Safety on the road
Our daughter recently bought a 2014 car with just 30,000 miles. It was a deal. But things quickly went bad, and weeks later, we learned the odometer had been tampered with. It had a lot more than 30,000 miles. I had no idea this can still happen. Can you warn people?
So sorry this happened to her. Odometer fraud is alive and well.
According to the National Highway Safety Traffic Administration, nearly half a million of the vehicles sold every year are registering false odometer readings. And it’s not small-potatoes fraud. The organization estimates that this costs U.S. car buyers about $1 billion each year.
It’s no easy task to detect when an odometer has been altered, NHSTA acknowledges, with today’s digital odometers.
You need to approach every potential vehicle skeptically and compare the car’s condition and history to the numbers showing up on the odometer.
The organization says you should do the following before you buy:
• Examine the title and compare the mileage recorded on that with the vehicle’s odometer. If the mileage numbers on the title seem hard to read, tampering has possibly happened.
• Compare the mileage on the odometer with the mileage on the vehicle’s maintenance records.
• If the car’s odometer reading is 20,000 or less, check out the tires. They should be the original ones.
• Ask for the vehicle history; if the seller doesn’t have one, you can use the car’s VIN to order one online.
• Have a mechanic check the gas, brake and clutch pedals to see if it seems to conform to the mileage on the odometer. It’s been decades since I’ve had to strap a young child into a car seat. I’ll have my 4-year-old granddaughter next spring and am checking out car seats. Is there a primer/tutorial that isn’t just an advertisement from the manufacturer?
I think the best is offered by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Just go to its website (NHSTA.org); click on child car seats. It provides information on the various kinds of car seats, how to determine the right type, and even has a fillin-the-specs Car-Seat-Finder function through which you can fill in the specifics of your grandchild’s age, height and weight and get recommendations.
Sharon Peters would like to hear about what’s on your mind when it comes to caring for, driving and repairing your vehicle. Email Sharon@ctwfeatures.com.