X2. Informing prospective buyers is a public service. Some states stop caring about odometer readings after the first hundred thousand and leave the buyer to determine the truth. I don't expect you'll get any sympathy from law enforcement as a casual observer. Courts might sympathize with a buyer who faces an actual monetary loss such as a premature failure or reduced insurance claim. Even then, the perceived value of a car with over a hundred thousand miles probably limits litigants to small claims court with no criminal implications.

It's likewise difficult to get him as an unregistered used car dealer because he keeps his name out of transactions. The law has no mechanisms to help buyers, let alone sellers, in these he said-she said situations. You could present your story to the consumer affairs desk of a local TV station. You'll need more than three dubious listings to get their attention unless its a really slow day. If anything, you'll support CL's silly position against multi-region searches.

Sixto
87 300D

Obtaining mileage records for any car is difficult. The easiest method would be to get the VIN and then look up both AutoCheck and CarFax reports (the latter is more likely to have mileage records, although it varies by state). Recent service records from a repair shop showing higher mileage would be ideal.

But, as noted above, the police will likely tell you to get lost. They'd rather be handing out revenue generation slips (aka "tickets") instead of taking action against actual criminals. If this guy does this often, and rolls back the odo on every car (which we don't know for sure), you could start collecting data on every one of his ads. After you get a dozen or two proven rollbacks, that might get someone's attention. But it would take a LOT of work and you'd need to have different folks go check his cars to get the VIN and odo photo of each.

This story is interesting as well as funny to me. The idea that somebody would tell you a lie about his close family member; his bright eyed kid looking for adventure in his first car, and you lower your price to sell the car with over 300,000 miles for just $2,200.00, over $600.00 less than your asking price, has to be upsetting to you; when I suspect you think the car was listed at a bargain at $2,800.00. Then, the guy puts an ad on “your” former car the next day on Craig’s List at more than double the price you sold the car for along with silky smooth lies in his Craig’s List ad, in his case, that Mercedes Benz used to sell the car in the first place at the exorbitant prices. I could wish something bad to happen to the guy’s kid in the new car that he buys his kid (if it were me he lied to and played on my “good” side when I was weak and needed to sell my car, but vengeance only hardens one’s soul and helps to grow hardened arteries of the heart, I believe.

Then, the Mercedes dealership can sell you a less than ten pounds box of plastic for $2,500.00 plus about 4 hours of labor at $115.00 per hour and send you home happy to have your car fixed. Then, folks come to this site to gain all of the knowledge that you are willing to tell them for free and then you have problems buying an $800.00 cracked head replacement. Then, the folks don’t even say Thank You or even mention your name, as they are applying your knowledge to solve their problem for free.

To make a long story short, if a car is not worth $5,000.00 to a buyer that “they say” can run on IWG, Inedible Waste Grease, then why should I tell them $100,000.00 worth of information, my personal costs, that will make their car go that is not worth anything to them to include a simple Thank You? Then, I have to look at my immobile car that needs something simple to fix, like a new set of W rated sports tires that I can’t get today and then read about somebody riding all over the country riding on “free knowledge” that helped them get their car fixed? And that car isn’t worth $5,600.00, yet they have a brand new “tin box” of a car costing over $25,000.00 in addition to their worthless Benz. This used to be fun talking about cars and helping folks.

Oh, the 87 SDL looked like a steal to me at $6,200.00 in its condition, just on appearance alone. Then, you give out the good information and the price of everything goes up for me.

BenzDiesel

Really? You don't consider false advertising and flat-out lies about the car's condition and maintenance history to be a scam? Wow.