is there a way to know if the mileage/odometer/km is real?

6 comments

1. Connect diagnostic equipment and read warnings on the CAN bus. Typically even if the odometer has been messed with, diagnostics are recorded with actual mileage labels.

2. Go on carvertical. There you can buy a report of the cars previous miles and lots of information about the car

3. Generally, the only way to verify that a measurement device works is by using another equivalent measurement device or a different method to measure a range of values of the same thing. If the different devices or methods produce the same measurement values as the device under observation, then it is likely that they are either both OK (or both broken).

   In Finland, you need to take cars to a regular inspection, or they will be marked as unsuitable for traffic. With used cars, the seller should provide you with the necessary documents of when this has last been done, etc. It might be that they are selling the car just before the next upcoming inspection, in which case you would be the one that needs to take care of that.

   Just like with houses that might have an upcoming plumbing overhaul on the way, this is something to look out for. It might not be sensible to purchase an item, such as a house or a car, that ends up costing a lot on top of the purchase price right after the purchase.

   As for where to actually find a seller of used cars, I have no idea. I have no interest in things that go “vroom”.

4. You can look up the history of a vehicle, ie odometer reading at yearly inspections, dates and results of said inspections, previous owners etc etc etc on Traficom’s (Finnish Transport and Communications Agency) website. Iirc it costs a couple of €.

5. Nettiauto.com is far and away the biggest Finnish website for used cars. It’s where I’ve personally bought and sold my cars.

6. For prius from eastern europe mileage can be fine, but the engine might be swapped