Odometer Fraud

[Sturgeon]

So my wife and I recently purchased a 2010 Nissan Pathfinder through a private party on Facebook Marketplace. Despite being a somewhat older vehicle, we thought it would be good for us to use as a third vehicle when we take weekend trips with the kids since it is bigger than our other two vehicles. We drove out of town to look at the vehicle and met in a public place. It seemed to ride and drive strong and for the advertised mileage of 106,000 seemed to be a good price. We bought it and drove it home a few weeks ago. I went to change the cabin air filter and found a service sheet that stated in January the vehicle had around a 190,000 miles. We were definitely mislead, but haven't had any issues with the vehicle yet. I'm kind of at a loss on how to proceed. Just take the hit? Reach out to the seller? Get authorities involved?

I've had good luck in the past with used vehicles, but got a sour taste right now. Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[BigHink66]

Get the authorities involved right from the very beginning.

 

[Traveler]

Do you want to give the vehicle back and get a full refund? Keep the vehicle but get some refund? And/Or do you want the seller legally charged with fraud?


every “what should I do” should be preceded by “what do I want”

 

[Mosby]

I would definately go to the police and see what your options are. Also maybe small claims court. May not get your money back but it would bug the crap out of me until I did something.

 

[Silveroddo]

It all depends how far you want to take it and what type of documentation you have from the purchase. Did you get a bill of sale and if so does it lay out any claims to the sellers knowledge of anything? I'm assuming the invoice you found is pretty black and white, but you could call the shop that created it and confirm your suspicions and try to find out if there was anything they diagnosed that would be the reason the seller dumped it. You didn't carfax it or get any kind of history report did you? They are far from perfect, but there is supposed to be a buy back clause if things like that are missed. If you plan to go after the guy and don't have a history report it might pay to get one to back up/bolster your argument.
I'm not sure what the laws in WI are, but it would pay to find out what kind of crime it is to tamper with an odometer and see what kind of backing you can get from law enforcement. Probably a long shot, but worth looking into.
In the grand scheme of things these situations generally just become an educational experience, if the guy you bought it from doesn't ghost you completely the odds of him cooperating are probably pretty slim, so you need to develop a compelling enough reason for him to cooperate, which its unlikely that you will be able to establish unless he gave you a bill of sale stating that there were no known issues and he was representing it to the best of his knowledge.
Sorry to hear that you ended up on this end of one of these deals, its unfortunate but its getting tougher and tougher to buy a used rig without getting burned. In the search for my wifes current rig half the cars with "clean" carfaxes we looked at had undocumented paint work, some of it good, some of it horrible. My buddy was looking for a Toyota Tundra, thought he had the perfect rig until he pulled the carfax and the "clean" title Toyota turned out to have been a Lemon Buy back AND a Theft recovery.

 

[hodgeman]

Is it a reconstructed title?

 

[Rich M]

Sorry to hear about this...

Carfax is a nice service. I did it when buying used and felt better havignit.

 

[Marbles]

Report it. Now that you know about it, you could be liable if you ever sell the vehicle.

Wisconsin DMV Official Government Site - Odometer tampering

wisconsindot.gov

 

[Sturgeon]

Thanks for the responses guys. I do not have a bill of sale for the vehicle nor did I run a CarFax. I did do a VIncheck on NICB and the vehicle was not in an accident and the title was clean. I don't trust anything the guy said now about service that was performed on it and am nervous that I'm going to have a lot more issues with repairs since it has at least 90,000 more miles on it.

 

[180splitg3]

Is it possible that the place that serviced the vehicle and printed the service log entered the wrong mileage? Is there another way you know that they changed the mileage 100%? I'm just thinking it's probably not terribly easy to change an odometer - just thinking of other possibilities...

 

[Fatcamp]

Well, run a Carfax now. It's really a common sense move.

And how did you register the vehicle without a bill of sale?

 

[Marbles]

In Wisconsin the seller enters the odometer reading on the title. What did this guy put down? If he marked "not actual" you have a difficult case to make, but not impossible.

Odometers are easy to change. Happens to about 450,000 vehicles every year.

This site gives things to look for, you have already found one of them.

Odometer Fraud | NHTSA

www.nhtsa.gov

 

[Silveroddo]

Sadly on most vehicles it’s as easy a buying a used gauge cluster from a junk yard with lower miles and swapping them. You really have to watch post 2003 GM trucks because they had gauge cluster issues, reputable shops could put them back to the correct miles when repaired, however it was mostly on the honor system. I sold one to a buddy that had 260k on it and the cluster went out, he found one in a junk yard with 150 on it.....it was a $1000 vehicle but it highlights how easy it is to do.

 

[AZ8]

I’d take that service sheet you found back to the service shop listed on the receipt. I bet they have the entire service record for that vehicle on their system. If all the other receipts show the correct mileage, then it was a data entry mistake on this one. If not, you’d easily be able to see the mileage increase for each service and it would be an easy case to prove fraud.

 

[weekender7]

Get the authorities involved right from the very beginning.

That's the only way to resolve this.

 

[GunsAreFun]

I’d take that service sheet you found back to the service shop listed on the receipt. I bet they have the entire service record for that vehicle on their system. If all the other receipts show the correct mileage, then it was a data entry mistake on this one. If not, you’d easily be able to see the mileage increase for each service and it would be an easy case to prove fraud.

This

 

[colersu22]

Is it possible that the place that serviced the vehicle and printed the service log entered the wrong mileage? Is there another way you know that they changed the mileage 100%? I'm just thinking it's probably not terribly easy to change an odometer - just thinking of other possibilities...

This happened on a truck I bought. Dealership had mileage as 124,000 then a few days later same dealer had it as 112,000. The mileage got entered wrong at 124,000 and threw a red flag on the car giving it a branded title on car fax.

 

[go_deep]

Does the receipt you found have the VIN of the vehicle you bought on it? Just thinking maybe they own more than one vehicle like this and a service slip for a different vehicle got in the one you bought? Just a thought

 

[Smithb9841]

Did you find any other service records? It could be as simple as the place he took it fat fingered the keyboard when typing.

 

[Sturgeon]

A very generous fellow on here with a subscription ran the CarFax for me. He confirmed the vehicle does indeed have north of 200k. I will contact the Police tomorrow and try to trouble my lawyer neighbor for a minute of free counsel. Hopeful for a favorable solution, but it's doubtful.