If you’re like most people, when you head out shopping for used car or truck you really aren’t looking for the deal of a lifetime. Just a fair deal from an honest person. Someone who will be upfront and truthful about what you’re getting in terms of wear and tear on the vehicle, and at the same time be willing to be reasonable in terms of price. That is a car or truck that is basically worth what it’s going to cost you, with no unwanted surprises.
Now for sure what they don’t want is a vehicle that has had the mileage numbers tempered with and reduced by a swindler. Of course it’s illegal, and in fact it’s a serious felony that can land a perpetrator behind bars for years. However, every now and again they do catch someone who’s doing it. Generally what they do, is take a high mileage newer vehicle with perhaps 80 or 90,000 miles on it, and then drop the mileage down about 40 or 50,000 miles.
Now if its a late model expensive car or truck a mileage adjustment like this can make a huge difference in price, and unless you know what to look for and understand how they did it, you can drive the car for years and never realize you’ve been scammed. What you probably will notice though, is the minor mechanical problems that start to come on much too early. About 50,000 miles too early.
If you’re like most people you probably think that changing the miles on on a vehicle’s odometer is a complex task. Perhaps requiring something like a locksmith who can decipher the complex mechanism and uses a set of specialty tools? The truth here, is that all it requires a trip to the wrecking yard where they remove the speedometer from a car or truck that got totaled early in its life, and then they replace it with the one in the vehicle they plan on selling.
So the first red flag that should catch your eye, is that a car or truck you’re examining has a mileage reading that seems unreasonably low. Oh of course the seller will have some “cooked up story” ready to go about how the car spent years in storage or was driven by a little old lady, but don’t let it this sway you. The fact is that these types of extremely low mileage vehicles are really quite rare, and the people that own them very rarely sell them.
So the first to look once you get inside the car or truck, is around the dashboard area to check the screws to see if they’ve been removed and replaced. Are there any missing? Are there scratches on around them? What you have to consider here, is that a speedometer is a very rarely replaced. Then inspect places like the drivers side armrest, steering wheel, and carpeting below the pedals to see if the wear there corresponds with what’s showing on the mileage reading.
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