Odd goings-on

If you think tamper-proof odometers live up to their name, then think again, writes motoring editor ALASTAIR SLOANE


An auckland lawyer walked into engineering consultant Optimech the other day and asked the technicians to check the odometer of the 1996 BMW 528i sedan he had bought from a used-car importer.

The company's co-director, Dr Jonathan Smith, found the odometer hadn't been wound back and that it showed its original distance.

A certificate on the windscreen from a Japan-based inspection agency certified the distance mileage as correct.

Only trouble was, the car's instrument cluster - housing the digital speedo and rev counter - was from a low-mileage 2001 model 5-Series.

"Our computer technology spotted the discrepancy, that it was a 2001 cluster," said Dr Smith, a former Department of Scientific and Industrial Research scientist.

"Then we pulled the cluster out of the car and the manufacturer's date stamp showed it was made in the 46th week of 2001.

"The used BMW had come from Japan. Whoever fiddled with it swapped the original 1996 cluster for a 2001 design rather than wind back the odometer. We picked it up straight away."

Dr Smith and Optimech have developed software that dispells once and for all the notion that modern digital odometers are tamper-proof.

To demonstrate, he plugged his laptop computer into the diagnostic port of Optimech co-director Steve Ward's E-Class Mercedes-Benz and changed the mileage at will.

Ward's Mercedes has done 38,202km. In about 15 seconds Dr Smith changed its odometer to read 82,202km. Then back to 60,202km and on to 112,202km.

"Customs and government agencies say that digital odometers can't be tampered with," Dr Smith said. "We can change them at will." Both customs and the commerce commission have refused to investigate Optimech claims of odometer fraud.

Optimech monitors metal fatigue on the Auckland Harbour Bridge and in the aircraft and building industries. It also does technical warranty claims on four-wheel-drive Ford Explorers for New Zealand and Australia. The same work once had to be shipped to the United States.

Now it is doing more and more checks on used cars. It found the digital odometers of 12 of 16 BMWs and Mercedes-Benz brought in from Singapore had been wound back.

One of the cars, a 1999 BMW 740i, had around 40,000km on the odometer. But the car's key proved the 7-Series had actually done more than 80,000km. Dr Smith uses software he developed to plug into the key's electronic innards. BMW introduced the key technology in the late 1990s.

Almost invisible scratch marks on older-style, mass-market analogue odometers show up under Optimech's equipment as axe-like cuts where sharp instruments have been used to manually change mileage.

Checks by the company on used imports from Japan are finding that odometer fraud occurs in about 10-15 per cent of all vehicles.

Many of these cars carry certificates from inspection agencies certifying the distance as correct.

"But it's not just the used imports that are being wound back," says Ward. "We are picking up New Zealand-new cars. Fleet vehicles that have done more mileage than the lease agreement permits are been wound back before being returned to the leasing company.

"There are big penalties for exceeding the allowed mileage on a lease. We have failed a lot of those vehicles."

National Party commerce spokesman Brian Connell said customs and the commerce commission were sending the New Zealand public mixed messages.

"On the one hand they say that car dealers have a responsibility to the public to provide true and accurate information, on the other they ignore evidence suggesting the information received by car dealers may be inaccurate," he said.

"This is a complete double standard from an organisation that has threatened used-car dealers with prosecution if they don't provide full and accurate information on vehicles for sale."