Mileage rollback is the most common fraud on the used-car market. Mechanically it is easy, and no workshop inspection can tell what the odometer showed a year ago. Only records from different dates can.
Where records come from. US auctions log the odometer at sale. auto.ria shows “verified mileage” from dealer workshops and inspections. Old ads keep the figure the seller wrote earlier. Sometimes mileage appears in court decisions — in expert reports.
One rule: an odometer can only go up. If a newer record shows less than an older one, it was rolled back. The only exception is an instrument cluster replacement, and the seller must disclose it.
A typical picture for a US import: 120,000 km at the auction, 95,000 km in a Ukrainian ad a year later. The difference “vanished” together with the truth about the repair.
Another signal is implausibly low mileage for the age. 30,000 km in ten years happens, but then there must be an explanation and a service book.
VINzvit puts every mileage record it finds on one timeline. If the number went down anywhere, the report shows a red “Mileage” card and a dedicated checklist item for the inspection.
