When choosing a car at an auto market, it is best to consult with a reliable specialist.
The year of manufacture is practically impossible to hide; you can trust what is written in the original technical passport of the car, or use the VIN code to find out. The price largely depends on the audacity and imagination of the seller, and it is on average 15-20% higher than the market average. However, if you visit the auto market in Rostov-on-Don, you can find a car at quite a reasonable price. And since the market operates here, you can and should bargain over the price. The mileage is the most difficult to determine because the odometer readings, whether mechanical or electronic, can be fairly easily altered.
Most often, the readings of used cars imported from the US, Europe, or Japan are tampered with. Before moving the car across the border, to lower its customs value, the odometers are turned forward, and then, before sale, conversely – backward. Very often, the mileage is also altered in the direction that makes it appear to the buyer that the car has recently undergone scheduled maintenance and thus no new investment in the car will be needed soon.
To confirm, they may show some new parts – for example, a timing belt, etc. But it is better to check the actual mileage recorded during database checks: in the US, that is Autochek or Carfax; Japanese-made cars can be checked using auction sheet data (but you need to ensure it is not forged).
There are also purely technical methods of checking the odometer. For example, under the chassis, you can check the mounting nut for the odometer – if there is dust around but the nut is clean, it means it has been tampered with. Interference is clearly visible from the state of the digits on a mechanical odometer – when the mileage is rolled back, the digits are not aligned in a straight line but protrude at different heights. Electronic devices can be tampered with in the same way.
However, in cars manufactured after 2004–2005, manufacturers began installing excellent protection systems that cannot always be bypassed. It is much easier to check for electronic tampering with an electronics specialist at a service station because the odometer state is recorded in the onboard computer and traces of altered digits will also be logged.