Posted on: Friday, July 12, 2002

National report warns of odometer fraud

By Mike Leidemann
Advertiser Transportation Writer

Odometer fraud is pervasive in the sale of used automobiles nationwide, and local governments should be doing more to prevent it, federal officials said yesterday.

A new report by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said more than 450,000 cases of odometer fraud each year put drivers at risk by misleading them about the wear and tear on the vehicles they buy.

In Hawai'i, the problem is not significant, but even so "it's buyer beware," said David Mau, the city deputy administrator for motor vehicles and licensing.

The report says Hawai'i is one of the states that meet only the minimum federal requirements in providing information about the history of a car's odometer. It recommends that those states do more to make information about a car's history available to buyers.

"Since it hasn't been a big issue as far as we know, nobody's been pushing for any changes in the law here," Mau said.

Local counties administer state laws for motor vehicles and licensing.

Nationwide, the turning of odometers on used cars — a ploy to inflate the resale price — costs consumers more than $1 billion annually, often preying "on consumers who can afford it least, the people who buy used cars," Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta said.

The national study estimated a 3.47 percent chance that a vehicle would have its odometer rolled back at any point in the first 11 years of its life.

The study says states should keep annual odometer readings either from vehicle registrations or safety checks. Hawai'i law requires only that sellers disclose the mileage on a car when the title changes hands, but does not mandate that officials allow consumers to conduct background checks on previous mileage, as is done in many other states.

"We recommend that a buyer make a note of the mileage when they are inspecting the car, then make sure that's what's recorded on the title," Mau said. "Signing the title is basically like signing an affidavit, and it's a serious violation to misrepresent the mileage."

The few odometer cases that do occur here each year are often linked to private individuals or small family groups selling cars without a license, officials said.

Wendell Murakami, a weights-and-measures inspector for the state Agriculture Department, says the state investigates about 15 to 20 cases in an average year, and upholds about four or five of those.

"Most of the guys are backyard mechanics trying to get away with something just one time," Murakami said.

Licensed new and used car dealers are not part of the problem, he added.

Dave Rolf, executive director of the Hawaii Automobile Dealers Association, said car dealers here want local officials to gather and release more information about a car's history.

"We support that absolutely," Rolf said. "We think a car's history should be well-known and disclosed. A car doesn't have any right of privacy to protect."

Rolf said state officials recently changed their policy and now release of information on a car's accident and mileage history to commercial companies, such as carfax.com, which make the information widely available to potential car buyers. State and city officials, however, do not make the information available to individual buyers.

"We're glad they changed their minds," Rolf said. "We think it's important that people have as much safety information about a car as they can get."

Reach Mike Leidemann at 525-5460 or mleidemann@honoluluadvertiser.com.