Odometer Fraud

alright well you are entitled to your opinion, which you like to espouse condescendingly. Good luck OP, just throwing out suggestions.

 

You can make blanket generalizations and advise people to make empty threats without due cause, and I can say matter of factly that doing so is stupid.

You can interpret that as you wish.

 

IBTL

 

OP good luck with everything it's a crappy feeling! Years ago I bought a lemon 4Runner from a Chevy dealership that was in a bad rollover and had fraudulent mileage. And Carfax said the truck was very good. And on my 03 Taco the Carfax said the mileage was fraudulent because a dealership entered it wrong during a visit. Take Carfax with a grain of salt...

 

This doesn't exactly compare. If carfax guarantees something that turns out not to be so they buy the car back. No such luck for the OP.
On the bright side this is not a high end car and those engines go for about $800 on Craigslist with low miles

 

I realize that the situations are very different however all I was pointing is how inaccurate Carfax can be. And that it should never be you main or only source of info about a used car. FYI Carfax buy back is nonsense in the state of NY. There are a ton of sitpulations and just buying off a certified dealer isn't enough.

 

Okay we are all here to help. If you read the whole thread you would have seen that carfax records match dealer records so the only thing wrong is OP's odo.
He is also in CA, not NY. Aside from that I agree that Carfax can really suck

 

I think first and foremost the OP should take CarFax with a grain of salt and take the necessary steps to verify whether or not his truck has indeed been tampered with.

 

yeah you guys are pretty awesome thanks for all the good words and advice.

and just as an update, we have paperwork into dmv for full vehicle report and going to a trusted family friend mechanic (not the mechanic who told me car was legit) on Tuesday and hope to get a complete rundown on the truck.

CHEERS GUYS! thanks for supporting a fellow taco owner!

 

the guy may have honestly not have had any more idea then you did. the first owner may have switched the dash gauges to hide the high mileage to sell it to the guy you bought it from so I wouldn't blame the guy you bought it from without reason to believe he knew. guys who do that sort of stuff usually laugh in your face when they are caught knowing there is nothing you can really do about it.

if the guy offered you your money back why not negotiate a "partial" refund because of the high mileage

 

that's my guess as well tbh. I have asked him, but it is hard to communicate with the language barrier, he speaks Spanish (should have paid attention in high school). I'm hoping to hear back from him in a couple of days, he said he will look for the info of the guy who he bought it off of and see how much $ he can pull together.

 

I don't know if I'm late on this or not and don't quote me on this cuz I'm not 100% sure but I believe that they make a certain mechanical mechanism so that you cannot tamper with the odometer. It has been that way for at least ten years or so, unless they took the whole dash apart and roll the numbers back themselves.

Like I said I'm not 100% sure on this you may want to call a mechanic

 

all you have to do is replace gauge cluster or odometer unit from a different truck and it will read the different trucks mileage. thanks for the advice tho! I'll def ask again just to be sure to be sure

 

Yeah that's what I meant by ripping the whole dash apart and changing the numbers themselves.
Good luck man, worst case scenario you still own a Toyota and it'll probably run another 200,000 miles you just have to keep up on the maintenance.

 

Having flash backs about my first Tacoma when I read your story.... Basically a mirror image of what had happened to me. In my opinion the DMV is worthless and the department that deals with odometer fraud basically told me on the phone "what do you want me to do about it.." with attitude.

Do you know if there was any other service records on Carfax after that smog check? Sometimes I've heard that those smog places enter the odo reading wrong.

Here's my thread that I had created earlier this year, it might help with something...
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/victim-of-odo-rollback-best-thing-to-do.437922/

 

You mentioned the guy spoke Spanish, I assume he is Mexican. Is it possible someone brought this truck in from Mexico (KM's on the odo) and changed out the cluster for one with Miles?

 

Hispanic is the term you're looking for.

Me: Trying to keep TW PC since about 2 minutes ago

 

Doesnt the ECM keep track of mileage separately from the odometer? If so, is there any way to extract that info, say at a dealership?

 

ya definitely trying to stay positive. if anyone knows how easy it would be, feel free to chime in.

from what I've seen about the car it seams like there's a steady and consistent rise in mileage up until 2014, last reported mileage. ya sound about right for the dmv. same reaction I got.

solid theory, would line up from km to miles but from what I've gathered car has been owned only in California.

from what I know, the ecm is located in the odometer, but I could be 100% wrong. if anyone knows the answer to this please chime in.

 

Do OBD-II readers pull mileage from the ECU? OP if you can borrow a reader perhaps that would give you something.