Beware of Odometer Readings

The first act performed by virtually every customer shopping for a used car is to climb into the driver seat and check the car’s odometer.

But the mileage showing on an odometer may be the least reliable piece of information on which to base an estimate of a used car’s worth.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has estimated that odometer fraud costs American consumers $3.3 billion to $4.1 billion a year.

The agency estimated in 1988 that 70% of all cars from commercial fleets had their odometers rolled back before they were put up for sale.

Separate studies in Washington and California put the estimate at 60%. And those estimates do not include odometers in cars owned by individuals that were reset by wholesalers or other middlemen.

It is sometimes hard to imagine that a major corporation or an individual would stoop so low for a few bucks. But then it was only five years ago that Chrysler admitted to disconnecting the odometers on 32,000 cars that it provided as perks to its executives.

After the company’s big shots were through with the cars, the odometers were hooked up again and the cars were sold as new.

Odometer tampering is not difficult; automotive manufacturers have made it relatively easy, experts say.

The easiest way is to simply pull the unit out of the dash and manually flip back the numbers on the dial, according to Lou Nanos, a private investigator who specializes in auto fraud and lemon suits.

“The average Joe consumer doesn’t do it himself,” Nanos said. “A mechanic can do it in about 30 minutes and get $300 for it.”

Most experts, including Nanos, agree that digital odometers are far more difficult to tamper with, requiring significant electronics knowledge and equipment. But eventually, crooked mechanics will catch on.

So the message is pretty clear, but what can you do about it?

Mark Koch, owner of Automotive Appraisal Service, rejects nearly one-third of the used cars he inspects because of probable odometer fraud. The airport-area business appraises used cars for a fee.

Koch tries to judge whether the wear and tear on the car seems out of sync with the odometer reading. He looks for worn-out ignition keys, holes in arm rests or worn rubber pads on brake and clutch pedals.

Obviously, these are vague indicators. But if he finds them, he begins to examine other things more closely. Most cars get at least 35,000 miles on a set of tires.

If he finds new tires on a car with less mileage, he gets more suspicious. The same is true with the original battery. He’s looking for a pattern in which too many individual items don’t match with the odometer reading.

Koch suggests that consumers ask for service records on cars, which typically include the past mileage.

Often sellers assert that a car is well cared for but cannot provide any service records--a sure giveaway that the seller has no idea how the car was cared for or knows that it was cared for poorly.

Meanwhile, Nanos, the private eye, suggests that buyers examine door posts and air-cleaner covers for stickers that may have been applied during oil changes.

Sometimes, the stickers contain past odometer readings. Nanos says he often finds old service records underneath seats or inside glove compartments, proving that odometers have been set back.

Nanos also recommends that a buyer ask where the car was serviced.

A dealer or other large garage often can find the past service records on its computerized data base by using the car’s vehicle identification number. He has skunked out a few cases of fraud that way.

On a final note, it’s against the law to tamper with an odometer--if that matters.