blinky44

Hey guys,

I am looking at a 2008 A3. The one I am looking at only has 69000 KM (I am in Canada). This seems very low mileage to me so I am curious how difficult it would have been for someone to alter the odometer reading? Would this be something in the ECU since it is digital?

Thanks

blinky44

Anyone? Would changing the cluster change the odometer reading or would it be stored in the ECU? Would Audi be able to check the ECU to check the actual reading?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

SYMAWD

It doesn't seem that low. With how much (or little) I drive, my car would only have about 46,000 miles or 74,000 km when my car is 8 years old.

beep-beep

get the carfax report for 20 USD. every time when the owner took the car to the shop to change oil or pass the smog test they uploaded the mileage to the central DB.
theoretically one can rollback mileage incrementally between trips to the shop, but it would be a prohibitively expensive. Modern cars store mileage in several different computing modules and you would need to replace all of them to make mileage look different.

blinky44

I bought the car proof report. It only had 5 entries, 3 registration renewals, 1 glass claim and only 1 odometer reading from Aug 31st of this year. Seems very odd, not sure what to make of it.

Likely not going to go with it anyway as the dealer/seller is a bit ignorant and don't think I want to deal with him. Seems like a good deal though if I can verify the KM's.

beep-beep

They did not have any service records? No one changed the oil? Not sure how it works in Canada, but in US all this info would be present from carfax

blinky44

My thoughts exactly. I contacted CarProof and they said that only certain dealers/garages allow them to access their information. I find it hard to believe the car was never taken to a garage which allowed this info to be shared. CarProof gave me my money back due to lack of information but the car seems a bit sketchy to me. The driver seat is worn to the point there is a whole in it so this is why I question the validity of the actual mileage and wonder how hard it is to change.

snagitseven

It's certainly possible for an 8 year old car to have only 69 Km. My wife's 15 year old '02 allroad has 51K original miles (82K km).

blinky44

Yeah, I know it is possible just not likely. That is less then 5500 miles per year average. I just would prefer to have the peace of mind that it is very difficult to change the odometer reading and highly unlikely that this has happened.

One concern is that the drivers seat is worn to the point of having a hole in it where you slide in and out ( on the left of the bottom of the seat). To me this should not happen if the car is only used for 69000KM. Also, it seems relatively cheap at $10000 CDN ($7200ish USD).

So, anyone know how difficult it is to change the odometer reading?

Here is the ad for reference:
2008 Audi A3 $9999!!!! | used cars & trucks | Moncton | Kijiji

blinky44

Can anyone say the process of actually changing the reading on the odometer? Just want to know the likelihood of this actually happening.