craigslist Beware Potential Odometer Fraud in CA (1 Viewer)

Location

United States

I have been in the market for a 100 series Land Cruiser. Came across this post on Craigslist tonight.

Ad shows 1998 LC with 130k mi. Plates are showing, so I ran CARFAX which shows multiple vehicle registrations where the mileage goes all the way up to over 176k mi then magically drops to "102k mi". The evidence suggests and it is pretty obvious to me that there was odometer fraud based on vehicle CARFAX. Not sure how it is even possible, but they must have rolled it back 100k mi. Not sure the current owner is even aware, they bought it with "102k" then drove it up to "130k".

I chose to flag post and stay away. I did not want to give them my information by contacting. It was listed near Fresno. Beware and do your homework if you see this Land Cruiser for sale!

 

[fjdavid]

Good looking out, thanks!

 

[2001LC]

I came across one out of LV, notice this guy's wording he uses the word another "another 250k miles easily" it's listed with 136K miles. When I asked him about the discrepancy I found at my Lexus . com, he said "don't know, bought with 135K" next day changed ad from 135K to 136K. What's interesting about this, he had reveled to me a week earlier; he bought 9 months earlier and his wife has been driving. It was like pulling teeth to get the VIN, took a week of repeated request by me. When I call him on this discrepancy, I asked for picture of VIN as may be transposing error. He never provided. The ad is still on CL.


Typically these crooks don't show VIN or plates anywhere in listing ad, they also avoid giving to potential buyers. What these crook's must be doing, is switching the instrument gauge with one from a junk yard. One report in mud a guy bought with ~300K miles more than odometer read. He met they guy in a parking lot on a cash only "great" deal.

Some "potential odometer rollback" are errors:
Yesterday while doing pre inspect DD on one in Colorado. I pulled a car fax that showed a potential odometer rollback. I called the location (Dealer) where the discrepancy first appeared, to verify their reported mileage. They reported mileage wrong. They have since called me back to inform me they have notified car fax.

 

[AZcruisers100and80]

I've had the same issue in the Bay Area on a gray LX 470 from the same era....I forget if it was a 98 or 2002...somewhere in between. Guy had it listed at 146k miles. He provided me a VIN...which was from a DIFFERENT LX, that was for sale at a local Lexus dealer. Luckily, I insisted on seeing the VIN #'s myself in person...noticed they didn't match. The vehicle he is selling with "146k" has 270+k on it. Maybe he's pals wth your guy in Fresno. This was in Vallejo/near Napa.

 

[TrailBum]

Good catch, thanks for looking out for us!

 

[bearskinrug]

I've noticed a lot of this in the southwest especially. I have seen a lot of carfax reports that mention the truck is registered in a new state briefly and it is listed as "odometer exempt." Sheninegans ensue....

 

[mervo]

Nice catch. I found a similar one on a tundra in Fort Collins 2 months ago. I alerted the owner/seller and they got incredibly defensive and hung up on me. Oh well.

 

[3_puppies]

with the digital speedometers, can this be done thru the computer or are they swapping housings??

in the old days it was very simple to do, seems like it would be tougher now but I'm not a computer genius.