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Instrument Cluster Failure, car value impact?

corygcoryg Member Posts: 2
edited September 2015 in Subaru
Our 3 day old outback had a failure in the instrument cluster. Dealer will fix it of course, but now it looks like there may be a sticker that has to be added to the car alerting a odometer repair was done. Also not certain if the mileage will be back at 0 or at the <300 we had on there.

Any ideas on the hit on value because of this type of repair and the sticker required? I for one am having a hard time coming to grips that there wouldn't be a very negative impact to the value of the car.
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    isellhondasisellhondas Member Posts: 20,342
    The sticker should solve the problem but there will always be potential buyers who will be skeptical.

    I don't see a "very negative" effect. some, perhaps. The older the car gets, the lesser the impact.
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    explorerx4explorerx4 Member Posts: 19,320
    edited September 2015
    If your dealer is like mine was, a different brand, they don't add a sticker and your carfax says instrument panel checked. The odometer should read 300, not zero, that would be fraud.
    2023 Ford Explorer ST, 91 Mustang GT vert
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    isellhondasisellhondas Member Posts: 20,342
    No, they don't change the mileage and it isn't fraud IF they put the sticker on.
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    explorerx4explorerx4 Member Posts: 19,320
    edited September 2015
    The sticker is a 'True Mileage Unknown' sticker. Rolling back an odometer is fraud, sticker or not.
    These mileage is programmed into the cluster and it can be set to anything.
    2023 Ford Explorer ST, 91 Mustang GT vert
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    corygcoryg Member Posts: 2
    So a True Milage Unknown sticker sure sounds like it would adversely impact the value of a brand new car.

    I know that I wouldn't be buying a used car with that sticker on it as there are plenty that don't, so having a car with that stigma on it with literally less than a single tank of gas through it is very concerning.

    Any ideas on how to calculate that hit on equity that we will have had due to this repair?

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    socal_ericsocal_eric Member Posts: 189
    Many cars also store the mileage in the powertrain controller. If the instrument panel display goes bad but their scan tool can still communicate with the cluster and/or they pull the mileage from the powertrain controller they should be able to program the replacement to the same mileage. If that's the case most states don't require a sticker to be placed on the car. It's usually when the mileage is unknown or could be different when the cluster/IP is replaced. That may or may not be your case, depending on above listed ways to pull the current mileage and requirements of your state.

    As to potential issues selling it down the road, there's a ton of bad data in Carfax but if you have a buyer that checks or if you are required to have a notification sticker placed on the car it could have an impact, but if you keep the service paperwork showing it is a new car and the mileage before/after repair I wouldn't think it would have much impact years down the road. If this was an older car and the mileage was completely unknown and couldn't be reasonably be verified is where I'd think you'd have a much bigger problem trying to explain.
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