JB Woman Wins Tribunal Against Used Car Dealer Over Tampered Odometer Mileage

The Johor Consumer Claims Tribunal recently sided with a 40-year-old woman, ordering a used car dealer to pay her a RM5,000 refund for tampering with the odometer mileage readout in her Japanese SUV.
(Image for illustration purpose only)

According to a recent report by local daily The Star, the Johor Consumer Claims Tribunal recently ordered a Johor Bahru-based used car dealer to pay a RM5,000 refund to a 40-year-old Chinese national woman who had purchased a car from them last year.

The tribunal had sided with the woman, reportedly identified as Guo Yutong, who claimed that the dealer had tampered with the odometer mileage readout in a Japanese crossover SUV that she had purchased from them sometime in 2024.

“I paid RM110,000 in cash for the 2020 SUV with a mileage of 42,000 KM. We thought it was a good bargain as other dealers were selling the same model with 100,000 KM mileage at RM110,000,” said Guo when interviewed by local press outside the Tribunal office in Menara Ansar, Johor Bahru.

The Beijing native continued further in recounting how the salesman, also present at the hearing, had showed her and her husband a Puspakom report supposed confirming the car’s mileage was at 42,000 KM. She later discovered the tampered  odometer mileage after sending the car in for service on Sept 18.

Examples of common mileage odometer counters in most typical Japanese crossover SUVs today. These can be hacked and "rolled back" by irresponsible used car dealers seeking to inflate their used car prices.

Checks performed by the service centre then revealed that the car Guo purchased had covered more than 42,000 KM as initially claimed. In fact, the vehicle had actually clocked in 90,000 KM – more than double what the dealer had initially advertised to Guo.

“The used car dealer claimed to not know about the tampered mileage when we went to complain that same day,” added Guo further, who then demanded to be refunded RM6,000. The used car dealership subsequently refused, prompting Guo to then filed a complain with the Tribunal on Oct 29.

Moreover, the report indicates that Tribunal president Hafez Zalkapli ordered the RM5,000 refund to Guo, which the used car dealer must fulfil within two weeks.