These are the conclusions Autoportal made after a thorough study of this issue.
In fact, odometer fraud among Germans is no less common than in our country. A high mileage scares off buyers and lowers the price of a car. In Germany, there are no open registries with data on actual mileage, and local sellers actively take advantage of this — especially when preparing a car for sale abroad. Often, even before the car goes to a new owner in another country, the odometer readings are "rolled back" to an attractive mark of 140–170 thousand kilometers. The twisting procedure itself is most often done right before crossing the border.
German experts have calculated that about a third of cars on the secondary market have altered mileage, and the price of such cars is inflated by an average of 3,000 euros. The total damage to buyers from unjustified pricing is estimated at 6–7 billion euros annually. The German automobile club ADAC has repeatedly demanded a review of the rules and approaches of manufacturers to put an end to this practice. From a technical point of view, solving the problem today is not difficult, but things are still stuck.
Interesting data was provided by Carly, a company that develops diagnostic applications. With their help, you can not only check the car's operating parameters or read error codes, but also find out the actual mileage.
The program compares odometer readings with other data stored in various electronic control units of the car, for example, with the number of engine operating hours or records of the so-called "freeze frame" — information about the circumstances under which an error code was saved in the controller's memory.
So, according to the results of tests conducted by users of the Carly software, it turned out that odometers are most often tampered with on Mercedes, BMW, Toyota, and Volkswagen cars.
In particular, traces of manipulation were found in:
- 14.0% of Mercedes cars
- 9.4% of BMW cars
- 8.4% of Toyota cars
- 7.2% of VW cars
- 5.6% of Porsche cars.
How much was the mileage reduced?
- 34%: from 40 to 60 thousand km
- 28%: from 20 to 40 thousand km
- 17%: from 60 to 80 thousand km
- 18%: more than 80,000 km.
True, it is worth considering: Carly applications are not able to detect tampering if it was performed by professionals with modern equipment who know exactly which units store data that allows calculating the real mileage.
What's the conclusion? When buying a used car from Germany, you should not expect it to be an ideal car with an impeccable history. Any car with mileage must be checked before the deal.
