Dan,
The operative point which I think you've been failing to take into
consideration today is that the speedometer in question was purchased
separately from the car and has no bearing on the actual mileage of the tub
and frame which are, and shall remain, unknown. So rolling back this odometer
is VERY different than rolling back the odometer on a car that came with one.
In that instance, I would agree with your arguments 100% and would never even
CONSIDER doing it. In fact, I would be quite proud that "this car" has
"xx,xxx" number of actual miles.
So no, not everyone who has done a rebuild would be justified in resetting the
odometer. Not a chance.
My point is that since the original mileage is unknown, and I have no
practical way of ever finding out since I bought the project through a third
party who knew very little, who bought the project from a second party who was
selling the tub for the actual PO who started the resto (and who for all I
know might even be deceased), I might as well set the clock back to zero to
reflect the state of the car and declare the actual mileage to whomever it
comes up to, including the California Department of Motor Vehicles as "unknown
-- this just reflects the true and accurate mileage since the
restoral/rebuild/whatever". There is no hidden or unscrupulous motivation at
play here.
It totally blows my mind that anyone would question my ethics, integrity or
morality for altering an already, inherently KNOWN innacurate odometer
reading, especially since I am not trying to pass the car off as "brand new".
That would be impossible, in fact, as I have chosen a non-standard paint and
several custom touches. Anyone who sees this car will know from a quarter
mile away that it has been re-done and "non-original".
An important lesson was learned today. Instead of trying to explain what I
was doing, I should have simply asked the list:
"How do you correct the odometer reading" without any elaboration whatsoever.
At least then, I could have avoided the insults and what could be the end of
what I always considered to be a very cordial and mutually satisfying long
distance friendship. It's hard to swallow when ones integrity, morals,
values and ethics are called into question without the accusing party taking
into account the entire picture.
Apologies to the list for all the content pertaining to this post, and thanks
to all who actually responded with helpful answers to my original question. I
think I've got all the info I need now.
Jeff
----- Original Message -----
From: Dan Canaan
To: Jeff McNeal ; Michael Hargreave Mawson ; spitfires@autox.team.net
Sent: Saturday, September 07, 2002 2:03 PM
Subject: Re: Resetting odometer question
At 12:22 PM 9/7/02 -0700, Jeff McNeal wrote:
>The only thing that matters to me is keeping an accurate tally of the
miles
>since this car last moved. As of now, 100% of the components on this car
have
>moved 0 miles since the total rebuild.
With that argument, then every one of us is justified in resetting the
odometer any time we purchase or sell a car. That sure would be handy to
know that all the miles we see on the odometer were put on there by
ourselves. :)
It would seem to me that this sort of thing has come up before in
California. Surely the DMV there has solutions for such a
situation. Might be worth checking out.
-Vegaman Dan
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