Similar frauds harm consumers by almost nine billion euros every year.
The most common abuse in the used car market is still the reset of the odometer. Even though customers are paying more and more attention to fraud involving vehicles, a carVertical according to his studies, the mileage clocks are still rolled back in a very high number.
Falsifying the mileage not only increases the maintenance costs, but also significantly reduces the value of the vehicle. According to a study by the Research Department of the European Parliament, the frauds involving the odometer reset represent a loss of nearly 8.77 billion euros per year, which is why it would be important to learn as much as possible about this very costly problem.
The Germans are in danger
Auto history research company carVertical analyzed 1.11 million auto history reports in 24 markets over the past 12 months, covering the United States and most of Europe. Research has shown that most often it is Audi A8 the odometer of a type sedan vehicle is rolled back. 30.6 percent of the Audi A8s checked on the platform had falsified mileage, which means that one in three used Audis shows an incorrect mileage.
In fact, 1 in 6 cars with tampered odometers were high-value German-made vehicles such as the Audi A7, BMW X5, BMW 7 Series or Volkswagen Tuareg. Due to their high value, these cars have become a perfect target for fraudsters in the used car market.
Among the models of other manufacturers, the second most returned car on the list was the Ford Mustang (25.7 percent), the tenth was the Ford Fusion (22 percent), the Volvo XC70 was in 14th place (21.1 percent) and the Opel Insignia came in 19th place (19.5 percent).
Electric cars and hybrids are no exception
On the used car market, used cars with gasoline and diesel engines have traditionally been the most exposed to abuse. However, the growing demand for less polluting vehicles soon changed the situation. Surveys indicate that the type of engine does not in the least determine whether a given vehicle is popular in terms of mileage fraud.
Although for some models, such as the BMW 7, diesel and petrol cars are still more vulnerable to counterfeiting than their hybrid counterparts, for other car brands the type of drive is not a factor.
A good example of this is the Volkswagen Jetta, where the mileage of the hybrid version is rolled back more often (27 percent) than in the case of diesel (24.1 percent) or gasoline (22.4 %) vehicles. The increase in the number of electric cars with falsified mileage is prompting buyers to be more cautious.
While the total proportion of returned electric cars (14.6 percent) is lower in Hungary than the European average (15.6 percent), the difference is negligible. What’s more, if we buy a tampered electric car, we can incur huge repair costs. An electric vehicle with a tampered odometer can pose a particularly high risk, as repairing damaged car batteries can already empty our wallets – it is true that the batteries of electric cars have been found to be much more resistant to stress, as many expected. Regardless of this, determining the real mileage is also crucial for used hybrid and electric cars.
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