Faith in the odometer

[maluminse]

Weve all seen the videos of a shopguy with a drill and the odometer traveling in time to 60k miles ago.

So how does one know when the odometer is accurate? Is there a way to know?

[18Fiatsandcounting]

The odometer is usually a false god, but it depends. If you have mile markers along an interstate road where you live, then driving at exactly 60 mph per the speedometer from one mile marker to the next, should take you exactly 60 seconds. If your speedometer is pretty correct per this test, then it's likely your odometer is as well. However, and this is a big however, if your speedometer has been changed or disconnected at some point, then all bets are off.

PS: With odometers, you have no way of knowing if it has "turned over" once (or twice), or been tampered with. All part of the fun of owning a used car.

-Bryan

[baltobernie]

Particularly in our cars, the odometer's validity is suspect. Heck, you can swap speedos from Spiders decades apart without even a screwdriver! Service records, of course, are the best indicators, and there are little things like pedal wear and probable vintage of replacement parts by vendor's name and logo. But really, the important bits in these cars are very long lived if they're properly maintained, and very short lived if they're not. So I tell prospective owners that the odometer on a Spider is the last thing they should look at, if at all.

[maluminse]

This is what I figured. The seller made a minor deal about the 9k miles on mine but I kind of ignored it.

The engine is rebuilt and the seats are sun burned. But the seats could be a transplant. The trunk still has its little stand which is interesting. Enough work on it to make me think 9k miles is bogus.

[aj81spider]

Did I read that right? He rebuilt the engine after 9,000 miles?

I had an issue with my speedometer in that it started having a screeching noise at highway speed. Thought it was the speedo cable and the noise went away when I disconnected it. Replaced the cable and that didn't fix the problem.

I went on Ebay and found a speedometer with about the same number of miles on it. Bought it and replaced mine in about 10 minutes.

So - no I wouldn't trust the odometer reading on a Spider.

[spiderdan]

So - no I wouldn't trust the odometer reading on a Spider.

[chrisg]

This is a funny thing. I have a 1971 124 Spider with 43k miles & a 1972 124 Coupe with about 53k and I believe both of them. It’s funny because I bought the cars marketed as having rather low mileage (about 2-3k fewer each in 2007), I took that with a grain of salt. They were definitely appropriately original and not molested in any significant way. Thing is, they both belonged to the same gentlemen who (records verify) bought each when they were only a few years old & always lived in IL/WI where there are only limited “sports car driving” days a year PLUS he owned a barn or two worth of hobby cars and always kept winter beaters for salty driving...so low mileage makes sense. Hell, it makes more sense now that I’ve put <4K each on them in 12 years.

Now, what’s funny is that I’ve seen so many seemingly random parts swaps on these cars that I don’t really believe anything. My cars could actually have 30k, 80k or 150k & ultimately I don’t think it matters. I’ve had 124s & a 131 with up to 200k miles.

I’d give it no count but have fun with it.

[18Fiatsandcounting]

I agree that it's prudent not to believe every odometer reading, but I also agree that some people put very few miles on their Fiats (and yes, I realize that's a good setup for a multitude of jokes). I have two friends, one with a '73 spider and one with a '78, and both have less than 50K on the car total. So, you never know.

Somewhere I have a picture like spiderdan posted above, of my '69 spider when it turned over from 99,999 to 100,000. I was in a mountain pass somewhere in Colorado at the time, but I pulled over, turned off the engine, reset the trip odometer to 000, took a picture, and voila, all zeros! Pretty cool.

-Bryan