I am looking at a car for my daughter. 2020 Kia Sportage.

I am looking at the Carfax and it lists potential odometer rollback. The vehicle was originally sold and stayed in Clearwater, FL. The CarFax tracks the mileage from 5/26/20 when it landed on the dealer lot until 3/18/24 when it was traded in by its first owner. Then things get a little weird.

3/18/24 - 57,712 - The vehicle was traded in and stayed in Clearwater, FL.

4/3/24 - 57,712 - The vehicle was offered for sale by the dealer and title changed hands.

4/28/24 - 95,698 - The oil was changed (Take 5 oil change) and the odometer reading was noted.

5/8/24 - 96,287 - Serviced at Kia dealer odometer reading was noted.

5/31/24 - 60,880 - The oil was changed (Take 5 oil change) and the odometer reading was noted.

8/29/24 - 63,111 - The vehicle ended up in the hands of another dealer and the odometer reading was noted.

The dealers mentioned are not fly by night buy here pay here places. They are large dealers, Lokey Kia Clearwater, Lokey Nissan Clearwater and Napoleon Chrysler Jeep Dodge Kissimmee and Clermont.

I have a couple questions.

First, is it even possible to roll back odometers on cars this new?

Second, if the odometer was rolled back, how would it even be possible to drive 38,000 miles in 25 days from 4/3 to 4/28? At over 1,500 miles per day, that would require 2 people operating the car as a team like an over the road truck, driving it 21 hours per day at 70mph hour.

Third, given this info do I proceed with caution (I have not even contacted the dealer yet, just looked online) or stay away completely?

What miles are on the odometer now?

It's possible the oil change place entered the mileage incorrectly in April, that 95 might have been 59 , don't see how someone could drive 38K in less than a month.

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
What miles are on the odometer now?

It's possible the oil change place entered the mileage incorrectly in April, that 95 might have been 59 , don't see how someone could drive 38K in less than a month.

As of 8/28 it's at 63,111, still sitting on the dealer lot.

Maybe, but two different places, oil change place and dealer noted the miles over 90K within a few weeks of each other.

Ask to look at the Florida odometer disclosure from dealer in April and dealer in August.
I don't understand oil change on 4/28 then "service" on 5/8??

quote:

Originally posted by SIGfourme:
Ask to look at the Florida odometer disclosure from dealer in April and dealer in August.
I don't understand oil change on 4/28 then "service" on 5/8??

Yeah, me either. Sometimes the dealer service notes what was performed, sometimes not. In this case there are no details on the 5/8 service.

quote:

or stay away completely?

Final answer.

That has more red flags than a Chinese military parade!

I wouldn't worry about it, it's a mistake while being serviced

so on 4/3 does "title changed hands" mean the dealer took over the title or it was sold to an individual.

I'd be more concerned with why it needed two oil changes and a service call in a month, then traded back into another dealer within 5 months.

For me that would be “ I don’t know what the problem is, but I’m not gonna make it my problem”.
There’s plenty of one owner, no Carfax issues automobiles out there. Would not be interested in that one.

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
so on 4/3 does "title changed hands" mean the dealer took over the title or it was sold to an individual.

On 4/3 the title changed hands from the dealer to an individual.

quote:

Originally posted by Sauer Kraut:
For me that would be “ I don’t know what the problem is, but I’m not gonna make it my problem”.

That's kinda where I am leaning. Or maybe making a real lowball offer and seeing what they say.

If you're worried about resale in short term maybe. But if the mileage made sense up to the point some goofy oil change place screwed up I'd not worry about it one single bit. Well, unless you actually think someone not only drove it 40K in 25 days, but then also was the same someone who was sophisticated and devious enough to figure out how to replace the odomoter.

Common sense seems reasonable here.

My bet would be that dealer 1 offering the vehicle for sale is sloppy with their records. They did 2 services and either phoned in the mileage wrong or recorded mileage/VIN from a different vehicle when that one was serviced.

After that, the vehicle went to another dealer and they started recording things correctly again. All the mileage readings (before and after) aside from those two with that particular dealer make sense.

quote:

Originally posted by Georgeair:
If you're worried about resale in short term maybe.

Nope, not at all. My daughter is a junior in high school and this would be the car to get her through college.

Two different places incorrectly noting mileage seems highly unlikely.
Putting 38,000 miles on it in 25 days seems highly unlikely.

If there are plenty of vehicles to buy, move along. If inventory is kind of tight, get it checked out and put an extended warranty on it, then don't worry about it.

I think there is another possibility.

The odometer was set to kilometers during that time frame.

95,698 km = 59,464 miles

Just a possibility

quote:

Originally posted by Gkain:
I think there is another possibility.

The odometer was set to kilometers during that time frame.

95,698 km = 59,464 miles

Just a possibility

Ding ding. Probably a dead battery or a battery replacement reset the odometer units. Good catch.

quote:

Originally posted by Gkain:
I think there is another possibility.

The odometer was set to kilometers during that time frame.

95,698 km = 59,464 miles

Just a possibility

I think you got it. Good thinking.

The Kia/Hyundai 10/100K may only be valid for the first buyer. This was the case for my niece who purchased a 2018 Kia Soul with an eventual failing engine. Ask a lot of questions about warranty, oil consumption, and models with engine recalls before you commit to buying this. Without complete history of it's oil maintenance and TSBs I would avoid Kia/Hyundai 4-cyl models.