dealer. I saved $7,000.
I asked them to correct their mistake when I first reported the error a few years ago. The dealer asked me to call Carfax and follow an appeal process. Carfax declined - they assumed the dealer was correct and I was the one trying to fool them. I offered to send them a picture, but they said it was easily spoofed.
Anyway, I have already traded in the vehicle to a different dealer and it worked out better.
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