What does "driven" ______ miles mean?

[Leo]

I have looked at some cars on Facebook Marketplace. 50 years of buying cars, I know that it is a crap shoot when buying cars from individuals. Two cars I drove out to see had advertisement saying something like "driven 46,000 miles". OK 46,000 on a 5 year old car is really good, that interests me. I get there and the car has 110,000+ on it. When I tell them that the ad said lower, they say "The ad is right, I only drove it 46,000", As if the 70,000+ that was on it when they bought does not count. Is this the new standard, or is it a marketplace thing, or some culture thing they brought up from Mexico?

 

[MCgrease08]

That feels pretty shady. It would make more sense to say something like, 110,000 total miles, 46,000 of those are from me. Car runs great.

Sounds like the guy you met with wanted to trick you into coming to look at the car.

 

[TheGrumpyGuy]

I would've bitch-slapped that ************ for wasting my time, j/s

 

[Lpherr]

I was looking for a '81 Z28 some years back. I found an ad for one in the exact color combo I wanted, and with very low mileage.
The price was reasonable, so I went to look at it.
Upon arriving, there was this completely rusted out car in the driveway. I was sure this wasn't the car advertised, but was assured it was.
Not only was it rusted out all over, but it was leaking fluids from every gasket on the car.
I questioned about the ad, and they guy said that's the miles it shows. I inspected a little more, and found the speedo cable was cut, likely from a trans extraction. This thing had to been driven a million miles... after the cable was cut.
As much as I hated to, I walked away.

 

[stocknup]

Maybe the other 70,000 miles were the ones where they had to push it ............

 

[JCSR]

May have been flat towed

 

[blain]

Driven miles vs actual odometer miles.

It's sort of like the government reporting a CPI number as inflation.
The number is lower than actual inflation.

 

[printcraft]

“My car identifies as a low mileage vehicle.”

GTFO of here you lying bastard.

 

[SAILORGOLF46]

In the 80's I was looking for a low mileage mid 70's Corvette in the old Trader paper. One was listed with out mileage posted, I called and ask about the odometer and the seller responded "how many miles do want it to show".
I passed.