Auckland car dealer caught selling used Jaguar with tampered odometer

Thursday, 10 February 2022

An Auckland car dealer has been caught selling a used luxury car with a tampered odometer.

Gurpreet Kaur purchased the 2012 Jaguar XJ for $29,500 in April 2021. The name of the seller and the business involved cannot be identified as they are subject to an interim suppression order.

The car was advertised on Trade Me as having an odometer reading of 24,000km, with the mileage showing about 25,213km when Kaur purchased it.

The vehicle had a few minor defects during the first few months of ownership, but in September it suffered a “catastrophic engine failure”.

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Kaur then discovered the vehicle’s true odometer reading was much higher than advertised by the seller , with a Jaguar service record showing the odometer reading was 187,999km when the vehicle was serviced in Singapore in August 2020.

The Motor Vehicle Disputes Tribunal found the seller had breached the Fair Trading Act by misrepresenting the vehicle's odometer reading and must pay Kaur $2647.50.

A pre-purchase inspection from VTNZ was done before Kaur bought the car, with the Jaguar being considered in “very good” overall condition.

In August, prior to the engine failure, Kaur noticed oil leaking from the engine. He then took the car to a number of mechanics to try to get the problem fixed over the next month.

Kaur said the vehicle continued to use oil and the low oil warning message returned. His wife then put about two litres of oil into the vehicle until its oil gauge showed oil levels were full.

The seller, who denied that the vehicle had any pre-existing oil leaks, picked up the vehicle and took it to another mechanic who claimed he removed between 9.5 and 10 litres of oil. The car’s normal capacity was 6.6 litres.

The luxury car's odometer said it had travelled just over 25,200km, but it was likely closer to 188,000. (File photo)

Tribunal adjudicator Brett Carter said a “reasonable consumer” would not have purchased the car if they had known its odometer had been tampered with.

It was likely someone in Singapore had tampered with the vehicle’s odometer, he said.

While the seller claimed to have had no knowledge of this, Carter said that an “absence of knowledge provides no defence”.

Ordinarily, a full refund of the amount paid for the vehicle and compensation for other related costs would be given, Carter said.

However, this would not be given because Kaur caused “several thousands of dollars worth of additional damage” to the engine by negligently overfilling it with oil, he said.

The car’s odometer read it had travelled just over 17,300km, while a manufacturer’s warranty record showed the car’s odometer should have read over 103,325km.