Hello there. To make a long story short (relatively), here goes.

I bought my 02 RS just at the beginning of August of 2004 at a Ford dealership in Charlotte (Dale Jarrett Ford.) I inspected the car, all seemed fine to my eyes. The previous owner modified the car slightly (rims/intake/headers/exhaust). Nothing extreme. Car ran great, no problems.
However, the odometer had been reset at 34k. It was done legally and had the documentation to confirm it. But no reason as to WHY it was reset.
I decided to take it into the dealership in Winston-Salem (Flow Subaru) to have to checked over. The mechanics informed me my car had been in a crash and invited me to inspect it with them. They showed me a few weld points and a minor body panel damage. They said it was a very minor incident, but said the repairs done were of good quality. This was not documented at all in the CarFax report. (I understand they dont have to report it was "wrecked" unless the damage exceeds a certain percentage of the cars worth?) They told me they could not service the car (a broken passenger side window switch broken) under its warranty because it had been involved in an accident.

So, what can I do? And any idea to why the odometer was reset? Thanks a ton guys.

P.S.- The car is still great and I have no issues, but it has always interested me, and I don't know why I didn't ask earlier.

Well, in my first subaru (a 1991 Legacy) the I got an ecu sensor go bad, and that required a new speedometer, which of course reset the mileage. If it was done legitametly then your ok

Are they telling you they can't perform the repair under warranty because of the accident issue or because they can't verify the mileage? Contact Subaru's 1800-subaru3 and see if they have documentation of the repair being done by them and why. You say that the repair was documented, then it should say why it was done.

If it has any kind of salvage title, your warranty with SOA is immediately null and void. Check to make sure the title of the car is not a salvage title, as some states issue salvage titles to any vehicle involved in an accident.


Brian

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Some answers:
Nope, not a salvage title. We made sure of that straight off.
Also, they refused to do any work because it was "wrecked", not because they couldn't verify mileage (that was just another oddity I threw in).

Technically they have to prove that the window was "damaged" as part of the accident. If it was it on that side, I can see their point. Call local body shops in the area and see if they worked on the car. Maybe they can tell you the type of damage that was done. If it wasn't registered on Carfax, there's a good chance it wasn't too severe because the previous owner probably paid for it out of pocket (another reason for the crapy repairs). Or, the accident was real recent and hasn't made it to Carfax yet.