160,000 drivers at risk of mileage fraud this year

Nearly 160,000 drivers in the UK are at risk of becoming a victim of mileage fraud this year, according to carVertical.

The vehicle history checking company estimates that 2.1% of the 1.9m cars changing hands every quarter in the UK have been clocked in the last 12 months.

Matas Buzelis, car expert at carVertical, said: “The age of a vehicle is no guarantee when it comes to buying a used car and determining its condition. Mileage is one of the key indicators of how much wear and tear a vehicle may have, however this is not always a reliable indicator.

“Even newer cars with lower mileage and only one or two previous owners can come with a risk of odometer fraud. When someone buys a new car they often agree not to exceed a certain mileage so that they can get a better financing deal and keep their costs down.

“But some fraudulent drivers ignore these agreements and roll the odometer readings back, so that it appears they complied with the contract they signed.”

Falsely lowering a used vehicle’s mileage can inflate its sale price by as much as 25%. Odometer fraud can also lead to higher maintenance cost due to wear and tear.

‘Nearly-new’ cars are considered less of a risk than older models, but carVertical has found that 1.89% of second-hand cars less than five years old showed evidence of falsified mileage.

Buzelis said: “A car’s mileage is a crucial determining factor of how much it’s really worth, so it’s important to make sure you are not paying over the odds and running the risk of being out of pocket if and when you decide to sell the vehicle.”

KIAs are the most commonly clocked nearly-new vehicles, with almost 9% showing a discrepancy between their odometer and recorded mileage, followed by Nissans (6.84%) and Dacias (6.16%), Subarus (5.04%) and Citreons (4.72%).

Vehicles in the UK that have surpassed 250,000km (c.155,000 miles) are more likely to have been clocked.