CarFax says odometer rollbacks up 7% year-over-year

The outrageous goings-on in the car sales market means 'tis the season for odometer rollbacks, according to CarFax. The company that compiles vehicle history reports from various touchpoints in a car's life says its research shows more than 1.9 million vehicles on the road have had their odometers tampered with. That total represents a 7% increase over 2021. CarFax ranked states by the number of tampered vehicles on their roads, California coming first at 437,600 and North Carolina coming 10th with 45,300. Numerically, every state in the top 10 except Arizona is one of the largest vehicle markets in the United States, Statista says the top 10 states for vehicle registrations in 2020 were California, Texas, Florida, Ohio, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia. Also, the top 10 states by volume account for 1.2 million of the 1.9 million dishonest vehicles CarFax says are on the road. That leaves about 17,000 tampered vehicles on average for each of the rest of the 40 states.

Percentage-wise, among the states on that volume list, the fraud climbed most in Texas (15%), Florida and Arizona (12% each), North Carolina (7%), and Illinois and Pennsylvania (5% each). California, New York, Georgia, and Virginia finish the top 10 with less than 5% upticks.