Title inquiries can help bust odometer rollbacks
By: David Van Sickle
Never have the words "buyer beware" been more important than when buying a used car. Even reputable dealers have unwittingly sold cars with rolled-back odometers. Genuine low-mileage, late-model cars are hard to find, so titles are seldom checked carefully. So when you start shopping, trust no one. Vehicle title records are available to the public, but checking a title through a department of motor vehicles takes time.
Another alternative is to check the title history through a private service. For example, Carfax, of Fairfax, VA., maintains a data base of almost 400 million records, representing more than 150 million vehicles. Their title reports can help identify rollovers and rollbacks, as well as past salvage and flood damage. Title reports are available on the Internet for a modest fee at their Web site: http://www.carfax.com. It is also possible to order by phone by calling 1-888-4-CARFAX. Be sure to inspect previous titles for erasures and alterations, like changing an 8 to a 3. And be careful if a car has been titled in several states or sold several times in a few months.
Also, if the first owner rolls back the odometer on a high-mileage vehicle before it is sold, the title history will not disclose the discrepancy. Cars are built better and last longer than they used to, so many high-mileage late-model cars simply don't show their age. That makes it easy to misrepresent a used car's true mileage, and hard for the buyer to tell the difference. When it comes to estimating wear, or more important, what repairs are likely to be needed, nothing beats a thorough inspection by a qualified technician. Engine wear and related problems can be spotted with good diagnostic tests. Suspension and steering components are good indicators of overall wear. That 30,000 mile "cream puff" shouldn't need new struts or ball joints. Some manufacturers, DaimlerChrysler AG in particular, store mileage in the vehicle's powertrain computer. The proper diagnostic equipment can download the true mileage regardless of the odometer reading. Others, including Ford Motor Co., store information, including mileage, in a national database every time the vehicle is serviced. An inquiry into the database can tell what the mileage was when the vehicle was last serviced. However, only dealers can access that information.
