my buddy bought a used 99 ranger with 50k miles on it. well today he went to replace a burnt out light behind the gauges. well it looks like some body had been tampering with the odometer. needless to say we went to a ford dealership and the guy checked the computer and it said it had around 99K on it.
so does he have gorunds for a law suit or some type of legal action??

 

Moved to proper forum

 

Well yes you do, start documenting everything, then contact the dealer and inform them that you intent to go to the attorney general's office with this. ask for a refund of funds or exchange for a better vehical. no dealer wants this type of investigation. fro what i know Mi is pretty tough on this.

 

Recourse for odomter fraud will be easier if he bought it from a dealer and the dealer gave him an odometer statement indicating the 50K miles. I'd heard talk that some ECM's store mileage; this is interesting. But now who's to say that the ECM wasn't swapped?

 

i have a hard time believing a 99ranger has 50kmiles. The ECM does store the miles. Problem being they can be swapped out. One way is to see if there was any warranty work done through ford and at what miles. Then see if you can find out what state the vehicle came from. Then check for the last year or two on registered miles. I would do some homework before yelling foul. This way your friend has a case.

 

Exactly, if you go accusing a dealer of something like thsi you'd better have all your ducks in a row and t's crossed and I'd dotted. Check with Ford to make sure about warranty claim work and then whatever states the vehicle has been registered in and mileage statements. Contacting the previous owner you might want to hold of on until you get alot more information as to your information. If you contacted them and they say somethign like I traded it in with 120,000 miles then you're in luck but they may be buttheads or friends of the guy you bought it from and be uncooperative or worse they may have been the ones that changed something. (unlikely but possible). In IL you woudl deal with the Secretary of State's office, they are the ones who deal with motor vehicle registration and mileage fraud (I use to date a girl that is now an investigator for them in IL). I would go to you DMV office and see what they advise you to do, I woudl say go to an attorney but then you'd be paying them to investiage the matter from scrathc. Find out enough to know whether or not you may be right in your asumption and I think the DMV would be a great place to start.

 

It may have been tampered with but I don't find it hard to believe that it only has 50k miles on it. I barely put 9000 miles on my truck in a year.....so I believe that the mileage could be true. But if you see eveidence that it had been tampered with.....then maybe it has.

 

Yes, you defintely have a lawsuit, if in fact you can prove it has that many miles- (unless your title says different). DO not contact the dealership at all- they will just try and cover it up. Instead go directly to your state capital and contact your state attorney office (check out their website)-- believe me your dealer will hate you for ever for all the problems that they have in store for them. Nothing comes down harder on a dealership than speedo fraud. Most of them used to do it- there used to be a liitle cable attachment you hooked to a reversable drill and performed it, don't know if that is still how they do it or not.

 

i can beleive that a 99 has 99k on it. my moms 99 saturn has over a 100k. my dads 02 chevy has 60k on it already. id say you have grounds for some sort of trade in or the likes as he paid for a car with 50 and got one with 99. just my .02

 

Best advice yet. Go to your local Attorney General's office or yor State's Attorney's office (Some sttates they are called district attorney's, it is your local prosecutor at your county courthouse is who it is). Either of those two offices would be glad to help you I am sure. This is the job tey are elected to, whether they actuallyhelp you or not either will be able to put you in touch with the right branch of government to get you started. By asking your local prosecutor you are talking to a lawyer free of charge which is good because they are expensive.

If it were me I would go this route.

 

If the dealership had done any speedometer/odometer (psom) work they would have replaced it with a new unit from a speedometer shop that would have by law set the mileage to the EXACT mileage of the vehicle at the time of the repair. I should know because the is a bunch of paper work that needs to be filled out when you do this work and I have done many. I would ask the dealership do run an OASIS and get a copy of it for your records. You can ask any of the service writers to do this and you should not have to give a reason other than you want to know if there are any recalls for your truck.

Who did you purchase this from? Definitely talk to the BBB and the AG about this and ask what can and should be done.

I personally would not contact anyone who may be involved with this unless advised to do so by the law.

 

> so does he have gorunds for a law suit or some type of legal action??

Yes, whoever did it might be libel for jail time of five years and a $50,000 fine (I think that is what Federal law covers). If you live in an emissions state you can usually get the emissions tickets that state the mileage when it was tested. Get a copy of the CO (if possible - some dealers save them) and any titles that were issued, especially the back of the most recent one that gives the odometer statement.

Run a carfax report!

 

We have one of those buy here pay here lots that got in trouble for rolling the mileage back. I dont know what happened legally with them but they are still selling cars. My brother bought 3 cars from them and they were the worst cars he ever owned.

 

Well I had to give you an answer on this one. SORRY ABOUT YOUR LUCK.

Now...a friend of mine had a roll back and tracked it from Canada into the US right down to the dealer and how the fraud happened. The Attorney General was going to impound the vehicle for the duration of the time while an investigation was started.

Palm Grease: Every lawyer has his hand out. No results will come from this but your pocket will definately be lighter.

The Law is what it is, it is illegal to turn the milage back. You need a massive collection of 8x10 glossy pictures and a film of the crime, with a full confession of parties involved. No way can you prove who turned the milage back.

It is illegal.....just try to prove it.