Odometer rollback, common on 1987 300D's?
 

It seems almost 5 out of 10 1987 300D's I see on eBay have odometer issues. Example:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=6330&item=2442684054

This picture makes me suspicious, and the Carfax indeed indicates it has a "not actual mileage" title. http://carad.ebayimg.com/i8/01/i/00/e5/94/e1_4.JPG

And another one here:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=6330&item=2442289235

Seller claims "the odo was broken for a short time. It now works..." :rolleyes:

According to Carfax, mileage was 214,000 in October 2000 and REMAINED at that (probably got stuck) until June 2003, when it somehow changed to 124,000.

Odometers stopping for a while is a pretty common failure on MB's, at least on the 124 chassis I've seen it a lot. Odometer rollback shouldn't be that common except by unscrupulous dealers. CarFax can find this but doesn't always - just because CarFax is clean, doesn't mean it *wasn't* rolled back. There was an 87 300D for sale this summer by a dealer in San Francisco with "98kmi". CarFax showed it had 200kmi+ and spent most of its life in the northeast rust belt, when the odometer froze (same reading for 2+ years), then it somehow lost 100kmi. Oh, and they wanted $9k for the car! Some poor sucker bought it - wish I could have contacted the new owner so they could sue the pants off the dirtbags. :mad:

IMO, that doesn't look like the original speedo. Compare the fading on all those needles.

Good catch!! Yep, that is a new/different speedo. Original needles are usually yellow, newer gauges have orange needles.

Note the first guy Speedy listed is also doing a private auction. I'm ALWAYS leary when I see that. Maybe I'm a cynic but IMHO I think it's almost impossible to find a true, low mileage car except through a private party sale.

You're not a cynic. That's the sad reality these days. :(

When I talked to a repair technician at VDO (before they closed their Winchester VA repair facility) she pointed out that thse 201/124 speedometers were far more fragile than earlier ones. I have owned 6 201s and 124s. I have had to repair/replace 3 odometers at between 100-200kmi and could have set the mileage any number I wanted. I have gone out of my way to set two of them at the correct mileage (and stuck a used speedometer with about the correct mileage into the 3rd). Many states don't even bother to record numbers in excess of 100kmi.

Marshall

I just sen the seller an e-mail asking him:

Is there any reason that the mileage on your car does not match the mileage I am coming up with when I run the VIN#

Has the speedometer ever been replaced? If you look at the speedomter needle it is obviously a different color orange than the other guages.
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Question from: asrosen1
Title of item: Mercedes-Benz : 300-Series
Seller: gppcars
Starts: Nov-11-03 15:26:14 PST
Ends: Nov-21-03 15:26:14 PST
Price: Currently $3,000.00
To view the item, go to: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2442684054




I'll post the response when I get it.

This was actually an issue at least as far back as the 1968 W-115's. The Speedo (actually odometer) on the 220D/8 had the same slipping gear syndrome, and probably lost 5 to 10K miles as a result. A different one was eventually installed, and posted number of miles is calculated on actual use of both instruments.

Carfax is often useless when it comes to verifying the mileage on older cars. I think there's a federal law that makes vehicles older than 9 years exempt from mileage which I think is a totally stupid law. I ran Carfax on all of my cars and it showed at best very few mileage reports and usually none.

That's why it helps to have LOTS and LOTS of service records to document the mileage...

I found CarFax info to vary greatly. Some states have good reporting due to smog or safety inspection records, regardless of what DMV data there is. On the other hand, some other cars have virtually ZERO information. I looked up my own vehicles and was surprised how much was MISSING from the reports. You do need to pull a CarFax on any major purchase, because it can show rollback or other serious problems - BUT always remember that a clean report DOES NOT mean the car hasn't been in a major wreck/rebuild, flood, or odo rollback. YMMV, etc. And yes- good service records are an excellent resource. For my blue 87 I have them from "Day 1" to present, including the window sticker. :D :D

It seems that about half of the 300SDL's that have been on Ebay are in the same category. This one: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2442851563

Showed 173,316 on 10/21/03 by carfax. When asked the seller responded with something that looks like it was written by a kid:

" i do not know if the auction
entered the wrong miles or put them down wrong. i got the car from a another
dealer it had the miles shown less 50 or 100 miles anyway the auction or the
state is not required to give miles on cars over 10 years old carfax pulls
it`s info from auction reports and sometime the info is just wrong sometime
it is right on and someone had replaced the speedometer for some problem or
another. anyway i never said the miles shown are the actual miles."


Yet the photo's show a nice clear shot of the ODO at 117597. Downright deceptive.

I have also had some sellers not even respond to a short set of questions - like they really do not want to sell the thing to somebody who can think!

Bottom line, if you cannot get any records - RUN.

Perhaps the best bet is to buy a decent oiler off eBay that DOES claim over 200,000 miles. Who would want to fudge that kind of mileage!

I got a response from the seller and he said he ran a carfax and his car he is selling is exempt.