Is Your Car's Odometer Costing You Money?

Check this out -- your car's odometer may be costing you money. The details:

A recent lawsuit settlement has revealed that all odometers are not created equal. Some may cause you to lose your factory or extended warranty sooner than necessary.

While it might not seem like a big deal, consider this: You have a 36,000-mile comprehensive warranty and something that normally would be covered goes bad at 37,000 miles.

If your odometer is off by 5 percent or more, you could actually be within the warranty period even if the odometer indicates otherwise. A manufacturer could take a hard-line approach and not cover the repair.

For warranties that extend to 100,000 miles, the mileage difference becomes more significant, as does the likelihood of an expensive repair.

What a rip! Who would have ever thought of this? And not only is it a warranty issue, but when you go to sell you car, you'll get less as higher mileage cars sell for less than the exact same car with lower miles.

So what can you do? Here's what Bankrate suggests:

Drivers curious about whether their vehicles are accurately calculating miles traveled should find a stretch of highway where the state or federal government has installed mile markers -- which often are posted every tenth of a mile -- and compare what their odometer says versus the measured course.

Drivers who discover their odometer is off by 5 percent or more should bring it to the attention of the dealer's service department to see if the odometer can be adjusted -- most are computer-controlled. If the dealer can't or won't fix it, write the dealer and the manufacturer to point out the problem and how it may negatively impact your warranty.

Such documentation may help if you have to file a warranty claim when the vehicle is just a few miles over the limit.

Anyone had any sort of problems like this?

Comments

[Mark B.]

I once had my tires replaced on a vehicle and they put tires on that were thicker (larger sidewall) than the factory ones. Well, the odometer is calibrated for the factory tires.

After the replacement I could drive 1 mile and it would only register .9 miles on the odometer. It was great, it extended my warranty by 10%.

[Blaine Moore]

Wow, that stinks. Never thought of that before. I will definitely have to check that out after I buy my new car.

[Traciatim]

I think it more has to do with the tires on your vehicle. The odometer is set and calibrated on new tires, as tires wear they actually get smaller making more revolutions for a given distance. You could also use this knowledge to your advantage by getting slightly higher profile tires or even increase your tire size. You can use a tire calculator online to figure out the best ratio.

Keep in mind this also makes your speedometer off, so if you are pulled over for going 110KPH in a 100KPH zone but you sized your tires to make it off by 10% it could end up in a ticket :)

[Mark B.]

Traciatim,

That is exactly what happened to me. My speedometer was off by 10% as well, therefore I had watch my speed more carefully. If the speedometer said 70MPH I was actually going 77MPH.

[Shaam]

I don't have a problem with that. I only buy cars with high miles.