It's easy and inexpensive to change the actual mileage covered by the vehicle
By Iman Sherif, Staff Reporter Published: 00:00 September 4, 2011
Image Credit: Virendra Saklani/Gulf News The odometer reading is the only real indicator of the number of kilometres a car has travelled.
Abu Dhabi: Altering a vehicle's odometer to change the actual mileage covered by the vehicle can endanger lives.
Rolling back a car's odometer is one of the oldest tricks in the book. Sadly, it happens frequently, mainly for people buying used cars.
"I purchased a used 2006 model car in May 2011 from a private owner. At that time the car's mileage was approximately 104,500 km. But when I took it for an air conditioning repair job, I was told the car last came to the shop in 2008, with 139,000km mileage. On further enquiry, I was told that the last registration renewal was in March 2010 and the car mileage then was 200,000 km. That means the man who sold me the car tampered with the odometer, and put my family's life in danger," Mohammad Abid told Gulf News .
"Merchants alter odometers to increase their profit and sell the cars for more than they are worth. The odometer reading is the only real indicator of the number of kilometres a car has travelled. So the lower the car mileage, the higher the price," said Abid, a car salesman.
It takes simple inexpensive tools to erase thousands of miles from a vehicle's odometer in minutes.
"Older cars have analogue odometers consisting of spinning wheels. Anyone with minor mechanical ability can take the dashboard apart, remove the odometer gauge and adjust the numbers backward or forward," George Antoine, an engineer said.
In the past decade, auto manufacturers began installing digital odometers, hoping that it would eliminate tampering.
"Known computer stores in the capital tamper with the vehicles rather than mechanics because of the digital odometer," said M.M., a mechanic.
"Unfortunately, it is as easy, if not easier, to alter a digital odometer than older versions; the only hard part is detecting the tampering [since digital odometers have no visible moving parts]," Antoine added.
"People think that digital odometers cannot be rolled back. There are companies selling software on the internet so that anyone who wants to roll back even a digital odometer can do it. In a digital odometer, the mileage is usually stored on a chip in the car's central computer. A hacker can easily communicate with the chip, and type in the new mileage," he explained.
Cars with high mileage are more prone to failure, putting the lives of the occupants at risk. The probability of major repairs and lots of little things going wrong is also increased.
Those who tamper with a vehicle's odometer can be booked for cheating customers if they complain to the police, said a police officer in Abu Dhabi.
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