Estimating mileage

[sswain]

My odometer (digital dash) continues to taunt me with its evil incessant repetition of 99999.9.

So, unless someone here is skilled in the exorcism of trip meter demons, I'm going to stick in a speedo/odo gauge from Dakota Digital.

This brings up an interesting problem - should I get it factory preset to a particular mileage, or just start over at zero? I don't know the mileage of the car - the odometer section was disconnected for at least two years before I got the car... probably a lot longer. While the aforementioned demons were taking a smoke break I did manage to see a mileage of 24517 for a few seconds, but that's gotta be really old.

So, while it would be nice to have a zero-mileage car, it could be a problem when I go to sell it. On the other hand, anything I pick would be a bit arbitrary... even using 24517 (although that IS more accurate than zero - at least I know the car has done at least that many miles).

Does anyone have any ideas on estimating mileage? I can't come up with anything... unless the mileage is also stored in the ECM? (Anyone know?)

And... opinions on my dilemma?

Cheers,
Stu

[Fred91GTA]

Wow, interesting situation. How do you figure out when to change your oil and do maintenance? HAHA

This is why I love my analog dash. Doesn't look quite as cool as the digital, but it doesn't have quite as many wierd problems like this. Let me ask you though, what was the mileage on the car when you bought it? Or at least the claimed mileage by the seller? I would go by that figure and then think long and hard about how much driving you yourself have done.

Since I never plan on selling my car, if I were you, I would just wait till I did the complete restoration of my car, rebuilt the whole drivetrain and just about everything else, then put in the zero mileage odometer. THEN that would be considered a zero mileage car, somewhat.

[sswain]

Fred - I haven't had the car that long, and the odometer didn't work while the previous owner had it (2 years). So I bought it not knowing the mileage. The service scheduling is just one reason why I want a working odometer. :)

I've done probably about 5000kms.

I don't intend to go to that level of mods, though that is a nice idea.

Now the next question is... do I fork out an extra $45 to have the Dakota Digital gauge made in orange so that it matches everything else? Hmm...
(The one I'm looking at is $180 already, so including shipping that would bring the total to almost $260... ouch)

Stu

[sswain]

PS... it is in the back of my mind that I could always pick an arbitrary, yet believable figure... eg 92500 miles... makes it a low mileage car... and no one would know, 'cept me.
Except that's odometer fraud. I'm thinking more and more maybe I should just go with zero, and if I ever sell the car I can tell the buyer I don't know the real mileage, and the figure on the odo is what I've done.

That also lets me add a sticker inside the door with an arbitrary "pre odometer swap" figure.

Btw, as much as I want to stay with the stock odo, the Dakota Digital unit IS nice... 0-60 and quarter times, two trip meters, etc.

[Fred91GTA]

You have any pics of the Dakota Digital odometer?

well, it depends really what you want to do. If you say the car has over 95,000 miles and the car only really has 30,000 miles, you hurt yourself too. I guess you'll just have to take your chances and hope that if you sell your car in the future, somebody will buy it without caring about the mileage.

Another idea is to get a carfax on it and see if it's been inspected. They usually have the odometer readings, and from there maybe you can ballpark the mileage figure.

[sswain]

I'm in Australia and the car was RHD converted in 1989, so at best carfax will have 2 years.
It's possible the odo has not been working since the conversion - though I don't know how they would have ever registered it.

If I ever sell the car... given that they are quite rare over here (especially GTAs) I figure a potential buyer may not care. Hopefully... ;)

Dakota Digital page is here (http://www.dakotadigital.com/index.cfm/page/ptype=product/product_id=285/category_id=240/home_id=59/mode=prod/prd285.htm)

http://www.dakotadigital.com/cartimages/prd_sm_285.jpg

[GUNGTA]

sometimes to find out an estimate of what the car has look at car fax, usually it would say what the miliege is when the last time the car switched owners, i know i looked at mine and it said somwhere around 82,000 miles, which thats what it was when i bought the car, now i got 90,000 miles on the car. now its not a huge difference it just may give you a ball park estimate of what your car may have.