3 Reasons Why Used Cars Might Have Unusually Low Mileage Readings

You might feel extremely lucky! After all, you are staring at a 5-year-old car with just 10,000-odd miles on the odometer and your day could not get any better. Low mileage means low repair costs and you will want to pay whatever the dealership asks for the car. Who, in their right minds, will let go of such a deal?

But hold your horses before you bring out your check book and start signing papers. Unusually low mileage used cars are not always a great buy. There are reasons why top car dealerships in Spartanburg, SC, do not sell unusually low mileage cars and you should explore them before taking the final call. We list the 3 outright reasons here. And recommend used car buyers to stay away from such cars.

1. An indication of odometer tampering

Although illegal, small-time car lots in Spartanburg, SC, do not back down from engaging in odometer tampering. This is a process in which the odometer reading is brought down to a lucrative figure so that the dealer can increase the vehicle’s price. As a consumer, you will naturally be drawn towards a 5-year, 10,000 miles used car first rather than a 5-year, 60,000 miles vehicle. And low mileage vehicles sell for a premium price. Even with digital odometers, tampering is still, unfortunately, a common phenomenon, and thousands of customers are drawn into such fraudulent deals every year. So, be sure to verify the odometer reading with the title and vehicle history. Try not to believe what you see blindly.

2. Possibility of a major accident history

More often than not, unusually low mileage used cars tend to carry a major accident history and it might not get reflected in the vehicle history report. In case the owner did not have adequate coverage, he/she will not report the accident as getting insurance money is out of the question. Repair costs might be too high to bear at the time and the vehicle will just sit in one place, damaged, until it is sold to a scrapyard and picked by some body shop. The shop buys the damaged vehicle, fixes it, and sells with a rebuilt title. By the time the vehicle arrives in one of the used car dealers in Spartanburg, it is 5 years old and hardly has any miles. And you end up with a vehicle that has serious structural damage from the inside.

3. Hardly saw the light of day

Assume that everything checks out. No odometer tampering, no visible accident history. How can used cars still have unusually low mileage? The obvious answer is that the owner must have hardly taken the car out. It is possible that the vehicle spent most of its days in the garage and has been majorly driven within the city. This is a deadly combination for used cars as they are not built to have such a lifestyle in the first place. Hence, visit the best bad credit car dealerships in Spartanburg. Stick to average or high mileage vehicles. Low or unusually low mileage vehicles are not always worth the money you pay even when popular opinion might constantly say the opposite.