As I was writing, the ScanGauge has some programming features other than just connecting to the car. Not sure if it has the ability to actually to dig deep enough to get the mileage from the cluster, but who knows. If I wasn't taking on water, I'd be glad to take on the extended challenge of digging into this. I've been thinking about it for several months, just have not seen the time.
http://www.scangauge.com/tips-and-trick ... ngauge-ii/
http://www.scangauge.com/tips-and-trick ... -manual-2/
At any rate, it would be nice to be able to see a car while "out and about" grab the ELM327, plug it into the vehicle at hand, and read the mileage on my phone, without the need of a laptop with internet connection. The guy at the indi shop has some reader about as big as a small laptop computer that he hooks up to the OBD2 port and reads the system in less than 5 minutes. The first car took him about 5 minutes because he had not done it in years. The 2nd car took him about 2 minutes. He was also able to see the country set up of the vehicle, which was Saudi market for the 2nd car. I'm guessing it was a DOD delivery vehicle.
As for reading the mileage in the '98 cars, I don't see that as being necessary. Those cars do NOT have cluster issues where the odometer breaks and stops displaying the correct mileage since they are digital. My view is that ALL 850's have experienced a broken odometer gear and thus the displayed mileage is not accurate. Fine example is the 850 I purchased on the side of the road that actually had 259,000 miles on it but the display showed 173,998. That 80,000 mile error knowledge may have saved me $200 to $300 in my purchase as I shocked the seller with that information. The 2nd car with the 11,000 error probably would not have mattered, however, the seller actually lied to me and said that the odometer worked, it does not.
The real tragedy here is at the end of the day, only about 7 people actually really care. LOL I believe these are 500,000 mile cars, so at 260,000 the car has a LOT of life left in it once restored mechanically. heck, at most people's rate, another 20 years. But lets see ANYONE pay more than $2,500 for a car with 320,000 miles on it. At 350,000 miles I would put my money on one of these over a Honda with 200,000 miles on it any day. There is some strange thing in my head that gets a kick out of telling people that my car has over 300,000 or so miles on a car. I would really get a kick out of having one with over 400,000 like my red block 740 GLE had. The look on their face. lol Bla Bla Bla, maybe I'll wake up now since most people are now at work.
Again, it would be nice to get the mileage on the fly, and be able to reset the oil change light without a lot of expense and multiple pieces of equipment needing internet access. If the process is not simple and "cheap" others will not enjoy the ability. Heck, it's hard to get them to check their dang oil in these old cars.
