when shopping for a used car, how worried should i be about a MILEAGE INCONSISTENCY!?

[LONO100]

hey all, the gf and i are in the market for a new or used jeep and we found a nice 2008 JEEP WRANGLER with 31K miles it is a hard top in great condition, and is selling for a really good price. ive been watching this jeep for a little while now, and i just saw the price drop on it another 2000, so i looked into it because i couldnt imagine why it hasnt sold yet. so we pulled up the carfax on this jeep and found that there was a mileage inconsistency. it went in a for service at 20K miles, and on its next service, it had an odometer reading of 16K miles which sent up the red flag. on its next service, it was back up at 30K miles, where it sits now at the dealership.

the dealership is a certified jeep dealership, not one of those "todd's cars" type dealerships, and im thinking the jeep was a lease vehicle that was having the odometer played with but im not sure.

my question is how big of a gamble would it be to take a chance on a vehicle with a mileage inconsistency? the jeep looks to be in great condition otherwise. i have bought my share of cars but never one that had an inconsistency in mileage. a little knowledge and/or experiences from you fellas on the forum would be really appreciated. thanks and merry xmas.

 

[RangerX]

The simplest answer is it's a typo. Either when the when the service writer entered the mileage, or less likely, a carfax typo.
It was probably 26K, it's between 20K and 30K...

Have you asked them about it?

 

[Alec]

Exactly what I was gonna say.

 

[Joe Dirt]

It's a Chrysler odometer.

 

[LONO100]

well thanks for the tips fellas, but we ended up not even going with the jeep with the questionable odometer, we ended up getting a 2010 for a really good price. and you know that extended warranty that they always sell you while youre siging the papers that adds like 60-80 bucks a month to your payment? i talked that dude down to 20 bucks a month! 20 bucks a month! i wish i couldve taped that negotiation, it was a thing of beauty, his original offer on that warranty was adding 79 bucks to our payment and we cut that thing down! im generally not one to buy an extended warranty, but the jeep is for my gf, so she really wanted it. im a notorious haggler by the way. the jeep we got was a sahara, we wanted a rubicon, but the prices on the new or newer ones were just way out there. the only difference was that the rubicons run 4.10's and the saharas 3.73's. our jeep is loaded with a hard top, power windows, sirius, automatic, premium wheels and the color is what jeep calls copper, but we call it giants orange! these jeeps were consistantly going for 28K or more, but i talked this one down to 23K. i knew they had been sitting on it for over 100 days, so they were just trying to get it off their books so i haggled the hell out of that price. one of my finer haggles next to the time i bought my sport trac. ill post pics in the morning when theres light out.