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Odometer tampering cases on the rise here


MacDuck
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it will not work

 

Don't know until try - if enough people make enough noise, you might get somewhere.

 

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Mine is too! 6 years old, not quite 86k.

 

Daily travel about 10km.

 

At 86K km, .. over 6 years (2,190 days), .. which works out to be 39km per day leh ...

 

10km is very little leh ... To and fro, .. from Clementi to Holland Village ... you're done driving for the day.

 

..... I settled for a mazda cx 7 which I found on the sg carmart website. I went to see the car and liked it [in terms of appearance] and they were also prepared to trade in my car at a reasonable cost. Off course it is difficult to judge a cars actual condition unless it is driven for a few days. The odometer showed around 75,000 k, which I thought was not bad for a Feb 2007 model. The dealer also offered an external warranty of 2 years through a company called OPTIMA WERKZ. It all sounded like a good deal [at least on paper] so I decided to go for it. we signed the papers and I took the delivery of the car on 5th October 2012.

 

...

 

After reading the above post, and also because of the fact that I felt something is wrong somewhere, I decided to call up the agent to check on the past service records for this car. I was shocked to learn from the agent that the car was last serviced on 6th august 2012 by the owner and the odometer reading at that point of time was 2,09,410 !!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

That's insane mileage for a Feb '07 ride (mine's also Feb '07, ... yet to hit 100K km).

 

Yours has covered an average of more than 100km per day, over the past 5.5 years! :o

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Yup. Ought to have checked with the Authorized agent on the mileage, last serviced date, details of comprehensive servicing done PRIOR to purchase.

 

And not as an after-thought.

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.... i will go to CASE to find out what exactly is their prespective and if the new LEMON law which has come into effect from 1st september, can help in any ways.

 

When did you first ink the sales-purchase agreement?

 

Even if Lemon Law is applicable, ... it applies to purchases made (not take delivery) after 01 Sep 2012.

 

If you inked the doc. in Aug, ... hmmm ...

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.... i will go to CASE to find out what exactly is their prespective and if the new LEMON law which has come into effect from 1st september, can help in any ways.

 

When did you first ink the sales-purchase agreement?

 

Even if Lemon Law is applicable, ... it applies to purchases made (not take delivery) after 01 Sep 2012.

 

If you inked the doc. in Aug, ... hmmm ...

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When buying a car dont just look a low mileage means good buy. I would actually prefer high mileage cars with full servicing records from agent.

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ya loh my ride turning 4, now at about 120k considered high mileage..

but regularly service with AD every 10K and still a very reliable workhorse

take care of it well, and it will take care of you

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Very low, mine is 10k a year, drive daily short distance.

 

Cars that regularly drive short distance r mire prone to fail than those that drive >30 mins per trip.

 

I prefer to buy high mileage but well maintained n driven longer distances than just a few minutes a day.

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the deal was signed on 5th october so if the lemon law works, then nit can apply. anyhow fortunately for me that previous owner had brought the car for servicing to the agent and i managed to get a mechanical check done at the agent and they gave me an invoice where they have mentioned that the odometer was tampered. the only question which can not be answered is "who tampered" !!!! even though 9/10 chances are it must have been done by the dealer but than again there is no evidence.

 

thankfully , the dealer has agreed to take back the car as long as i buy another car from him. not the prefect solution BUT at least i have an alternative. this time around will check and verify all details.

 

just a piece of advise for any potential used car buyer.

 

whichever car brand you buy, pls call up the agent and give them the car plate number. they should be able to give you details about the servicing records and correct mileage.

 

 

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wondering if LTA or STA can record the mileage every 2 yrs when owners sent the car for inspection... from the records, can roughly gauge the driving pattern of owners... thou 2yrs is a big gap to monitor... eg. switch jobs from sales to desk bound can be an excuse too..

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the deal was signed on 5th october so if the lemon law works, then nit can apply. anyhow fortunately for me that previous owner had brought the car for servicing to the agent and i managed to get a mechanical check done at the agent and they gave me an invoice where they have mentioned that the odometer was tampered. the only question which can not be answered is "who tampered" !!!! even though 9/10 chances are it must have been done by the dealer but than again there is no evidence.

 

thankfully , the dealer has agreed to take back the car as long as i buy another car from him. not the prefect solution BUT at least i have an alternative. this time around will check and verify all details.

 

just a piece of advise for any potential used car buyer.

 

whichever car brand you buy, pls call up the agent and give them the car plate number. they should be able to give you details about the servicing records and correct mileage.

 

not every agent will give you the full details. some will say its confidential. how?

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Want to share my experience on this. We got a 3 year plus old Honda car in Aug 2012 and the dealer assured that the low mileage of 57K was real and even throw in 1 year warranty. We later got proof that the mileage was 120K in Jan and confronted him. He finally agreed to take back the car after lessing off a few K off the original purchase price, and grumbled that he was a victim and would have problem disposing the car. Immediately after transferring ownership, the car was posted on SGCar, at a much higher price(than my original price) and the much lower mileage. The authority should set up a database to record the odo reading when cars are sent in for annual inspection to prevent odo tampering. In our case, we were fortunate to find paper evidence, and though we suffer a few K loss in the process.

By the way, we did call agent to check but there was no record of servicing since 2008. Reason by dealer - the car was rarely driven, hence owner went outside to service.

Edited by Greenhorn999
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not sure if anybody knows - does the dealer need to indicate the mileage of the car on the papers when purchasing car from ex-owner, and then signed off by both the dealer and ex-owner?

 

This can then be requested by the intended buyer as proof to check if the odometer has been tampered with.

 

Don't think it will be difficult to put in place right?

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I think no matter what database are all usless... Even if go for yearly inspection right from 1 year old of the car also usless. It's all down to integrity of the car owner and seller. Also down to car buyers all like to see low mileage on the odometer.

 

 

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I think the main jeez here is culpability.

 

If there is a legal document that ties the parties involve to abide to, doubt mainly will be willing to play tricks.

 

I agree that a database hosted by LTA may be too troublesome to check at times.

But a signed off document and maybe a photo of the car mileage will serve as concrete proof.

 

This is also a good way to rid the industry of wolfs who are out to pray on weak buyers.

Let the industry do a self clean up by enacting stronger laws and self-regulate by itself.

 

I am sure this is not too much work for the few thousands (easily) profit for each car sold.

 

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Turbocharged

I think no matter what database are all usless... Even if go for yearly inspection right from 1 year old of the car also usless. It's all down to integrity of the car owner and seller. Also down to car buyers all like to see low mileage on the odometer.

 

Of course not useless - if you had to record mileage during road tax renewal, under pain of making a false statement, it would make a huge difference to how much, if any, a car could be wound back.

 

 

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