Odo Tampering Is Rampant In Japan

[ips]

I have been told how many k's a car has done is a very poor judge of the condition of the car as it is common for odometres to be tampered with or replaced. It is illegal but if it was a professional job can anyone tell without taking the panel apart (you are not allowed to do this at the auctions). Are their any quick non intrusive tests you can do apart from having suspicions.

Service books? Alot of cars are listed on auctions as having their service books missing where stamps from the dealer show the car has been regularly serviced. I was wondering if this is a big negative as it might be if it was in australia. Should we view this as a cynical attempt to conceal potential problems with the car.

"Stop and Start Driving is bad for the car" I was told alot of japanese cars are driven in congested areas and as a result they have to stop and start frequently. This is a big negative for the engine. Can someone tell me why it is a negative? Given that Japan is very congested wouldn't this mean most cars suffer from this problem. Does this mean engines are likely to fail much earlier then Australian cars which have longer distances to travel. (My friend told me this and warned me against importing a japanese car) So really a engine which has done 50,000km in stop start driving conditions would be in worse condition then my friends Nissan Navara which has done 200,000km mostly doing country driving as he works on a farm.

Thanks for your shedding any light on these issues

[Blipman]

Odometer tampering is far, far less common than it used to be. Recently in Japan new laws were institured that meant every 2 years when a car is registered (and undergoes a roadworthiness inspection) the mileage is now recorded along with the official registration paperwork. This means that if a car has 60,000km and the registration paperwork says 2 years ago it had done 90,000km then you know there's a problem. As such, theoretically the worsed someone could do was windback 2 years worth of driving without anybody knowing.

There are also all sorts of other ways to know if mileage is sus' and anyone who is honest and knows what they are doing will pick them up straight away, the somple and most obvious being if the condition of the car doesn't match the mileage. What use is a car with 50,000km on the clock when it doesn't look like a 50,000km car? Service books in Japan are not as common as in Australia, Japanese people simpy tend not to hang on to the paperwork since they don't think it's important.

In regards to stop-start driving this can be bad because this kind of driving puts higher wear on a vehicle than just cruising at a steady pace at say 100kph, which is relatively unstressful for an engine and many components. Do Japanese cars do a lot of stop start driving? Just like Australia it depends who owns them. Some people in Japan do practically nothing but highway driving, I certainly know from personal experience if I want to get someone within the city here in Tokyo public transport is heaps chepaer and easier, and a lot of people feel the same so they don't use their car for that kind of thing. When it comes to modern engines (maybe some people will disagree) I'd rather have one that's done 50,000km of start start driving versus 200,000km of 'normal' driviing, and as I described I actually don't think that's often the case anyway.

[Moodles2]

You really need your agent to see the car in person, I was lucky to get Kristian from Iron Chef to look over my GTR in person when he was in Japan for afew weeks last year.

[Iron Chef]

Odometer tampering is far, far less common than it used to be. Recently in Japan new laws were institured that meant every 2 years when a car is registered (and undergoes a roadworthiness inspection) the mileage is now recorded along with the official registration paperwork. This means that if a car has 60,000km and the registration paperwork says 2 years ago it had done 90,000km then you know there's a problem. As such, theoretically the worsed someone could do was windback 2 years worth of driving without anybody knowing.

There are also all sorts of other ways to know if mileage is sus' and anyone who is honest and knows what they are doing will pick them up straight away, the somple and most obvious being if the condition of the car doesn't match the mileage. What use is a car with 50,000km on the clock when it doesn't look like a 50,000km car? Service books in Japan are not as common as in Australia, Japanese people simpy tend not to hang on to the paperwork since they don't think it's important.

In regards to stop-start driving this can be bad because this kind of driving puts higher wear on a vehicle than just cruising at a steady pace at say 100kph, which is relatively unstressful for an engine and many components. Do Japanese cars do a lot of stop start driving? Just like Australia it depends who owns them. Some people in Japan do practically nothing but highway driving, I certainly know from personal experience if I want to get someone within the city here in Tokyo public transport is heaps chepaer and easier, and a lot of people feel the same so they don't use their car for that kind of thing. When it comes to modern engines (maybe some people will disagree) I'd rather have one that's done 50,000km of start start driving versus 200,000km of 'normal' driviing, and as I described I actually don't think that's often the case anyway.

Very well said, I agree totally. Whenever I drive in Japan, I spend more time on the freeways at 100km/h (ok maybe a TOUCH over that hehe) than I do stuck in traffic.

[ACTIVE-LSD]

Recently in Japan new laws were institured that meant every 2 years when a car is registered (and undergoes a roadworthiness inspection) the mileage is now recorded along with the official registration paperwork. This means that if a car has 60,000km and the registration paperwork says 2 years ago it had done 90,000km then you know there's a problem.

Certainly sounds like good way to counter odo tampering but what if people decides to clock back the mileage just before registeration time? it's a possibility because i know for a fact that there are user-friendly tools that are commonly used by individuals in asia. in mainland china and taiwan. i think they call it "mileage correction tools". with modern odos being digital. i'd think one could easily edit mileage with access.

As for the condition of the age. i'd think owners who are serious about preserving the low mileage would put great effort into doing so. older parts can always be replaced with new.

But i can totally understand the logic of what your saying. it's just weird to me that the "common" and "famous" jap imports always seem to have ridiculously low mileage and the uncommon ones tend to have a much higher.

Edited July 10, 2009 by Mingy

[kwickr33]

Normally if you are buying a later model car then its possible it can be real. But if you are getting like a 15~20 years car its possible that the Ode meter has been changed a No. of times before you get it.

[GT-R32]

They're often wound back here also. I found the original ad for my car in Japan and it had 44,000 would out of it prior to compliance in Australia. The previous owner (who imported it) certainly told a few fibs. So it's not entirely fair to say it's all Japan, the grey factor often provides a cover for poor behaviour in Australia.

[GTR-N1]

dishonest

fraudulent

deceitful

greedy

out of sight - out of mind

ignorant to other people's woes

disrespectful

taking advantage of even discriminating people as well as the gullible

sorry! just trying to put myself into the head of a scammer...

[GT-R32]

It also gives, particularly R32s, a bad name for the engine being weaker. Often in reality the kms travelled are often far higher.

Obviously there are still some exceptional cases where the car has genuine low kms, these are more common in Japan than Australia. So I'm not referring to all cars.

[GT-R32]

http://www.japanpowerinc.com/car_details/1...SAN_SKYLINE_GTR

Tidy car - says 201,000kms. In Australia they would probably wipe 100,000kms off that. Also interesting is the condition, tidy car even in the engine bay. Hence the cars here don't get enough credit for their actual durability.

It seems that the Canadian importers are more honest than their Australian equivalents.