My obsession with the Vehicross may be getting the better of me. Yesterday I picked up my second VX, the Black 1999 with 35k miles that I have posted about in the past. The car was mostly as described but had an unusual amount of rust for a "garaged" VX with 35k miles. My last one was sold with 76k miles and was in way better condition illustrating once again other people's standard of what is "mint" seems to be much different from my own.


Odometer worries
The Carfax report showed no odometer tampering and the title states the odometer had 32500 on 01/09/10. The Pennsylvania title also says "Odometer Status, 0" meaning actual mileage. However the screws for the dash look like they have been removed and the engine compartment and undercarriage look like they have driven around the world. The interior is good except the plastic for the driver's side handle (its loose) and the back where the owner kept his tools (scuffs and scrapes in the plastic). The brakes don't engaged until the pedal is nearly on the floor and the car pulls to the left when using the brakes. Owner states he has never changed the brakes.

Overall I am thinking he lied about the car being garaged. There is no way it could have this much rust with so little miles and being garaged. If that is the case then it is not a far stretch to imagine he also fibbed about the odometer. But I have no proof- the title and Carfax backs up his claims. However the title also states the car had 32500 miles in January meaning he drove 2500 miles since the title was issued. Guess what this extrapolates to... about 130,000 miles for the 10.5 years he has owned it. Obviously this isn't a large enough time frame for an accurate sample but it still doesn't look good.

Is there another way to tell if the odometer has been tampered with?