Odometer Rollback Catching Car Buyers Off-Guard
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- It's a scam that milks American car buyers out of more than $1 billion dollars each year and advances in technology have made it easier than ever to rip people off.
3 On Your Side Consumer Reporter Jim Donovan tells us about a problem that could affect up to a million vehicles on the road today.
When people buy a used car, one of the first questions they ask is how many miles does it have on it. Well don't be surprised if the number you're given isn't accurate.
When Wayne Boncyk was looking to purchase a vehicle for his son in college, he did a search on eBay and found just what he was looking for. It was a Jeep with 109-thousand miles on it. He says, "It looked really good on the eBay listing. The mileage was reasonable for a 9-year old car." So he bought it. But when he later ordered a CARFAX report, wanting to know about possible recalls, he says, "There was a flag that said odometer discrepancy." The CARFAX report showed that in early 2013 the Jeep already had 173-thousand miles on it !! Boncyk says, "We're talking about 40 percent more mileage on that thing than I was lead to believe that it had."
So how does the mileage go from 173-thousand back to 109-thousand? Chris Basso of CARFAX says, "Many of us don't even realize that odometer fraud still exists."
While many consumers believe only older analog style odometers are susceptible to rollback, digital odometers are actually easier to change. According to Basso, "Instead of having to do it by hand manually with the analog odometers, now it's as simple as plugging in hardware and software into the car's computer and it can literally be done in seconds."
And odometer rollbacks happen more often that you might think. CARFAX says that in the Delaware Valley over 90-thousand vehicles have odometer readings that just don't add up. More than 60-thousand vehicles in Pennsylvania, 27-thousand in New Jersey and 2,000 in Delaware.
CARFAX says it collects data from 92-thousand sources nationwide and says that vehicles that are 14-15 years old are most affected by odometer fraud. Basso says, "These are used cars that have 100, maybe 200 thousand miles on them, and they've been rolled back at least 50 thousand miles."
As a result of his experience, Wayne Boncyk offers this advice, "Until car manufacturers come up with tamper proof system in vehicles, do all the homework you can."
A rolled-back odometer will not only affect your cars value, your insurance rates could go up and the maintenance that you expected to deal with down the road, will likely appear much sooner than later.
Also, a pre-purchase car inspection may not always be able to flag you to a roll-back. Buying a vehicle history report may be your only way to spot odometer fraud.
At the very least, if you're buying a used car, you may want to use the free odometer check on the CARFAX website.
Simply click: http://www.carfax.com/cfm/general_check.cfm?partner=cfx_5.