Fox Help reading mileage

Hey everyone

I've been looking forward to getting my first Foxbody, I've been scouting this 89 Foxbody lately, but a bit confused on how much miles it actually has
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Owner says it only has 30k miles, could anyone confirm this? I'm not sure if it has 100k or 200k or even more.

Thank you !
 
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There's no way to tell. It could be 24450 miles or it it could have a 1 or a 2 in front of that number. When they roll over, there's no way to tell. Plus, the mileage on the odometer can be easily manipulated.

Really, you need to look for a paper trail. Carfax might have mileage reports that include yearly vehicle inspections. You may want to run a Carfax or search the vin to see if there is paperwork that shows any mileage above that 24K number.
 
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Also...does it look like a Fox with 24k miles or a Fox with 224k miles? I think with some exceptions, this should be fairly easy to tell. Most of the Foxes I’ve seen with that low of mileage (24k) are usually in really good condition and well taken care of. Got any pics of the car?
 
CARFAX is a great tool. Pay the 20 bucks and get one online. It takes 10 minutes of your time and will likely answer your question immediately as the CARFAX shows the mileage when the car was inspected and sometimes when serviced. That’s pretty much the only way you may be able to find out 100%. Sign up online and you will have the info in 10 minutes
 
Agreed. When you start poking around on a 24K mile car, it's easy to tell once you start looking at some of the high wear areas on these cars. Interior, pedals, floorboards, seals, rubber, etc. If it's a low-mileage original car, you should see the dated spark plug wires on it. Very rare do these last to 122K miles without being replaced. How clean is the engine?
 
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Owner says it only has 30k miles, could anyone confirm this?
That statement by the owner along with the odometer you pictured right away would throw up flags. Odometer says 24k, owner says 30k. I do not know of many owners of 24k cars that don't know the mileage down to the tenth. Likely a 1 or a 2 in front of those numbers. Keep looking deeper into the car and see if the overall condition warrants the asking price.

Pics and asking price can really help this group advise to go for it or walk away.
 
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This thread looks like it died, but as others have said, it can be tough to tell without a paper trail. Carfax is a good source. Service shop repair invoices are a good source of information.

Good judgment, intuition, and inspections can yield a guess within reason too.

There are common points of wear that are indicators, but not conclusive in and of themselves. Pedal wear, and heel wear in the carpet can yield some perspective. Basically, it is tough to tell at times, but 20k and 120k will look quite different. 120k and 220k may look more different.
 
These things get totally rebuilt as well. Sometimes, the numbers on the odometer are not even relevant.
I get what you're saying. Miles are just one indicator among many one should consider when buying. I like the idea that a car hasn't been to the moon and back. I also like things mostly original. I also use miles as a gauge of how much wear that consumable parts will endure. Even if a driver is easy on a car, things happen and things wear over the course of 50k or 100k miles, or more.
 
Lack of use can be a problem too. I once had a coworker who had an 8 year old Dodge Stratus (I know not much of a car), it had 50,000 km (30,000 miles) and electrically was falling apart. We were in the cold winters of Canada and his daily commute was not long enough to fully warm up the vehicle. So the built up condensation never dried up properly and just corroded everything.
 
Those short trips can also cause severe sludge buildup in the crankcase in cases where the car lives a life of short trips without adequate warm up
 
Lack of use can be a problem too. I once had a coworker who had an 8 year old Dodge Stratus (I know not much of a car), it had 50,000 km (30,000 miles) and electrically was falling apart. We were in the cold winters of Canada and his daily commute was not long enough to fully warm up the vehicle. So the built up condensation never dried up properly and just corroded everything.
Dodge and Chrysler vehicles of the era had horrible electronics under normal conditions. That had to be an exciting survival commute.
 
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I like the idea that a car hasn't been to the moon and back.

I as well. I don't care if the car has every part bolted to the body as 100% brand new, i don't like the idea of a body having 300K miles of flex on it. When it comes to these fox bodies, I do think mileage on the body matters here because of how flexible these cars are. We've all seen how these bodies can tear on the floor panel or at the A and B pillars from flex, especially without subframe connectors.

That's why i don't agree when people rebuild a chassis and reset the odometer to 0 and later sell the car as "20K miles". It's less of an issue now due to how much 20K mile cars actually sell for, but back in the late 90's and early 2000's when sub-100K mile Foxes were common and cheap, folks would do just this. Lots of low-mileage cars really had 100K+ on the body.
 
I as well. I don't care if the car has every part bolted to the body as 100% brand new, i don't like the idea of a body having 300K miles of flex on it. When it comes to these fox bodies, I do think mileage on the body matters here because of how flexible these cars are. We've all seen how these bodies can tear on the floor panel or at the A and B pillars from flex, especially without subframe connectors.

That's why i don't agree when people rebuild a chassis and reset the odometer to 0 and later sell the car as "20K miles". It's less of an issue now due to how much 20K mile cars actually sell for, but back in the late 90's and early 2000's when sub-100K mile Foxes were common and cheap, folks would do just this. Lots of low-mileage cars really had 100K+ on the body.
I chose my fox because of the low miles, and documentation to support it.

We can't turn back the hands of time, but we can preserve the few good ones still around.