Odometer history now included in NSW rego checks
Service NSW adds mileage history function to its vehicle registration checking service following a spike in used-car odometer tamperingNew South Wales has become the first state in Australia to make odometer history data available for buyers of used cars following a four-fold increase in odometer tampering over the past two years.
Developed and launched in tandem by Transport for NSW, Service NSW and NSW Fair Trading, the new service provides used vehicle buyers with the previous three annual odometer readings of vehicles registered in the state via the free ‘check a vehicle registration’ function of the Service NSW website and app.
The goal is to help used-car buyers identify and avoid suspicious or tampered vehicles as well as dodgy sellers like the one who scraped more than 400,000km off the clock of a Subaru XV and sold it for $32,000 – $11,000 more than its previous sale price.
NSW Fair Trading issued $113,000 in fines and 103 penalty notices in 2021 and 2022, compared with a total of just 38 penalties issued in the two years prior.
The new service was launched yesterday and, for those not familiar with online registration checks, in now included along with the various other registration data – ie: expiry, make, model, colour and year – when a numberplate is entered into the search bar.
“Buyers of cars, motorbikes and trucks can take some of the power back with this access to information that will allow them to more easily spot low mileage or other suspicious variations that may indicate tampering,” NSW Minister for Roads John Graham said.
“Odometer tampering is illegal and a ploy used by unscrupulous sellers to misrepresent a vehicle’s value and condition. It didn’t work in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and we don’t want it to happen in NSW.”
Minister for Better Regulation and Fair Trading Anoulack Chanthivong added that most investigated cases of odo tampering involved sellers operating through online platforms “like Facebook Marketplace or Gumtree”, often using fake profiles or third parties.
With the exception of the Northern Territory, NSW is the only state or territory where vehicles over five years old (three in the NT) must undergo a mandatory annual safety check, which means it’s unlikely we’ll see a similar initiative implemented in many other parts of Australia.
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Related: carsales announces Best Used Cars for 2022
Related: How to verify a vehicle’s odometer reading
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