Have I made a mistake?

[atilla_the_fun]

I really don't like the fact that there were no mileages listed between the original owner's purchase date and the second owner's purchase date. What did this person say when you asked him why he is selling after THREE months of owning the car? If it actually changed hands, and this guy sold it after only three months - I would be very suspicious. I was born suspicious, but this would set off some alarms for me.

I've looked through some CARFAX reports I ran when I was looking for mine, and I found a 99' astral silver that lists BLACK/TAN as its interior, so don't sweat that.

Here is an interesting idea if you want to get crafty- call the Pennsylvania DMV and find out how much in taxes (or the declared purchase price) this second owner paid. If he bought it for way less than you did, he could conceivable have tampered with the odometer - LIED on the title - and then resold it.

[Riff Raff]

A word about tampering with traditional analog rotary (non-LED) odometers. Rotary odometers have built-in "spikes" that gently ride on top of each numeric wheel cylinder of the odometer. When the odometer is turning in the correct rotational direction (going forward in mileage), the "spike" resting on each numeric wheel makes featherlight/nill contact with each rotating numeric disc. However, when the odometer direction is intentionally reversed (rotated backwards against the grain) as in an attempt to lower the mileage, then each "spike" will dig-in and make a severe gouge/scratch dead-center on each numeric wheel disc that was rotated in reverse direction. This is a tell-tale sign that the odometer was tampered with.

The two(2) most common ways to modify mileage on a vehicle are:

A: "Forward" (not reverse) the existing odometer reading with an electric drill until the original odometer is at all zero's once again (like when it was new). Then continue "forward" until the desired new mileage is selected using the electric drill. This method is very time-consuming because the mileage must get to 999,999.9 before reaching all zero's again; but since the numeric disc's are still going "forward", then there will be no gouge/scratch marks caused by the anti-rotational spikes.

B: The second common method (and often the easiest) is to simply "replace" the original speedometer/odometer in the vehicle with either a used one from a wrecked vehicle having less mileage on it (the preferred method) OR with a brand new speedometer/odometer unit from the factory with all zero's (then it is "forwarded" with an electric drill to the desired mileage reading).

With the computer aid of CARFAX reports, it is very difficult to roll-back mileage without creating suspicious gaps in the vehicle's history or raising red flags of mileage inconsistency. Vehicle Emission/State Inspection/Title Transfer/Insurance Claim checks are prime tattle-tale zones where inconsistent odometer readings are normally found/discovered during a vehicle's life after manufacture.

If there are suspicious entries on the CARFAX report, then the vehicle should be considered suspicious and not purchased.

[LiquidVX]

If there are suspicious entries on the CARFAX report, then the vehicle should be considered suspicious and not purchased.

Too late for that. :

The only thing suspicious about it is the second owner sold it after only 3 months but was pretending to be the original owner. Though I just thought of something. If he financed the vehicle, would the original title have been in his name?