Import car reads mileage in Km's, is this possible?

[DH]

Hi guys, my first ever post on what looks like the best Audi resource out there.

I am just about to buy a 2000 S3, it's an import from Belgium. The owner says that the mileage is in Km's, but the actual dials are MPH-biased, so I just want to check that an import car can have a Km readout for mileage and not for actual speed (and can this be changed at a later date to read in miles?).

Otherwise I'm paying on the basis that it's low mileage when it really might not be!

Cheers,
Dan

 

[rodenal]

Yes, you are only required to have speedo in mph, you're km mileage is fine - and i think you can also change it with vag com or a similar tool.

My mr2 turbo had the mileage in km's and it never proved a problem for mot etc

 

[simch]

BUt how the hell do you know........?

And why would MPH clocks read mileage in KM, surely the default would be like for like?

I presume its RHD not a lefty?

 

[rodenal]

Alot of the time people change the actual clock faces, to ones that are in mph(with the mr2 anyway) but dont touch the odomoeter - which is more difficult to change.

I think its a legal thing that the dials have to read speed in mph but nothing else.

You would be able to tell fairly easily on a test drive as the miles(or kilometers) go up a fair bit quicker, also if the car has DIS itll read x amount of km left etc rather than miles

 

[DH]

Thanks for your replies, Yes it's RHD.

I think I'll just have to get the wife to drive behind it in the other car for a mile and compare that way.

Not sure what DIS is, but if it has it I'll check that way!

 

[AndyMac]

DIS - driver information system i.e. trip computer that tells you your average speed, average mpg, trip time etc

 

[A3-frankie]

in my A3 on the odometer display it says 'miles'. So presuably on the car in question it will say KM's.

And yes, it is simple to change from one to the other with VAG-COM

 

[Stewart]

You can change the readout from K's to MPH using VAG-COM AFAIK.

EDIT : Sorry didnt see the above post

 

[Daniel Vzla]

Just for your info 1 mile is 1.62 kilometers so there you'll have a quick comparision

 

[nervus]

If the readout is say 100,000 kms, then this is only like ~62,000 miles so its not like if you buy the car and convert it your gonna loose out so the displayed distance covered is the worsed case scenario.

 

[neil.c]

Our car was a UK spec import which arrived with the odometer reading Kms but the speedo in miles,we took it in to the dealers and they swapped it over FOC. I think Audi did this deliberately so Audi GB could keep a check on the imports coming into the country