A MOTORIST was stunned to find he’d been a victim of fraud after his brand new car broke down just weeks after he bought it.
Steve Andrews picked up a 2012 Subaru from a registered dealership in Burnaby, British Columbia, after being impressed with the low mileage.
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It was just under 98,000 kilometres, which was ideal for Steve and his growing family.
He was assured by the salesperson that the car was in good condition and that there were “no real problems” with it.
But just six weeks after the sale from DD Auto, the car started playing up.
To Steve’s horror, he saw that the odometer had sprung forward to 112,000 kilometres.
“It was pretty shocking. I was definitely angry,” he told CBC.
He took the Subaru back to the dealership and showed them the recall report which proved the odometer had been tampered with.
The sales agent, who claimed to have no knowledge of the fraud, agreed to refund Steve $13,000.
A spokesperson for the Ontario Motor Vehicle Insurance Council (OMVIC) said that it believes odometer fraud is on the rise.
In the U.S, over 450,000 vehicles are sold each year with false odometer readings.
The fraud costs American motorists more than $1 billion annually and is an offence under provincial and federal laws.
There is a misconception that newer cars are harder to tamper with as they no longer have analog counters on the dashboard.
However, digital odometers can be easily re-programmed with a piece of equipment.
It’s not illegal to sell a vehicle with a tampered odometer, as long as the seller has specified that to the potential buyer.
Shari Prymak, from Car Help Canada said: “Dealerships are required to disclose certain material facts, [such as] whether a vehicle has been involved in a serious collision, whether it has a rebuilt or salvage title and whether it has a rolled back odometer.”
The Subaru was on consignment from another dealership, Easy Road Auto, who had purchased the car from a private seller on Facebook.
After an investigation was launched, the director of the dealership showed a vehicle transfer form which showed the mileage was just under 98,000 kilometres.
However, the form had no date of sale or sale price, and was not signed by the seller.
CBC tracked down the original seller of the car and she revealed that when Easy Road Auto bought it off her the odometer was “around 150,000 kilometres”.
Easy Road Auto has launched a thorough internal investigation and said the sales person who was dealing with the Subaru “went back to her home country” soon after the sale.
Steve has filed a complaint with the Vehicle Sales Authority of B.C.
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