[Auto] Odometer Tampering on Used Cars Is Rolling Higher These Days

[BirSaNN]

Here's a troubling statistic: there's about a 3.5 percent chance that a car will have its odometer messed with in the first 11 years of its life.

There are 1.9 million vehicles on the road today with incorrect numbers on their odometers, according to Carfax. That is up 7 percent from a year ago.
While California has the most of these kinds of vehicles on the road today, the rate of increase was especially high in Texas, Florida, and Arizona.
Digital odometers can make it easier to falsify a dashboard reading but also harder to get away with it if someone takes the time to investigate.
Used-car prices continue to decline in the U.S., but that doesn't mean everything on the secondhand market is running perfectly. One unfortunate, old-fashioned trend that's making a bit of a comeback is odometer fraud. The digital age has, in some instances, made it easier than ever to roll back time.

Almost 2 million vehicles on the road today have an odometer number that's been reduced in some way, according to a new report from Carfax. The 1.9 million incorrect readings represent a 7 percent increase from last year, Carfax said. As the largest car market in the U.S., it's not a surprise that California has the most affected vehicles—more than 437,000, Carfax said—but that number is only 2 percent higher than last year. There were three states in the top 10 with the most affected cars that saw double-digit growth in odometer fraud in the past 12 months: Texas (up 15 percent), Florida and Arizona (both up 12 percent). These rollbacks can have a real impact, causing buyers to lose an average of $4000 in value with their purchase, not counting any unexpected maintenance costs, Carfax said.

LINK: https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a42271880/odometer-tampering-on-used-cars/