incorrect carfax report or a rollback that I'll get drilled with?

Carfax is never wrong, and sellers of used cars never lie, but always remember to add a "1" in front of the mileage number, when appropriate.

But remember Toyotas after 1982 have 6 figures on the odometer, not 5, so he's seeing 053xxx on the odometer.

Charles of Schaumburg

Currently at 223850 on his odometer.

I ran a car fax on my moms car that got wrecked so bad it was almost totaled. Came back clean 3 years after the accident. Carfax is wrong sometimes.

Unless he has a pile of service records or a log that supports the

53K, I suspect it's been clocked. But the final decision is yours.

What are all the data points? You provided:

1997 - new 1999 - 14K 2002 - 90K 2006 - 53K There should be more data points - Smog is supposed to be biennial where required, and 2004 is missing.

Those mileage numbers are entered by the smog technician, not the owner, and they have no reason to report an incorrect number.

-->--

What are all the data points? You provided:

1997 - new 1999 - 14K 2002 - 90K 2006 - 53K

Those are all of the data points provided. Additionally, the last entry in the vehicle history report is that 2002 smog check, no registration/renewal entries after that.

This is starting to look more and more like a rollback and a very fishy deal.

The carfax is a good tool to press on the seller to lower the price. You could find totalled car just because it was vandalized (broken windows, slashed tires, busted headlights), but after repair it still will run great. On the other hand you may come across nice-looking low mileage beauty with latent engine damage. My 79 Supra was wrecked, stolen, flooded, vandalized but it still was looking/running good after repairs, and no carfax will cover cars prior to 1981, so the car's history was only known to me. Also, many people will not show the major repairs in the near past to the prospective buyer. I rather check the car license for unpaid tickets/citations and smog checks.

I would not rely on Carfax to be accurate, if it were me.

mike hunt

Very good, you're learning... ;-P It's not a definite thing, but that report gave you an important clue that would certainly make me think that "The game is afoot."

If you walk in with your eyes open and know what the car is worth, they can't cheat you. Either they have service records proving the mileage on the car, and that 90K Carfax report was in error... Or you make a realistic low-ball counter-offer on the price - If the car had

90K on it two years ago, unless it's been sitting it has to have 120K plus by now.

"Okay, the odometer has 53K on it. Instrument clusters can be changed real easy. How many miles on the whole car?" ;-)

If you walk into the meeting with the seller, and your gut says this is a fishy deal, go with your gut - it's usually right. Most people won't listen to that little voice going "I've got a very bad feeling about this...", and they get into a whole lotta trouble that way.

If you can't find any hard proof that they're trying to rip you off, don't make any accusations you can't back up - just make up an excuse that the car isn't the right one for you, and get the heck outta there. Let them sucker someone else.

-->--