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Odometer Tampering Fraud. What to do?


Inflames

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Hi Community,

I have unfortunately become a victim of odometer fraud when i bought a second hand car recently.

I purchased a vehicle from a dealership recently and when i took it to TL for a service it seems the odometer has been set back 100,000KM. 

Unfortunately the transaction and transfer has been done.

What should i do to sort this out or what options do i have as this is illegal. 

Thanks in advance.... 

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6 hours ago, Inflames said:

What should i do to sort this out or what options do i have as this is illegal. 

Sadly in SL...Nothing. The legal framework to protect consumers from this is simply not there and it is 100% the buyer's responsibility to carry out due diligence.
If you have documentation that the seller gave you indicating and verifying the mileage and evidence of the seller lying to you about it along with TL's statements..then you could always take the seller to court for defamation...but it is just going to take a long long time for the case to actually go anywhere...and at the end of the day what you would get would not justify the means. Also, it is going to be a case of he says you say....and the seller can always claim that he himself did not know of any fraud himself (blame it on previous owners, importers)

Sadly, all you are left to do now is to make sure that all the preemptive maintenance work that is needed for a car with that kind of mileage is carried out and anything that needs sorting out is sorted out. This is why we keep saying...get the car inspected in and out..top to bottom..by a proper professional before you purchase the car.

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Adding to what iRage has shared.

With the current trend of massively inflated prices for cars, it’s no longer a common instance to see Baiyya’s hunt cars like mad and keep a massive profit and do everything to make it look “Cool” .

As a habit try to look for previous emission test reports and maintenance , many will say it’s not there, shall share it in a few days etc……

And as the old saying goes “If it’s too good to be true, there must be a hitch”  A 16 year old car will a millage of less them an average of 800km per month is suspicious .

Some  have started to advertise the Year of registration on websites, and not the YoM. I had a sweet conversation with one Biyya who kept saying it was registered in 2007 and trying to ignore the car was manufactured in 2004 and asking over 4Mill for it as well.

Take all precautions - when buying in these times - its absolutely a mess with the prices and sales tactics - and I feel will soon end. 

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....in many ways...you should consider yourself lucky if the only thing that has been done is roll back the mileage. The laws and its enforcement is so weak in this area that sellers sell cars tht have far greater issues. Issues like budding two vehicles...cars with patched up chassis/frames, panles poorl fixed...fake badges fitted so that they can charge more..etc...

 

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9 minutes ago, iRage said:

....in many ways...you should consider yourself lucky if the only thing that has been done is roll back the mileage. The laws and its enforcement is so weak in this area that sellers sell cars tht have far greater issues. Issues like budding two vehicles...cars with patched up chassis/frames, panles poorl fixed...fake badges fitted so that they can charge more..etc...

 

Ayup. You could've ended up with something like this:

7FqzXBO.jpg

 

tYOVo97.jpg

 

wSSVFOf.jpg

 

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Thanks everyone. Well, got some good news. Long story short, the dealership has agreed to refund the money back. However, they will have to sell the car again. we've requested the dealership to pay 50% of the car sale upfront and have an agreement in place for the balance with a timeframe set in place for them to sell the vehicle. 

 

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On 7/30/2021 at 3:02 PM, Inflames said:

Hi Community,

I have unfortunately become a victim of odometer fraud when i bought a second hand car recently.

I purchased a vehicle from a dealership recently and when i took it to TL for a service it seems the odometer has been set back 100,000KM. 

Unfortunately the transaction and transfer has been done.

What should i do to sort this out or what options do i have as this is illegal. 

Thanks in advance.... 

Nothing. I think Odometer has been changed 90% of Vehicles in Sri Lanka except few 1st owner home used vehicles. Just check on popular classified websites all most 10 to 15 years old cars odometer is lower than 100000 Km (80000Km is the most popular number). One guy i know do visits car sales and tamper odometers. So never rely on Odometer number. like experts mentioned do a full checkup if all things on good condition that what you can get. Probably running repairs will arise early than you expect due to lower odometer number and ready for it.      

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2 hours ago, Inflames said:

Thanks everyone. Well, got some good news. Long story short, the dealership has agreed to refund the money back. However, they will have to sell the car again. we've requested the dealership to pay 50% of the car sale upfront and have an agreement in place for the balance with a timeframe set in place for them to sell the vehicle. 

 

I would think they can sell the car at a inflated price now and get more profit

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Odometer tampering is a common practice and nothing can be done about it. This is mainly due to Sri Lankan mindset - for most Sri Lankan's  the condition of the car does not matter but the number of owners and the mileage do. So some people tend to knowingly prefer a tampered mileage car cos he can sell it off as low mileage to the next buyer (after all everyone here buys a car having the next potential buyers preferences in mind)... there's nothing to be done unfortunately. Car sales are notorious for this : There used to be  a particular car sale in Mount Lavinia where every car they sold had the same mileage 😁 of 69,000 km. 

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4 hours ago, Inflames said:

Thanks everyone. Well, got some good news. Long story short, the dealership has agreed to refund the money back. However, they will have to sell the car again. we've requested the dealership to pay 50% of the car sale upfront and have an agreement in place for the balance with a timeframe set in place for them to sell the vehicle. 

 

This is a brilliant result for you...and lucky that the seller agreed to this. However....please be very very very careful. Car sellers cannot be trusted, especially dealerships and brokers.

You need to make sure that the agreed refund is set in stone. The dealership might give you the 50% now but then later on say that the car could not be sold at expected price, etc..etc...(these guys are good at making excuses) and just give a small amount from what was left claiming that it is a large portion of the sale.

You should also set penalties for delayed payment. If not these guys are going to drag it on for as long as long can be (they will balme the new buyer not paying up to the poor economy and low cash flow to money being stuck in something else).

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