Be sure the mileage indicated on your odometer is correct when buying a used car. Photo on virtual loan from Peerless Rockville.

There is a system in all vehicles that measures the distance the vehicle travels. It is called the odometer and it shows distance in either kilometers or miles on an analog or digital counter. It is a factor in the determination of the price of used cars. A practice among some used-car dealers is to tamper with the odometer by rolling it back, thereby showing a false mileage. The car dealers can then sell the cars at inflated prices to unsuspecting consumers. With an altered odometer, the car may not get the service it needs, such as maintenance and repairs, and the buyer may have major problems later on.

      The National Institute of Standards and Technology works with federal, state, and local governments and agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission to set measurement standards that directly or indirectly affect regulations for vehicle odometers. These regulations require that car manufacturers make the mileage systems more resistant to tampering. They also guide the conduct of the nation's used-car dealers so that it will be much more difficult for the dealers to show false mileage on their cars.

"THRIVING USED-CAR MARKET FUELS ODOMETER FRAUD"
      In the state of Washington, the government has discovered pervasive fraud netting large sums of money from dialing back odometers on used cars. Since 1978, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has conducted an increasing number of investigations of odometer fraud. Scam artists usually fix the odometer in minutes, add some new carpeting, do a lot of cleaning, and replace old brake pads with new pads to make used cars appear in better condition. Fraud rings have been found in Texas, California, Virginia, and West Virginia. From 1983-84, Michigan had the most odometer rollbacks with 2,200 fraud cases discovered. By 1995, the number had dropped to 100 (O'Brien, The Detroit News, August 25, 1996).

      Around the nation, federal courts have been cracking down on car dealers who rip off consumers by rolling back odometers and hiding the real condition of the cars. In Philadelphia, a court brought an indictment against three car dealers who were defrauding used-car buyers. The dealers rolled back the odometers, and resold the cars to consumers at inflated prices. The dealers had provided false odometer statements to buyers and had misrepresented the car mileage by as much as 90,000 miles. Similar cases have been brought against many used-car dealers in other states. Federal departments are now utilizing more resources than ever to crack down on a practice that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says costs consumers 4 billion dollars annually.


"ODOMETER TAMPERING CASE RESULTS IN FEDERAL PRISON TERMS FOR THREE GEORGIA MEN"
      Kent B. Alexander, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, Assistant Attorney General Frank W. Hunger of the U.S. Department of Justice, David W. Johnson Jr., Special Agent in Charge, FBI, and Barry Reid, Administrator, Georgia Governor's Office of Consumer Affairs, announced the sentencing of three Georgia used-car dealers. Billy Wilkins, 56, Aaron Taylor, 35, and Remer Brown, 36, pleaded guilty to odometer tampering on February 24, 1997. From April 1993 to June 1994, Wilkins supplied Taylor and Brown with high-mileage used cars in a condition such that they could be passed as having lower mileages. Taylor then rolled back the cars' odometers, and created forged documents to conceal odometer fraud. Together, Brown and Taylor re-sold the cars, misrepresenting the cars' true mileages. It was estimated that the average vehicle rollback was approximately 50,000 miles and that the cost to consumers from the fraud was approximately $4,000 per vehicle. Nationwide odometer fraud costs consumers $4 billion. Each of these three men received sentences of more than one year in jail and fines of more than $2,000.

• Look for loose screws or scratch marks around your dashboard
  
  
• Make sure that the digits in the odometer are lined up straight--particularly the 10,000 digit
  
  
• Test drive the car so that you can see if the reading on the odometer changes
  
  
• Check for service stickers inside the door or under the hood that may give the actual mileage
  
  
• Make sure a computer warranty check has been run on the car
  
  
• Use a commercially available computer search program such as CarFax or VINguard to verify previous mileage
  
  
• Ask to see the title documents and check to make sure the mileage reading on the documents has not been altered
  
  
• Always have a certified mechanic check out the car