Staying within the law - vehicle history
Discussion
Lowtimer said:
Ok. So if you have no history, you have no idea how many miles the van has done, it could be 31,000, 131,000, 231,000 or 76,227 for all that. You presumably don't know whether any or all of the major mechanical components are original, or replacement, or off a donor vehicle, indeed you dont even know if that's the original speedo.
And all of that's fine because if you bought a car with no history then indisputably you bought it on the basis of condition rather than mileage.
You say it's mad to buy a car with zeroed mileage, but why it is any madder than buying a car with some different completely arbitrary numbers on it? If the whole thing is properly restored as a unit why does a zero mileage make less sense than a random-guess mileage that no-one can possibly stand behind?
You make some good points,yes the milage could be way out but vehicles built back then in 1949 that was seen as high milage an never got much more than 50k before falling apart,yes i did buy it as a unrestored van to hot rod so condition was the main thing,eg rust.with my van it wasn,t that expensive but when you start to spend big money on a restored car you wan,t to no as much of its history as pos,Like was it a wright off -cut and shut -matching numbers and so on,lower milage cars with history always demand higher values,and when you come to sell it will make all the diffarance...And all of that's fine because if you bought a car with no history then indisputably you bought it on the basis of condition rather than mileage.
You say it's mad to buy a car with zeroed mileage, but why it is any madder than buying a car with some different completely arbitrary numbers on it? If the whole thing is properly restored as a unit why does a zero mileage make less sense than a random-guess mileage that no-one can possibly stand behind?
Lowtimer said:
You say it's mad to buy a car with zeroed mileage, but why it is any madder than buying a car with some different completely arbitrary numbers on it? If the whole thing is properly restored as a unit why does a zero mileage make less sense than a random-guess mileage that no-one can possibly stand behind?
Indeed. Neither reading makes any difference to anything.Look, I zeroed my odometer!
Old ones only went to 100,000 anyway, so here it is, changing to zero all on its own. I was specifically asked by Speedy Cables, when the E-type gauges were rebuilt, if I wanted the speedo reset. I said no, although in 1987 it was reset when previously rebuilt. Surely, anyone buying a classic will buy on condition, not what the speedo shows? In the day we went to the scrappy and bought one, not even thinking of the mileage.
Old ones only went to 100,000 anyway, so here it is, changing to zero all on its own. I was specifically asked by Speedy Cables, when the E-type gauges were rebuilt, if I wanted the speedo reset. I said no, although in 1987 it was reset when previously rebuilt. Surely, anyone buying a classic will buy on condition, not what the speedo shows? In the day we went to the scrappy and bought one, not even thinking of the mileage.
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