Altered odometer?!

Ok so i bought a 2002 Pre runner v6 this week in Georgia. The odometer section of the title says exempt because it's more than 10 years old. I guess this is normal there. I live in Tennessee and it's different here. Anyway, while browsing these forums I saw a truck the was identical and from Georgia. It was posted by KG4GHN. I did some research by googling his user name and searching his posts on here. He mentions being a new member and that his truck has 149,000 only 3 days after when auto check says mine was bought with 149k.

The odometer currently reads 153,000. However this same guy made one of his last posts on here stating he was about to hit 230k in like 2013. He sold the truck to a guy that wanted to buy it just to resell it. I bought it from this guy privately with the impression it has 153k! The truck looks and runs awesome so I figured all was well till I saw this! I googled and found out the KG4GHN guy is named James Shaw and lives in Cedar Town, GA or something now. What should I do? My wife will be so upset if she knows we paid 8500 for the truck with the impression it had far fewer miles!

KBB says it's worth about 9500 or so at this mileage but I still thought I was buying a truck that would last me! What a terrible way to do a introduction as a new guy to the forum

 

Just to add , I looked at a photo copy of the title and the name on the person that sold it to the person I bought it from is in fact James Shaw!

 

Smells fishy............hoping this is all coincidental. Check the sticker with Vin on it on the gauge cluster and see if it matches VIN on truck? I know all the original body panels have those, maybe the cluster does too? Unless you can tell gauge cluster was swapped, not sure how it could go back to 153k. Or does the ecu store the odometer reading and match gauge readout to it? Not sure about some of this stuff. Hope this works out in your favor and welcome aboard.

 

I've lived in Georgia since 1989. I've never heard anything about an odometer being exempt due to age. I've bought 3 cars in the last 12 months, all older than 10 years (I think - lets see. 2004, 2003, and a 1998 - yep). The only exemptions for odometer on the title transfer that I recall is for beyond mechanical capability and for broken.

Here's some GA specific info: http://consumer.georgia.gov/consumer-topics/odometer-fraud

Edit: I'll be damned. There is an age exemption. I've never heard about it. Still, I suspect the deceitful manipulation of an odometer is illegal. As is supplying a falsified odometer statement. http://dor.georgia.gov/odometer-disclosure-information

 

I don't know about 02 Tacomas, but when I was in the svc dept. at Hyundai, the gauges had to be sent out to one of a handful of shops nationwide with corresponding paperwork to have them programmed to the vehicle's correct mileage. My guess is that is the case with the 02 Tacoma. If not sent out for programming, you could buy a cluster with 89k on it, slap it on there and sell it to an unsuspecting person. Shady.

It's a shame about the exempt mileage thing in GA. Here in Mass, when your car gets inspected, the miles are recorded in a statewide database and the DMV has those records. When there's a mileage discrepancy, it shows up on the inspection computers. It's tough to get away with that stuff up here.

 

Wish i had the computer skills you had,,,,, I have a hard time just seaching on ebay,,

 

No way to know for sure until you compare vin numbers. Lots of Tacomas out there. Majority look the same.

 

on newer vehicel it saves the milage in multiple spots - contact Toyota and ask if they can read it out for you (key, ecu). I hope that was the case for 2002 but I'm sure since I had a 2000 celica and it saved it in the ECU and even the key back then

 

I 99.9% sure that mileage tampering is a federal crime : http://www.justice.gov/civil/case/federal-odometer-tampering-statutes

 

Yes, it is a crime......and federal.

 

sorry to hear that you got scammed but I wouldn't worry, the truck is still worth what you paid for it and these trucks get very high mileage so there should be no worries on life span of engine.

he (or the other guy) probably swapped out the instrument cluster to sell it and that's the mileage it had on it.

there is no "crime" in mileage tampering unless your buying it from a dealer, private sales are as-is and mileage tampering is moot in these cases plus you can never prove who did it since it went through another guy too.

now lets play "what if"

maybe there was an issue with the instrument cluster and it had to be replaced for some other reason then mileage tampering, well this is very understandable.

I mean do you know how to make the new gages show the old mileage? because I don't and I think most people don't so I think the only issue here is who knew what and when did they know it.

maybe original owner replaced broken gages and next guy gets it, maybe he doesn't know the history and trusted what he saw on the gage and didn't intentionally mislead you at all. then again maybe they are POS who scammed you but you still got a decent price, albeit maybe not as low as it should have been based on the "true" mileage.

 

Wow, I didn't know that the mileage could be altered like that. Think the only way to do it is change the system computer with a different one. Perhaps something went wrong with the old one and another one was installed but I really have no clue otherwise.

 

Get the truck's VIN# and register it on the Toyota Care website http://www.toyota.com/owners/web/pages/parts-service/toyota-care
Its free

Any service done at an authorized Toyota dealership will show up under the vehicles service history with mileage recorded at the time of the service.

The truck may have never been brought into a dealer for service, but it's worth a try to see if it was ever brought in with more than the 153k on there now.

 

Federal crime. Pursue it

 

There are methods on the web that can change the mileage.

http://translate.google.ca/translate?hl=en&sl=ru&u=http://club-lexus.ru/faq/index.php?article=532

 

im not sure if the digital ones get the mileage reading from the ecm or not (I think they do) so maybe his was the mechanical type

and for those who still think the FBI needs to be called in lol, check the law, private sales are not bound by the same rules as retail sellers.

while emissions and other stuff is about EPA regulations and THAT stuff is a federal crime to tamper with or alter, vehicle mileage is not a DEQ EPA violation no more then dumping sawdust in the tranny so you can drive it long enough for the sale to go through then its your problem.

so to sum up, if you bought it from a dealer you have options, if you bought it from an individual then its done, nothing more can be done about any problems you find.

 

The mileage is stored on a chip on the cluster. You can change the cluster or the chip and it's that easy.

 

thanks for the replies everyone. I actually registered it on the Toyota website but the last service shown was several years agowould not be helpful. I spoke to the guy I bought it from and he said that he bought it from someone else to resell and he had no idea of the mileage and with me being a police officer he said he definitely would not have tried to sell it to someone like me had he known so long story short there is just not much I can do. It runs and drives like brand new so I never questioned mileage. And its still worth what I played for it. I just am afraid of having to replace an engine or transmission 50k mikes down the road.