Zed.

Im looking at a low mileage turbo and was emailed the attached DME scan. Im suspicious-there is nothing to identify the vehicle. When I divide total miles on the car's Odo by total operating hours from the scan provided by the seller (a Porsche dealer), I arrive at a leisurely pace of 6.6mph. For a turbo no less. Whaddya think. Am I just untrusting? What would you do?

jhbrennan

Only 2,200 miles - that is a low mileage car. I'd ask the dealer for the pages of the report that show the VIN and ask him to explain the low calculated mph.

Macster

Ideally I would want to see a print out that clearly ties the printout to the car from which it was obtained.

Now the dealer may have just been sloppy, lazy and that explains the absence of anything that ties the printout to the car.

However, I that's a bit suspicious. You can't have been the first person to ask for this. And I strongly believe that the dealer would obtain this reading and and very specifically tied to this car upon it being offered as a trade in or having arrived at the dealer by some other means (obtained from an auction).

Ask the dealer why any specific vehicle info is absent from the report.

How many miles on the car?

There's no harm is being a bit distrustful. Now the dealer may be on the up and up but whoever owned the car before might have tampered with the odometer.

This I read is not uncommon, for leased vehicles to be sure, but it is the owner not how the owner bought or financed the car that is the culprit, to have the miles tweaked to avoid a big financial hit on extra/over miles when the car is returned.

One has to assume that while this odometer tampering is difficult and rare that it can be done. When money, considerable money is involved, there's an incentive to find a way to avoid paying that money.

The car may be a legitimate low (very low) miles car. Even so, oil/filter services should have been done every year and brake fluid flushes every 2 years.

Now odds are the vehicle probably didn't oil/filter services every year but one hopes it received one or two over the years.

If you can find where the vehicle was serviced and get some confirmation some servicing was done and at what miles this can possibly provide some reinforcement the low miles per hour number is real and not due to odometer tampering.

Also, look at the tires. If they are original and their manufacturing date matches that of the car chances are good the car's low miles are real.

Then the overall condition of the car can be taken into consideration.

Paint and glass. Rock chips, tiny pits in the windshield all point to possibly higher miles (unless the low miles was spent driving the car in a sandstorm...).

Interior wear/tear. Pedal condition. The amount of dirt/dust on the hardware (mechanicals) of the pedals and throttle. (Being able to make some judgement call on this though requires one has observed enough cars in this area to know what is normal and what is not.)

Then of course the floor mat (and carpet under the mat (maybe the mat was removed and the carpet under worn then the mat replaced to cover this?).

Look too at the condition of the trunk. While there remove the battery cover and the other covers and look at the condition of the area under these covers/panels. With low miles spotless is to be expected. Unlikely the driver of a very low miles car took it out in anything but the nicest weather and probably when parked wrapped in new baby diaper cloth.

Next up the radiator openings. Do these show signs of low miles or big miles? Trash amount? What do the A/C condensors look like? As fresh as the low miles suggests they should look?

And so on.

Sincerely,

Macster.

Zed.

Great observations, thanks for taking the time. The car fax report shows miles that are consistent with what's on it now. It was an auction car tho with several owners of short duration. Im thinking its was an around town car as the operating hours counter of 1369 hrs and odometer miles of less than 10,000 calculate to a very low 6.6 mph. The tire are new. It had oil change and brake flush last year. The only repair is a broken battery cable wiring lead for some unknown reason. Im asking for a refreshed scan with documentation that this is the car it belongs to this coming week. With so many cars out there to choose from, I would like to get this right.

Carlow911

I have a question in regards to "Number of ignition at speed, maximum speed at range 1 and 2".

I know it means the car went in the red zone but range 1 and 2 refers to what in term of RPM speed?

911SLOW

997.1 Turbo

Over rev events are documented as follows in the VAL (Vehicle Analysis Log):

Rev range 1: 6,740 -1 ... to 6,940 -1
⇒ Maximum permitted engine speed exceeded; engine damage possible.

Rev range 2: 6,940 -1 ... to 7,140 -1
⇒ Maximum permitted engine speed exceeded; engine damage possible.

Rev range 3: 7,140 -1 ... to 7,340 -1
⇒ Maximum permitted engine speed exceeded; engine damage probable.

Rev range 4: 7,340 -1 ... to 7,840 -1
⇒ Maximum permitted engine speed clearly exceeded; engine damage probable.

Rev range 5: 7,840 -1 ... to 8,940 -1
⇒ Maximum permitted engine speed very clearly exceeded; engine damage very probable.

Rev range 6: over 8,940 -1
⇒ Engine damage has generally occurred.

Carlow911

Thanks for this good info John!

User 11121

Glad I found this tread and thanks to Macster for the detailed explanation.

dianic

Gia xara John! Long time no speak. Everything ok? As always tip top info sir. Thank you.
Are you driving your car at all lately? Have mine covered and hibernating... Out twice a month for a stint to Lavrio to stretch its legs...

911SLOW

Driving? Sure! Πήγα το GT Σύνταγμα στην πορεία των αντιεξουσιαστών. It didn't go particularly well.


Καλό Πάσχα ! And for the for the Nth time, we have to arrange a meeting.

XR4Tim

I'd imagine idling in parking lots/traffic/at the dealership would bring down average mph considerably.

BT ZR1

Something is wrong, how can a car have over 1300 operating hours and have been driven 2200 miles

jhbrennan

See post #4 - 10,000 miles