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TWO days after he sold his car to a second-hand dealer, he saw an online advertisement for the same vehicle posted by the dealer.
Something in the ad surprised the car owner, who wanted to be known only as Mr Xavier.
It was advertised that the mileage recorded for his two-year-old Toyota Corolla Axio was about 29,000km.
But Mr Xavier, who is in his 50s, said he noted down the car's mileage as about 76,000km when he sold it.
That was when Mr Xavier, an administrator, suspected that the car's odometer, which records the distance travelled, could have been tampered.
On average, cars here are driven for about 20,000km a year.
Mr Xavier's friend contacted The New Paper after reading our report last month about tampered odometers.
Mr Xavier said he had sold his car to a used car dealer in Ubi on Nov 11 for about $45,000.
He had bought the four-door sedan brand new for about $58,000 two years ago.
He said his car's mileage was high because of his daily commute - he lives in Hougang but his office is in Tuas.
When he saw the online ad on sgCarMart.com for his car two days after he sold it, the mileage advertised was much lower - only about 29,000km. The car was offered for $52,800.
He said: "I called the sales consultant to whom I sold the car. He said that the mileage must have been put up by mistake. When I checked (the online ad) later, it was never changed.
"And the ad even said the owner was a lady."
Mr Xavier also showed us a copy of his car's last servicing record at Comfort DelGro Engineering, which was dated July last year.
It showed that his car's odometer reading then was already about 41,000km.
Mr Xavier said he later sent his car for servicing in Malaysia, before eventually selling it last month.
Posing as a buyer, this reporter viewed the car on Wednesday.
One of the company's used car sales consultants said that the car's previous owner was "a lady", and that the mileage was correct - at 29,000km, as reflected on the odometer.
When we identified ourselves over the phone to the same sales consultant yesterday and asked if the odometer had been tampered with, he said no.
He added in Mandarin: "When we received the car, the mileage was already around this number (29,000km). We didn't tamper with it and we don't tamper with odometers."
But he said that the company is investigating the incident anyway. The ad was taken off the website shortly after we spoke to the sales consultant.
But Mr Xavier remains unconvinced. He is now concerned that his car might be sold off to an unsuspecting buyer.
He suggested that odometer readings be registered with the Land Transport Authority regularly.
The New Paper reported last month that the Consumers Association of Singapore (Case) said the number of cases of tampered odometers are on the rise.
It received eight such complaints or feedback from consumers this year alone, compared with four such cases in the previous three years.
All the cases involved consumers who bought second-hand cars, and a different dealer was involved in each case.
In most cases, the consumers discovered the tampering after they sent their cars for servicing.
Only two dealers were known to have taken the car back after that. Some of the car owners have also asked dealers for compensation or partial refunds.
Mr Seah Seng Choon, Case's executive director, advised used car buyers to check where the car was last serviced and verify the records with the authorised agents.
They can also check the records on the car's service log book.
Lawyer A P Thirumurthy had said in the previous TNP report that tampering with odometers is not a criminal offence unless it can be proven that a particular dealer had done so to deceive buyers.
This article was first published in The New Paper.
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