Odometer rollbacks are on the rise nationwide. The number of vehicles with suspect odometers tops 2 million, according to the latest CARFAX data.
Roughly 2.1 million vehicles on the road have had their odometer rolled back — up 14 percent since 2021, or an additional 300,000 vehicles.
It’s estimated that consumers lose an average of $4,000 in value from unknowingly buying a rolled-back car, and that doesn’t include unexpected maintenance costs, the company said.
Odometer rollbacks occur when an unscrupulous owner or seller of a car alters the miles that display on a car’s gauge cluster. This might be done as a way to avoid mileage charges in a vehicle lease or to dramatically increase the value of a car, CARFAX stated.
Technology today makes it surprisingly easy to roll back an odometer.
“Odometer fraud didn’t go away with the introduction of digital odometers,” said Patrick Olsen, editor-in-chief for CARFAX. “We’re still seeing the number of vehicles on the road with a rolled-back odometer rise year-over-year. It takes con artists only a matter of minutes to wipe thousands and thousands of miles off a vehicle’s odometer.”
Because the market for used cars is hit, it’s an enticing opportunity for scam artists, the company added.
Below are the top 10 states reporting the most vehicles with rolled-back odometers. Nine of the 10 saw increases this year: