The worst part for me was not finding that the odometer read less but getting the MVA (Motor Vehicle Admin) to give me a correct title.
I bought the car with 127,XXX on the clock. I'd already looked at the CarFax and the last three odometer readings were 85,XXX/118,XXX/163,XXX in that order. So after getting the guy to drop the price $1000 by convincing him that the hundred-thousand digit was stuck and that the car was actually 227,XXX I tried to get it titled in MD.
I applied for a title and noted that I wanted a title that said "Not Actual Mileage." Title came and it said nothing about the mileage being inaccurate.
So I returned to the MVA and explained that the mileage on the title was inaccurate and that the true mileage was unknown. The clerk asked why and I explained what the CarFax had read and that this odometer commonly broke. She went crazy trying to tell me that I couldn't drive around with a broken odometer and that I needed a new one. I told her the car was 26 years old and that I was not going to find a "new" odometer anywhere. To which she replied that she owned a 1970-something car and the odometer worked just fine.
Well, now I'm back to where I started, explaining that I need a title noting that the mileage is "Not Actual." But she's stuck on the fact that I can't drive around with a broken odometer. So I asked her if I could fix it, that I knew how to fix the gear. That set her off! She started telling me that the FBI would put me in prison for messing with my odometer and that I just needed to buy a new one.
So after I got her to calm down by telling her I wouldn't fix it myself I asked what I could do short of the impossibility of getting a "new" 26 year old odometer. To which she replied "well you can get a title correction that notes that you have 'Not Actual Mileage'"
After that remark I got the title corrected and was out the door in a matter of minutes.