Playing with the Odometer
 

Im am looking to purchase a 2003 CLK430 with low miles. I have seen some 03's and 02's with less than 20,000 miles. I currently use my car about 18 - 20K miles per year. It seems odd to me that any car 3 - 4 years old would have less than 20,000 miles. How easy is it to turn back mileage or shutoff the odemeter on the CLK? I know its illegal but so is speeding and we all do it. Should I be concerned and how can i protect myself with this purchase? Thanks

RE: Playing with the Odometer
 

That mileage isn't unusual if it's for a second car, or if the owner doesn't drive their car to work or school. I doubt they're messing with the odometer.

RE: Playing with the Odometer
 

all you need ia a signal genarator...correct.?

RE: Playing with the Odometer
 

I just don't think the mileage is unusually low for an '02 or an '03. I'm not saying the odometer can't be changed.

I used to put 13K miles on my car every year just going to work and another 3K to 4K just for whatever else. Now that I don't work a regular job, I put on about 3K to 4K miles a year on my "daily driver."

Mileage depends on how the car is used. We don't all use our cars the same way. My '01 Corvette has less than 8.5K miles. I put about 100 miles a year on my BelAir and Chevelle. The low mileage on my cars doesn't mean I messed with the odometers.

RE: Playing with the Odometer
 

Well alot of people that buy brand new Benzes sometimes have another or a few other cars. So an 02 or 03 CLK with less than 20,000 miles could be the result of that use only be used or driven every blue moon to the store, out on the town or week end get aways. Or especially now and days some people don't bother drive much. Depends on a person life style. When I had one car for example, i only placed about 9,000 miles on it (BMW) just going back and forth from work, traveling on a two or three hour road trip alot and my 750 mile trips home to Atlanta. Then when I got two cars, my driving style didn't change but I use to drive each car about equally halving the yearly milage. But the yearly milage for both is currently at zero because I'm in Germany and my cars are not with me yet. As far as odemeter roll back, it's not as easy as it used to be back in the day when all you needed was a screwdriver and maybe a few other simple tools. It's possible but not likely. If your odometer stops working alot of places have problems fixing it as it is and some places just don't want to mess with it because the paper work involved and liability issues of rollback and the likes.

RE: Playing with the Odometer
 

When I bought my 99 C280 preowned it was 3 years old and had 21K miles on it, Since then I have only added an additional 22K miles. Not unusally.

RE: Playing with the Odometer
 

During the old days, you can remove the speedometer cable(mechanical or electrical) and effectively stop the mileage counter from increasing. No other part of the car needs the speed information.

Nowadays...the computer needs to know the speed of the car for many reasons (EFI, emission control, stability system, ABS, black box, report for national security agency, etc). Even if you can isolate the wire for the speed signal, it will be UNWISE to do so. As simple as that.

RE: Playing with the Odometer
 

not easy.

you need stimulator and many hours to do it.

some of them want to put lesser mileage after replacing the instrument cluster.