One of the biggest fears of used car buyers is that they won’t be cheated. Because the rogueness of many sellers can play tricks on us if we do not take certain precautions when we are in the search process. Will the car be in proper mechanical condition? Have they done proper maintenance? Are the kilometers on your odometer real?
Tricking the odometer is totally illegal
And in what has to do with the odometer, this is not a trivial aspect, since there are several things to take into account that you may not know. This is generally not a complicated process to do, and if a driver has been very thorough trying to hack the odometer, it will be nearly impossible to detect.
But not everyone is so cautious and among second-hand cars you usually see many botched jobs that can give away this scam. As such, what we see is that this is a totally illegal practice that deceives the buyer, but unfortunately it is easy to do and more common than we think. What is not so easy is to do it and leave no trace…
On a recurring basis, mafias that engage in this practice to earn money come to light, but if you are looking for a used car, we want to reassure you: you can easily know if the odometer of your future car has been tampered with, as we will see in the following lines .
It is very important not to trust
Thus, finding second-hand vehicles with attractive features, an impeccable appearance and apparently few kilometers, at very attractive prices, are the first signs that we should be suspicious. Fortunately, deception is not always behind what can be incredible offers, but it is very important not to be overconfident and carry out a series of checks before starting to buy that vehicle that has caught our attention so much.
Although the technology and electronics currently used in cars can be an inconvenience when trying to falsify the mileage, those who are dedicated to this type of criminal work have different methods that, far from what many of us might think, will help them easily achieve your goal.
This is none other than selling a second-hand vehicle with reduced kilometers. And what do they get? Well, get more profit at the time of sale. The easiest method to check if the kilometers of a vehicle are correct is to request a report on it from the General Directorate of Traffic, since it is the only official document that cannot be manipulated or modified by fraudsters.
The electric ones are also easy to manipulate
And how do they do it? It is enough to connect the device with the appropriate software to the OBD system (diagnostic system) of the vehicle and modify the number of kilometers registered by the car. In today’s cars it is no longer necessary to even lift the hood as a computer is enough.
In this, as we have learned with carVertical’s automotive history company, we have also learned that electric cars are much easier to maintain and, at the same time, technologically more advanced than diesel and gasoline vehicles.
Unfortunately, any electric vehicle can be tricked, as they use the same digital odometers as any other vehicle. In fact, digital odometers are much easier to manipulate than the mechanics of older vehicles.