# How common (and difficult) is rolling back a for-sale car's odometer? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 30, 2004, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-and-difficult-is-rolling-back-a-for-sale-cars-odometer/282292 "2004-12-30T19:24:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2004, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-and-difficult-is-rolling-back-a-for-sale-cars-odometer/282292/21 "2004-12-31T21:00:23Z")
this wouldn’t be so much of a problem if people weren’t so obsessed by mileage, whereas with modern cars the type of driving that has been done with it is more important than miles on the clock. Lots of short journeys, plus stop-start motoring will do it more harm than a 200 mile cruise at 50 all the way. Of course tyres and brake pads may need replacement and paint chips touched up. ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2004, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-and-difficult-is-rolling-back-a-for-sale-cars-odometer/282292/22 "2004-12-31T21:49:26Z")
> [@Dog80](#): > > The simplest way to roll back an analogue odometer is to hook its cable to an electric drill and rewind it. This hasn’t been possible on car sold in the US since the late 50’s. The dog gears inside of an odometer are designed to operate in one direction only. Watch the movie “Ferris Bueler’s Day Off”. After a day of driving daddy’s car around town they attempt to roll back the odometer by running the car in reverse. In the movie, just like real life, it didn’t work. If it was that easy rolling odometers would be a whole lot more widespread than it actually is. I use to make pretty good change when I ran my dad’s wrecking yard selling low mileage speedo heads to folks rebuilding high mileage cars. ---
**Author:** ![Berkut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a88e57/32.png) [@Berkut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Berkut)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2004, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-and-difficult-is-rolling-back-a-for-sale-cars-odometer/282292/23 "2004-12-31T21:58:47Z")
> [@racer72](#): > > This hasn’t been possible on car sold in the US since the late 50’s. That’s not correct. It might not work on all of them, but it certainly works on some, if not most. I’ve personally witnessed it being done. [Here’s a cite from How Stuff Works](http://auto.howstuffworks.com/odometer1.htm) ---
**Author:** ![bsane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@bsane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bsane)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2004, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-and-difficult-is-rolling-back-a-for-sale-cars-odometer/282292/24 "2004-12-31T22:06:49Z")
> [@asterion](#): > > I had a 1980 Volvo wagon, with (obviously) a mechanical odometer. By the time the car was about 16-17 years old, the odometer would just stop turning for a while. I had a 1975 volvo that I bought for $500. The odometer was stuck around 94,000 and never moved. Over the years I’ve known a few other people with older volvos and most had broken odometers… ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2004, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-and-difficult-is-rolling-back-a-for-sale-cars-odometer/282292/25 "2004-12-31T22:09:17Z")
I had a 1986 Camero. It was haunted. The entire speedometer/odometer mechanism _blew up!_ (Yes, it did!) My mechanic said on the phone, “no, no your speedometer cable broke.” I got there and his comment was "I’ll be damned! It _did_! The car had about 10,000 miles at the time. Silly me, I asked how he was going to make it say that. He just looked at me over his glasses. I sold the car with 2,000 miles. I told the salesman what had happened. He looked over his sunglasses. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-and-difficult-is-rolling-back-a-for-sale-cars-odometer/282292.md?page=1)