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Buying and selling used cars can be a difficult process. It is made more difficult by fraudulent cases, where a car’s resale value is increased by tampering with an odometer. You can however detect this, with the tips provided here.
Car manufacturers have made it difficult for fraudsters to tamper odometers; but savvy criminals find ways to turn back the clock on used cars to sell them for a higher price. Removing 5,000 miles from a car that has travelled 50,000 miles does not sound like a big deal, but it can make the car more expensive by $1,000; which let’s face it, for a $10,000 car is instrumental!
So here are some tips to detect Odometer tampering:
- Acquire a copy of the vehicle history; CarFax and AutoCheck are good sources for this information. This will contain some very valuable information like registration number and emission data.
- Look at the dashboard to examine scratch marks and loose screws. This could point towards odometer tampering, but it is not always conclusive.
- For an analog odometer, check to see that mileage numbers are aligned.
- Check if the odometer stick during a test drive. This is a sure sign of tampering.
- Service stickers can give you useful information about the car’s true mileage.
- Check the maintenance records, if some pages are missing, you should raise a question.
- Look for signs of wear and tear. Correspond them with odometer to get a true, complete picture.
- If you know an independent mechanic, ask him/her to carry out a vehicle inspection. A mechanic should be able to tell signs of odometer tampering easily.
All in all, if in doubt, walk away! There is no point over paying for a car, especially when you are being scammed.
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