correct me if i am wrong, and i am not but i am gathering from this statement that you "feel" 99% of all "C" graded units are roll backs... buddy you are seriously wrong here. now if you mean 99% of all "C" rated LOW KM units are roll backs then once again you are wrong. did you not read my post about what definds a "C" rated unit? damage to the interior or heavy smoking. this does not mean it is a roll back.
i have seen grade "4" "B" roll backs. the grading of the interior means nothing to whether a unit is a roll back.
I assumed it was obvious that we were referring to Grade C interiors with low Kms as a sure sign of a roll back. An exterior Grade 4 and interior Grade B is about the best you can expect in a 15 year old vehicle and maybe 1% are in that condition, based on looking at thousands of auction listings.
A Grade 4/B vehicle may in fact be rewound as you say, but because it is almost impossible for the vehicle to have more than 150,000 Kms anyway, there is little point in rolling it back because buyers know it is 99% certain to be in excellent shape and the seller won’t get any more by winding it. Even if it is wound back to say, 60,000 Kms, there is very little chance that the buyer will be getting any unpleasant surprises because the actual condition is still excellent.
now this is finally making sense. yes, if someone is lead to believe that a truck with excessive wear on the wear points as you mention is a low km unit then walk away, it probably is a roll back. this is why it is important to see the auction sheet, most of the roll backs are posted as such right on the sheet.
I would say 10-20% of the roll backs are actually noted as such on the auction sheet, (the little asterisk or mark, sometimes in red, next to the mileage is the indicator) and
only where there are obvious stickers/records that contradict the mileage on the odometer. Otherwise everyone at the auction pretends not to see, in the Japanese way. “Face” and “reality” they call it.
BUT THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH INTERIOR RATING, this is common sense. do you understand what i am saying here? you can have excessive wear on the pedals this is usually a sign of high milage, but not a guarrantee...
It’s not a question of taking pedals or any other single feature by its self.
It’s what they all say when seen together.
normal conditions that might be mistaken for high milage:
1990 and newer: steering rim wear is very similar in appearence to sun UV attacking the plastic, same as hand brake and console cover. as another example, in the Pajero the leather they use is poor quality so torn seats and cracking seats is common not a sign of a roll back.
I’ll post a picture of a steering wheel with 150,000 Kms. Note the relatively unworn texture? UV damage, people picking at it; all irrelevant. I’m talking about wear from physical contact: rubbing/arbrasion. Most people’s hands are pretty smooth. It takes a long time to wear the texture off a steering wheel.
to blantantly post the 99% OF ALL "C" RATED UNITS ARE ROLL BACKS is wrong and misleading. to post BEWARE OF ROLL BACKS then this is a good and fair warning that many buyers out there might not realise. people need to use their heads and not their hearts when shopping for a truck.
As noted above, we are talking about 15 year old Grade C interiors. No, obviously not every Grade C interior in the auctions in Japan is rewound, but is is safe to assume that every Grade C interior that is 15 years old (or more) and claims less than 200,000-250,000 Kms is. If you’re buying a truck at auction that is the prudent assumption. When the mileage on a lot of ten year old Landcruisers in the auctions is over 200,000Kms and then when you get back to the 15 year old trucks and they are almost all suddenly less than 150,000 Kms....well, it doesn’t take a Ph.D. to figure out what is going on....
side example of this: every week i get phone calls from people looking to buy a LJ series Land Cruiser. they read my page and the links provided and still call to see if i am serious with that posting or not. in the end many end up buying what they want in the first place. if someone is shopping with their heart instead of their head then ... well... there is nothing we can do to convince them otherwise. if someone see the signs of a roll back but still wants the truck, they will buy it. sad to say but some people are like this
The person who starts putting 3L or IKZTE engines into these trucks and shipping them over here is going to have a nice little biz. Or at least replacing the heads and the IPs before they leave Japan. They must be pretty underpowered in a 4 door body though.
more importantly is that your inspector in Japan can tell a roll back in 5 seconds or not. by the time it gets over here it is way too late.
Sure is, but most auctions don’t have inspectors and most inspectors don’t know or care. The Japanese throw-away mentality considers 10 or 15 year old vehicles to be next to junk anyway, so they don’t really bother to look: “It’s 15 years old, what do you expect?” is the attitude.
Stick to the Grade 4/Bs I say.
I hope you are right!
