Beating mileage fraud and odometer rollback

In the wake of recent reports on the alleged widespread practice by second-hand car dealers in Malta tampering with car odometers to make them display a lower mileage, MaltaToday has learnt there are actually a number of simple things anyone purchasing a used car can do to ensure that the odometer has not been rolled back.

As of 2011, any car imported from the UK or Japan has to undergo testing in those countries at certified JEVIC centres, which will certify the odometer readings before the cars are allowed to be imported.

The testing centre will issue a JEVIC certificate, stating the authentic odometer reading for the car, and that certificate must be presented to Transport Malta when the car is imported to Malta. 

The JEVIC website will bring up an electonic copy ofthe certificate it had issued for the vehicle when its odometer had been verified

A prospective buyer should always insist that the car dealer provide the original JEVIC certificate for the vehicle he is interested in. Do not accept photocopies or black and white prints.

This JEVIC certificate is the biggest protection the buyer of a used car has against mileage fraud, because even though it is possible for car dealers to digitally modify the certificate and print fake replicas, with the rolled-back mileage, it is easy for the buyer to verify the mileage with JEVIC directly.

One can simply log on to jevic.com, click on the ‘Check E-Cert’ button and insert the car’s chassis number (or vehicle identification number), which can be found on the manufacturer’s plate normally located under the bonnet of the vehicle.

And the JEVIC website will then bring up an electronic copy of the certificate it had issued for the vehicle when its odometer had been verified.

This makes it impossible for local dealers to manipulate the JEVIC certificate or produce false copies. 

If the mileage count on the JEVIC certificate provided by the dealer does not match exactly the count on the e-certificate available online, then the prospective buyer will know immediately, and without doubt, that the odometer of the car has been tampered with and rolled back.

And hopefully, that buyer will immediately report the case to the police for further investigation.

Malta’s second-hand car market

A study commissioned by the European Commission found that Malta placed second among EU countries with the highest proportion of used cars imported at 28%, just behind  sIn terms of car characteristics, the average second-hand car was 6.2 years old and had been driven 87,000km previously, thus implying that it had been driven 14,000km per year pre-purchase.

Average car age and mileage were 7.6 years and 104,500km.

The average second-hand car price from the consumer survey was €9,559 and the most expensive cars were to be found in Portugal, Norway, Malta, Hungary, Finland and Austria. 

How easy is it to roll back the kilometres?

Let’s be clear: not all used car dealers tamper with the odometers on the cars they import. 

Those that do, normally tend to roll back the odometer by around 30,000km on average, which would increase the value of the car by thousands of euros.

This is not a practice limited to Malta; the EU calculates consumers lose up to €6 billion each year on mileage fraud across the member states. 

But while countries seem to agree that mileage fraud needs to be tackled and that harsher penalties need to be introduced, odometer correction tools are easily and readily available for purchase online. 

The most popular ones include mileage change tools and software to hack into nearly all car brands, makes and models.

One of the UK’s most popular websites for car diagnostics tools, www.cardiag.co.uk, lists 47 products under its ‘Odometer Correction Tools’ section, including the popular 2016 Digimaster III.

For sale at a meagre €1,179 – plus €112.60 for three- to five-day express delivery to Malta – the Digimaster III works with various types of adapters allowing “you to easily achieve odometer correction by removing dashboard”.

This machine also provides users an audio decoding tool, plus airbag resetting, engine ECU resetting, IMMO, and key programming features.

Simple tricks to help you spot possible mileage fraud

The odometer itself may give up its secrets, if you know what to look for.

• Check the number of kilometres recorded on the odometer; automobiles average about 12,000km a year. So a five-year-old car that has far fewer than 60,000km should trigger some alarm bells, although it may not necessarily be a case of the odometer being tampered with.

• In case the vehicle has a traditional mechanical odometer, check if the numbers are aligned correctly and are fully readable. Crooked numbers or numbers that contain gaps are often an indication of odometer fraud.

• With modern, digital odometers, look closely at the numbers on the display; some auto makers programme odometers to show an asterisk, or a black line between the numbers, if the mileage is changed.

• The interior of the car is equally important. Examine the usage and wear of the wheels, gear lever and pedals and compare this to the mileage number on the odometer to see whether these are consistent.

• If the brake or gas pedal is badly worn – for example – but the odometer has low mileage, this too may be a case of odometer fraud.

• Unquestionably, loose dash screws, scratches in the odometer area and parts that are replaced that normally wouldn’t have to be replaced can be a sign of mileage rollback.

• Before committing yourself to buying a car, always take the vehicle to a mechanic you trust and ask him to examine the car for wear and tear. 

• A mechanic will know which parts would be original on an older car; for example, if a car’s odometer reads 30,000km, any sign of new parts that ordinarily would not be replaced until 60,000km, could indicate odometer tampering.