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Global Driving

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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has released results of a new study showing that nearly half a million U.S. used-car buyers per year are victimized by odometer fraud. Low-mileage and newer models, such as those returned from rental or lease, are the most likely to have odometers rolled back. Wholesalers selling fleets of used vehicles to dealerships are most likely to commit the fraud, NHTSA said in a press release.

The agency said these buyers pay an average of $2336 more for the vehicles in the belief that they have substantially less mileage on them than is the actual case. A NHTSA spokesman said digital odometers can be rolled back easily with a laptop computer and other equipment that can be purchased on the Internet.

The study, says GlobalAutoNet, looked at title transfer documents on 10,000 vehicles and added information from its own database of fraudulent odometer rollbacks. The study concluded that about 3.5 percent of all vehicles that are eleven years old or less have been subject to odometer rollbacks. That adds up to 452,000 vehicles per year. NHTSA also noted that only four states of the forty-six that responded to its survey say they concentrate on odometer fraud by keeping mileage records and notifying consumers of suspicious mileage changes from one title document to the next. The report concluded that NHTSA should receive funds to help it work with states on the issue. Currently, there are only four NHTSA employees assigned to investigate odometer fraud throughout the United States.

Related Links:

• NHTSA's full report: The incidence of odometer fraud (PDF)
• How to avoid buying a car with a tampered odometer
• Indicators of tampering
• Drivers.com's section on Buying and Selling Cars

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