Hello all, I hope someone might be able to shed some light on an issue i am having please. I recently purchased my 2004 crossfire (in Ontario, Canada), i have been enjoying it greatly but i recently noticed some weird numbers regarding fuel consumption. I have a habit of resetting my trip meter when i refill, i noticed my trip meter seems to be averaging approx 260 km till i hit the refill mark on fuel gauge, this obviously seemed very wrong so i checked the forums and people seem to be getting around 400km on a tank. so today i did an experiment on the highway, i started at the beginning of a highway km marker 0 and reset my trip meter, when i got to km marker 66 my trip meter said 42 km. so i have come to the conclusion that it is displaying in miles even though the LCD says KM. now i am very worried that the odometer is in miles and i have purchased a vehicle with much much higher mileage that i originally anticipated? I will do odometer experiment tomorrow, i suspect it is displaying miles also if trip meter is.
has anyone encountered this? is there a way for me to witch between miles and km myself or must this be done at dealer? BTW my speedo is displaying in KM correctly interestingly enough. i suppose my first clue should have been the temperature is in Fahrenheit
i am very confused and worried.any help would be greatly appreciated please.
thank you,
Jeff

 

If that is the case you have grounds for returning the car to the dealer that sold it to you if you should so choose to. When you buy a car from the dealer it is their responsibility to ensure mileage is correct and things like this arent passed along to unsuspecting buyers. It can constitute odometer fraud here in the states simply because 49K km is not the same as 49K miles. If it displays km but actually reads miles it is false and therefore the car was bought with misleading information. I would go back to the dealer you bought it from and run the details by a manager and see what they are willing to do to rectify the problem.

 

thanks for the advice moparfreak69, it looks like that is what i will most likely do since i today verified the odometer is also displaying in miles. so the car i bought that i thought had 57659 KM in actually Miles so it is actually 92793 KM
out of curiosity i was wondering if anyone has heard that this is a known issue with this car? cant seem to see any mention of it in the forums. and there does not seem to be a end user way of switching this? it appears this must be done at dealer?
thanks,
Jeff

 

Don't know how Canada law would handle this dealer where you bought the car but I agree with Moparfreak69 it would be
taken very seriously here in the U.S. by our laws. It will require a DRBIII scan tool to revert back to KM for your car.

 

I cannot imagine how this could happen? Maybe a different cluster (USA vs Canadian) was installed without running it through a DRBII tool to reset the internals? I dunno, but the dealership is certainly responsible for correcting this. The Canadian DOT would like to know about this as well, I am sure. If they balk on fixing this, remind them the Canadian GOV frowns on any type of misrepresentation of the milage of any vehicle sold within its borders. Good luck in correcting this, and please keep us informed!

 

The previous owner may have had it changed from showing km to miles. There is no law saying you cannot do that. In fact if I knew someone with a DRBII scan tool I wouild have mine changed. I hate the metric system. The problem is the dealer should of told you this. It is possible they didnot know this had been done.

 

It is possible that this car was an import from the US and some attempt has been made to make it look like it is registering in kilometers.
US imports have to be certified by RIV (the Registrar of Imported Vehicles) and as such MUST have a label supplied by them after it has been certified to meet Canadian standards. This label MUST be stuck on the car near the original label on the driver door or door frame.
US cars have speedometers that have MPH as the dominant display, Canadian cars have KPH as the dominant display, this could be got around by changing the dial. I think mph and kph LCD displays can be changed by the dealer. The temperature display may be changeable, I'm not sure.
Canadian cars must have DTRLs (Day Time Running Lights) to get certification, this can be achieved by fitting the Canadian headlight switch or by another method, one of which is a Canadian Tire relay fix.

I will add the RIV label photo.

If it is a US car and you were not informed or it does not have the RIV label then a really serious fraud has been committed by someone. This could lead to big a fine.

 

If you have not done so request a Carproof report form the dealer or get one yourself.

 

Are the larger numbers on the top outer edge of the speedometer in Kms per hour or miles per hour?

 

US car, check your bill of sale, safety check, e-test. Mileage has to be accurately reported or it is fraud. Good luck!

 

Your case would be with OMVIC, not the federal government. A reputable dealer will look after you because they too may have recourse with OMVIC, depending on where they got the car from. But regardless, in no case can they walk away from a bad deal with you, the consumer. So make your inquiry with OMVIC and find out what exactly your rights are, and then present this to the dealer. They have to provide you with satisfaction according to OMVIC rules at minimum. If they don't, then you can make your formal complaint to OMVIC and let them get involved. And don't be afraid to let the dealer know that you have researched your rights with OMVIC, either. That way they'll know that they can't jerk you around. But be firm.

 

I really appreciate every ones input and help.
The larger numbers are KM and it is showing correctly (verified by my GPS) not that it would not be very obvious if i was going 100 miles an hour instead of 100 km

I have placed a call to the dealer i bought it from and i am waiting to hear back.
i will keep you all posted.
again thank you all very much.

 

i do not believe i have seen such a sticker but i will verify tomorrow.
thanks for this info, i had no idea this existed.

 

Thanks for this info, greatly appreciate it, i will wait to see what dealer has to say before i lean on them with OMVIC and BBB and MTO. I will provide you all update tomorrow after I call dealer back.

 

Then your car is not a US car (unless the speedo has been changed).

 

What part of Ontario are you from?

 

Change the dial for a US dial and you would not notice the difference. The needle moves the same amount anyway.

 

I was thinking the speedo was changed independantly from the odometer.

 

Ottawa, but i bought the car in Mississauga as there was not a vast selection of ones for sale in Ottawa to choose from.

 

I have verified the RIV label is not present on my crossfire.