urjit

When shopping for a SC430, what is the best way to detect potential odometer tampering?

The obvious answer may be to check CarFax, but what if the owner rolled back the odometer before a scheduled state inspection or official dealer visit?

Is it difficult for an owner to roll back the odometer on an SC430? I've seen some suspiciously low mileage older SC430's for sale, which is what made me think about this question.

Pnuge88

iTrader: (1)

you can't roll the odometer back. only change it to a lower mileage one.

they're also low mileage because older people buy these cars and don't drive it often. it's not surprising you found a low mileage SC430.

Mine had 64k miles and I bought it 10/10.. mines a 2002. thats 8 years with only 64k miles. pretty low. but there's plenty out there that are garage queens with barely any miles on it considering the year

robertrios

iTrader: (11)

bought mine with 8k it is a 2004 purchased 12-2011...it was a vacation home car here in the Naples/Bonita Springs area. I would question this in a Honda Civic but not a car like the SC430 they have been weekend cars and such when bought new.

VVTiBob

Another way to check is to grab the VIN and check the car's history on the Lexus Drivers site. Mileage is a component part of the information. If the combination meter has been changed out it would be very obvious.

PLAYTYM

My car shows an odometer discrepancy on carfax, but what caused it was not actual odometer tampering, which is hard to do with a digital odometer without changing it out.

The reason that mine shows that way was due to a new dealer recording the mileage wrong when the car arrived. Human error caused the discrepancy and the reason I know this is I know the complete history of my car from day one to my garage.

redliner8

iTrader: (1)

Checking the CarFax is an easy way, but most cars have really huge gaps and lack detailed history (like my car). Or history may be incorrect (Like in Playtym's case). The good thing is, it would be very difficult to change the odometer reading (you can't just 'roll-back' the numbers).

In addition to CarFax or checking the VIN Lexus, I would check how worn the seats are, see if there's any 'play' with the doors (up/down), see if the letters/numbers on the interior buttons (radio, nav, steering wheel controls) are worn, paint is worn on the key fob buttons, the key itself is worn...These will give you some insight as to how old a car is. I'm sure there's other things too that I missed.

Sgtnapsc43

Just bought 2002 Blk on Blk with 32000 miles carfax from a old man like MYself 60 years young and loving every minute.

rxonmymind

Just ran into this issue today. There was a 2006 400h that's going to before sale shortly in Marin. The vehicle states 14k but looking at the overall vehicle things DO NOT add up. Seats look like 75-100k. Back outside window molding was torn off. The roof racks as really used. The headphones for the DVD system looked like is was in a tool box. Back leather seats were not very good either. On this case things didn't add up.

angus

iTrader: (4)

It should be noted that is it very easy to have someone alter the odometer reading on digital odometers, there are people everywhere who do it for a living.

FLYCT

It's important to check that whomever services your car properly document the odometer reading.

The Lexus dealer who changed my oil on my LS460, one month prior to me deciding to sell it, miss-reported the OD by 3000 miles. They reported it as 36,xxx miles instead of 33,xxx miles. When I went to sell it to Carmax they would not buy it because the OD reading was 2,000 miles less than previously reported service per Carfax. They suggested I keep the car and drive it for another 2,000 miles and then bring it back.

I checked the oil change receipt from the dealer and it also had an incorrect reading.

angus

iTrader: (4)

I have had to have 3 different cars corrected by car fax over the years.

Each time I emailed their customer service with an explanation and I let them know that I had the records for the car showing the incorrect mileage.

They simply corrected it.

angus

iTrader: (4)

http://support.carfax.com/c_datarequest