# Is there a valid reason to "wind back" a car's odometer? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 21, 2015, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-valid-reason-to-wind-back-a-cars-odometer/740992 "2015-12-21T08:57:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2015, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-valid-reason-to-wind-back-a-cars-odometer/740992/21 "2015-12-21T20:04:59Z")
> [@lisiate](#): > > Don’t you have some sort of registration system in the US to cross check this sort of thing? > > Here in New Zealand every road-going vehicle is required to get an annual or six-monthly (depending on vehicle age) warrant of fitness check, part of which involves the inspector entering the current odometer reading into a central database. Which allows anyone to look up any vehicle and get a report [like this](https://www.carjam.co.nz/sample/?plate=NZ), which includes a chart showing the odometer readings over time. Any winding back of the odometer should be obvious. Some (not all) US states do an annual safety and/or emissions inspection. I don’t know whether this typically includes an odometer check. Many states don’t do any sort of annual check at all; just pay your annual registration fee (tax), receive this year’s sticker for your license plate, and you’re ready to drive for another 12 months. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2015, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-valid-reason-to-wind-back-a-cars-odometer/740992/22 "2015-12-21T20:05:57Z")
> [@iceiso](#): > > I could see the case that if you knowingly/unknowingly rode on tires that had an outside diameter smaller than designed, it would over-report the actual number of miles traveled, and then perhaps it could provide a reasonable argument for winding back the miles. A friend of mine bought a new used truck many years ago. he was really proud of it, set about using body putty to fill the bottom of doors so we could no longer see daylight through the rust. We went on a road trip, doing about 70 miles an hour. At a gas station in a village 90 miles later, we stopped for gas, I looked at the times, and calculated we had been doing 55mph; and checked the odometer and it also was off. Wrong size tires… My dad and I were driving in his 68 Jaguar sedan and he pointed out the odometer was about to roll over to zero again. I asked whether that was 200,000 miles or 300,000 miles and he said “I don’t remember”. about 5 years later, the leaf spring broke (rusted through) and then he could no longer get it safetied in Ontario because the underbody was so badly rusted. Ah, those old cars. Nowadays, the electronic will probably die before anything. ---
**Author:** ![lisiate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2015, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-valid-reason-to-wind-back-a-cars-odometer/740992/23 "2015-12-21T20:42:41Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > Some (not all) US states do an annual safety and/or emissions inspection. I don’t know whether this typically includes an odometer check. > > Many states don’t do any sort of annual check at all; just pay your annual registration fee (tax), receive this year’s sticker for your license plate, and you’re ready to drive for another 12 months. Wow it must really be caveat emptor for anyone buying a secondhand car in those states. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2015, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-valid-reason-to-wind-back-a-cars-odometer/740992/24 "2015-12-21T20:52:54Z")
> [@lisiate](#): > > Wow it must really be caveat emptor for anyone buying a secondhand car in those states. It’s not uncommon for a buyer to take a candidate car to a professional mechanical for an unbiased assessment of its condition. The last used car I bought was from my parents back in the mid-90s, so this wasn’t an issue back then - but the person who bought my wife’s used car several years ago did indeed ask for a mechanic’s inspection (we brought the car in, she paid the bill). ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2015, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-valid-reason-to-wind-back-a-cars-odometer/740992/25 "2015-12-21T21:51:32Z")
In the US, the trend has been away from safety inspections, and probably towards emissions inspections. See the map in the wiki article: > **[Vehicle inspection in the United States](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_inspection_in_the_United_States)** > > In the United States, vehicle safety inspection and emissions inspection are governed by each state individually. Fifteen states have a periodic (annual or biennial) safety inspection program, while Maryland requires a safety inspection and Alabama requires a VIN inspection on sale or transfer of vehicles which were previously registered in another state. An additional 16 states require periodic emissions inspections. > In 1977, the federal Clean Air Act was amended by Congress to require sta... Many of those states used to have them: > **[Despite other states' moves, Pennsylvania's vehicle inspection program going...](https://www.pennlive.com/midstate/2011/01/despite_other_states_moves_pen.html)** > > New Jersey and Washington, D.C., have dropped their inspection programs, citing beliefs that there is no conclusive evidence that they are necessary. > [@](#): > > Fewer than 20 states now require safety inspections, down from a peak of about 31. The federal government lost its leverage to impose safety inspection on the states in 1976, when Congress deleted federal authority to withhold highway construction money if a state did not have regular inspections. States began abandoning inspection programs after that. That article was from 2011, the wiki article says 17. ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2015, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-valid-reason-to-wind-back-a-cars-odometer/740992/26 "2015-12-24T02:12:16Z")
A few years ago I looked at a used car at a brand name dealer and checked the electronic odometer. It said 25,000. Duh! A few years later I did buy a used vehicle (different model/year than the earlier one) from that dealer. Its odometer had a non-even reading. (They got smart?) I haven’t yet looked up the previous local area owner whose finance co. bill was in the user’s manual kit, to see if the odometer reading that was on it when he traded it was close to the one when I bought it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-valid-reason-to-wind-back-a-cars-odometer/740992.md?page=1)