odo "exceeds mechanical limits"???? please help

[rallysam]

Hey all,

I finally found a Legacy Turbo I want to buy. Great condition, great price, 109k miles.

But, the Carfax report has a big red flag that says that it was issued a "odo exceeds mechanical limits" title. Here is Carfax's description of that issue:

Exceeds Mechanical Limits - A vehicle with a 5-digit odometer cannot accurately track mileage after 99,999 miles because the odometer rolls over. This title is the result of a seller certifying under the Truth-in-Mileage Act, that the odometer reading EXCEEDS MECHANICAL LIMITS of the odometer.

Just to be clear, Carfax said the "odo rollback check" passed and the "mileage consistency check" passed too - it was only the "exceeds mechanical limits" that came up with a red flag.

That makes no sense because these cars have a 6 digit odo. I know that this car hasn't gone a million miles, so I am inclined to assume that this is mistake and buy the car anyway.

Thoughts? These odos don't roll over at 200k or 300k or something bizarre like that, do they?

Sam[/code]

[rallysam]

Here is the mileage history they have reported. It's all pretty typical, but it doesn't really say anything between purchase and last year because it did not change hands.

07/17/1991 24
02/23/2004 102,589
03/17/2004 102,589
03/21/2005 109,737

[Legacy777]

someone probably just entered a digit wrong or carfax is just stupid.

If everything looks ok....I'd say don't worry about it.

[isotopeman]

In some places, the title for any vehicle will have that on it if the mileage is over 100,000 miles. I think it's outdated and better suited for domestic cars rather than ones like ours.

[free5ty1e]

Yeah... that's a Ford thing.

[rallysam]

5 digit odos - typical well thought out design It boggles my mind that a bunch of engineers could conciously make that design decision.


To close the story -
I just did the deal with the guy and transferred the title. When he was filling it out, he tried to check that box again for "exceeds mechanical limits". I called him on it, and it seems like the explanation was that he just didn't know what he was doing. So, this sexy car is all mine now

Man, it feels good to finally change that signature down there
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[gnuman]

Sam, conga Rats on the "new" car! Carfax did not help Gustov when he bought his wagon, though. The milage was consistant, and accurate on his car. what had happened was that the original owner (this is a guess) went to some "idiot lube" place to get the oil changed and they did not tighten down the drain plug. . .
Halfway home on the highway, the red oil light comes on and they say "but I just got the oil changed! That cannot be right. . ." until the piston rod statrted knocking. . .
this on a car with less than 65K on the ODO. . .

[AWD_addict]

Yeah, Carfax is only useful for bad stuff that was reported. Anything and everything could be wrong with a car, and carfax could give a clean report. I know 'cause I've seen it happen.