Turning Back the Odometer

[sport2004]

Does anyone have a sense of how easy this is to do or how common it might be? Reason I ask is that, mechanically, my vehicle seems a tad worn out in comparison to higher mileage Runners.

Any insight appreciated.

 

[4RunnerIdiot]

Do you have the service records? It's usually the easiest way to spot odometer fraud. But yes, it's way more common than one would hope.

 

[simple]

It is super easy to do it. They sell them on eBay with other mileages, or you can get custom mileages put on as well. And concur with idiot, lol, the easiest way to tell is with a carfax or my records.

 

[Nisken]

throw your VIN into toyota owners as well if you don't want to pay for a CarFax first.

 

[sport2004]

Thanks for the comments.

I'm in the States, vehicle from Montreal. Despite that, I did manage to call a dealership over the nearby border and they were kind enough to fax me some service records on the VIN (not available in the US). The records didn't really show much, and a bit cryptic with all the code data, etc, will have to look them over more carefully and see if I can decipher and spot anything suspicious.

 

[Derek]

Create a Toyota Owners account if you haven't already here:

https://www.toyota.com/owners/my-vehicle

Then plug in your VIN and view the service history. This may give you a better idea of what was performed at the dealer and what the mileage was at each service.

 

[simple]

Don’t Canadian vehicles come with a KM cluster?

 

[sport2004]

Don’t Canadian vehicles come with a KM cluster?

This one has both on the speedometer, with metric in smaller numerals.

 

[sport2004]

Create a Toyota Owners account if you haven't already here:

https://www.toyota.com/owners/my-vehicle

Then plug in your VIN and view the service history. This may give you a better idea of what was performed at the dealer and what the mileage was at each service.

I did that and when I checked, it only shows history starting when I acquired the vehicle.

 

[unevolved]

Could just be that it wasn't maintained well. I've seen newer vehicles with less miles than mine that are in far worse shape. TLC goes a looooooooooooong way.

 

[mitchmahon]

But they can fake the Carfax. Just use "inspect element" and take a photo of carfax that you change the VIN

 

[88Center]

You can Youtube on how to do it.

People give full breakdowns and tools needed.

I think it's way more prevalent than most believe. Just a hunch.

 

[sport2004]

In light of the fact that mileage greatly affects resale value, and if relatively easy to do, there’s incentive to turn it back.

 

[daprotege5]

recently helped a friend sell his, and when someone asked for the vin# to pull a carfax came back with mileage in the 300k, asked him about it, said wtf, he had bought it 4-5 years ago with 60ish on the dash, and the dash now shows 140ish . so its definitely do able, told him most likely someone swapped the dash, cause mileage that low is rare for these years models.