hi guys
i have been looking around at c4's and one guy said he was not sure if the miles shown are correct????? this really surprised me and got me thinking, is it possible that the car would have more miles than what is shown? i never taught about it on the digital types but i guess if there's a will there's a way. is there any way of knowing if the miles may have been altered or is this something that is extremely difficult for someone to do. i am a little spooked now since some of the cars i have been looking at had very low miles.
thanks
phil

 

I always look first at the brake pedal and see how much wear there is. It can be replaced though so its not a sure fire tell. Very worn or brand new conditions are definite tells.

 

89 and down vettes are very easy to er....adjust. 90 up (vettes) require electronic replacement. A good rule of thumb is that unless they can guarantee accuracy, assume otherwise.

 

I don't know how difficult it is to change the mileage, but its very simple to unplug the connector into the VSS thus rendering the speedometer and odometer inoperable.

So yes it would be very easy to find a C4 odometer that doesn't display the correct mileage on the odometer.

 

What does CarFax say about it?

 

When I was looking I found more than one with suspect odometer readings. This was especially true if they came from out of state.

A neighbor of mine had one for sale and it did look good but there was probably 80,000 miles missing on the odometer. When I showed him the CarFax on it he got very upset. He bought it out of state and he sounded like a guy who was about to contact his lawyer.

 

If you are shopping for Any used vehicle, and are even Looking at the odometer (except for laughs), you are already in trouble.

Carfax is Usually reliable, otherwise start looking at mechanical wear items or "user interface" things like carpet, pedal pads, seat cushions, steering wheel "hold points", tires, etc.

Never take a dash odometer reading as honest. Not even from your mother...

 

Milage matters somewhat, but when the newest C4 is 12 years old, it is more about the condition of the car, and the records the owner has kept.

I have an 86' and a 99'. I bought the 99' new. I have all the reciepts for the 99' in a file folder. The 86' was bought used in May of 04'. I have a large binder of reciepts and documents and a 4'X2'X2' plastic "Parts tub" that I have all the stock parts and old parts that I have replaced. Both cars have maintenance logs. To me that says a lot more about how the car was looked after than the milage.

Sorry to be long winded, but a short story on Corvette durability. Around 2002, I was at an autocross held by the local Corvette club. One of the organizers had an 89' auto that he had owned for years. He asked for volunteers to drive his car, and we were happy to oblige! The driver before me put at least 15 hard, HARD laps on this car. Spinning tires, slides, the works. When I got in the car, I thought for sure it was toast. Not only was it not toast, but the engine did not tick, groan, smoke or do anything else but perform wonderfully. The car had 189,xx miles on it. Afterwards, I asked the owner how recently he had rebuilt the engine. His answer - never. He said he replaced the tranny around 120K miles, but the engine was all stock and all original. The 5 wonderful laps I did in that 89' went a long way toward convincing me to get a C4.

 

Very good advise. Like something we'd recommend on the C3 side.

 

Hard to say - I've owned my since new and it's got 60,000 and change (and enough parts have been replaced to fill up a couple of posts, but absent warranty work, it hasn't been to a Dealer). Looking at the cluster bezel screws won't be much help either, if only because so many of these clusters have needed replacement, and often, that started under warranty (I'm on my 3rd). I'd go for records and the important ones out here would be the biennial smog test. That will give the mileage every 2 years, so a couple of years worth should be a fair indication of mileage. You could also take the VIN or plate number and plug it into the BAR smog test site which will give you a pass/fail history. And if anything is labled as a "gross" polluter, you might take that to mean that it was tired and worn out whenever that test took place, so if it's showing relatively low mileage - say less than 100k - you might raise an eyebrow or two.

 

thanks for all the information.

 

Check the front bumper for rock chips. Look at all the paint very closely in bright sunlight from all angles as there are techniques for hiding paint chips and scratches from the casual observer. A lot of them could mean higher miles if its supposed to be a low mileage car. Also check windshield condition. A lot of pitting and surface blemishes in the outside layer indicates higher miles. Do the seats look like they're in the condition you would expect to see for the miles? Be careful here, there are a lot of ways to doctor up seats for car showing. If it is supposed to be low mileage see if it has been repainted or had a recent new windshield, this could be an attempt to hide wear and tear. How about the carpets, are they original? Mine had the original floor mats and they were in good condition, they did not have the heel spot worn into them which was a very good sign. Carpets should be original and in good condition for a lower mileage car. Are the shocks and suspension components original? Check the condition of the suspension bushings. You have to evaluate the complete picture to get an idea if stated mileage is likely to be true, if you notice a lot of red flags move on.