I looked up a recent truck purchase on Carfax AND Autocheck. Vehicle in question is a 22 year old Toyota truck. The odometer and condition of the truck says 118K. And I mean it looks fantastic! Drives excellent, many original parts, original upholstry that should have been destroyed years ago... So many things that confirm the mileage as 118K which would be very very low for a 22 year old vehicle.

Now the kicker is that the reports both state that the mileage is 294K!

No way this truck ( although toyota's have been known to go a LOT longer) has that many miles. Even the pedals show normal wear for 118K. And yes, i can tell if stuff has been replaced. Even the local Toyota guru agrees with 118K.

Can't get ahold of the original owner ( its a one owner truck) as it was a lien sale.

Has anyone ever seen Carfax/Autocheck to be so grossly wrong?? Its as if they put another vehicles history on this one!

 

How many different mileage entries were on the Carfax report? Just the one entry showing 294k when the original owner got rid of it? That sounds like it could be a clerical error.

But on the other hand, why was a 22-year old, "one-owner" truck involved in a "lien sale" in the first place? The original loan should have been paid off *many* years ago, and I can't see using a 20+ year old truck as collateral on a loan and then not paying the loan off, since the loan couldn't have been for very much money.

Is there no documentation with the truck that would lead you to the original owner? (oil change receipts, insurance card in the glove box, repair receipts, etcetera?) Have you tried contacting a Toyota dealership and seeing if the VIN shows up in their computer? If there's even a single service visit where the mileage was recorded as being higher than 118k, you'll know that at the very least, the odometer's been replaced or rolled back.

There's also a chance that the truck is stolen, and that the VIN plate on the dash is from another truck of the same year/model that actually *did* accumulate 294k miles and is possibly rotting in a field or a salvage yard somewhere.

I'd verify that the VIN you ran through Carfax/Autocheck is actually the same VIN that appears on the truck's dash plate, and then I'd contact a dealership or a Toyota forum and find out all the *other* places where the VIN appears on the truck. Hopefully it's also stamped somewhere on the frame of the truck so that you're not relying solely on easily-swappable VIN plates and decals.

Keep us posted - this is very curious.

 

Actually this may all be a bit of wishfull thinking...

1) The carfax as well as the Autocheck do show consistant mileage reports though the first reported one is 10 years after the car was bought ( 1996)

2) The VIN does check out... its stamped in the VIN Plate as well as the chasis which is very visible and clear.

3) when I got it, it was a mechanics lien, not a bank lien.

4) tried to use the lien info to contact the original owner but no luck

Now its kinda interesting to me because I have been a car nut and a shadetree mechanic for over 24 years.. seen lots of cars come and go.. and you can tell if its 294K miles vs 118K.. This one is simply amazing if it is indeed 294K. Not a rattle or squeek to be heard anywhere. Truck at 70 mph tracks perfect without hands on the wheel.. No shimmy. No shake, no vibration at all. Tires worn perfectly even. Still has original shocks ( though they really need to be replaced) Dash is uncracked which is unheard of for a Toyota truck of this vintage.. Seats uncrushed, all carpet is beautiful with very little wear and matches perfectly. normal fading of interior plastics but no cracks anywhere.

doors close perfectly, no sagging, paint is aged but matches, all graphics also match

Also, I know that this is northern CA and our cars don't age much.. but even this hard to believe!

No rust in the engine or coolant or radiator. Radiator has been worked on but is original

Catalytic Converter is original

Funny.. the battery says its a 50 month but its 6 years old!! Its an Interstate.

All orginal parts are there.. Nothing has been monkeyed with, no molestation done. Even replacement parts such as the air filter were genuine Toyota.

Im stumped! Either that or I got very very lucky... This thing simply purrrrrs..

 

Ah - I didn't think about a mechanic's lien - that makes more sense.

As for the mileage, if it was overwhelmingly highway miles, that would help explain the lower-than-normal wear on the pedals and the general good condition of the truck. You may have just stumbled upon a legitimate one-owner truck that was garaged and used almost exclusively for highway trips.

Sounds like a great truck - enjoy it!

 

Thanks! Funny thing is that I bought it to resell it... now Im most likely going to keep it.. I love this kinda stuff!

 

Carfax does have errors.
I had a subscription when in the market a couple of years ago and so I looked up the cars I owned just for fun. The Honda I purchased new was listed as totaled when two years old. This was incorrect as the car had not ever been in an accident or even had any repairs done.
I contacted Carfax to correct the error and they did so with very little effort, I just sent the original bill of sale and current clean title to them by fax.
Carfax is a good starting point but is not always correct.

 

Im thinking that the odometer/speedo cluster has been replaced

AND.. that the truck was actually trailered most of its life...

It would explain the excellent condition of everything as well as the reported miles.
One would think though: "why didn't the guy just disconnect the speedo?" Pretty easy to do as its right under the truck on the transmission.

 

I bought my MINI used and it had a clean CarFax... That is until 35 days AFTER I bought it! It was involved in a minor fender bender and required some bodywork apparently. Thing is, the accident happened 9 months before I purchased the car and didn't show up at all until after I had the car. Suspicious? Most definitely.

From now on I plan to run a CarFax report AND take it to a mechanic I trust before purchasing a used car. Or better yet, only buy new. Pretty frustrating when you count on a service that is only as good as the information that they receive (which isn't so good apparently).

Good luck with whichever way you go on the truck!

 

Somewhere, in someone's attic, is a picture of your truck that gets older and older............. Or not

 

Even 294,000 works out to 13,363 miles a year for a 22 year old truck.
I drove a Honda CRX until it hit 279,000 miles and you would swear it had 50,000 miles on it. Paint was perfect, interior looked almost new, carpet was clean and not worn. Some cars just wear better than others.