Odometer fraud in numbers

Odometer fraud is one of the most common — and most invisible — scams in the used-car market. A wound-back odometer hides the real wear, inflates the price, and shows nothing on the dashboard. So how widespread is it? We analysed the official RDW register (the Dutch vehicle authority) to put a number on it.

The headline figure

Of 10,778,083 registered passenger cars in the Netherlands, about 241,000 carry an odometer history officially flagged as “inconsistent” (Onlogisch) by the RDW — that is 2.24%, or roughly 1 in 31 among the cars the RDW could assess.

An “inconsistent” judgment means the successive mileage readings recorded by the RDW do not add up logically over time — the strongest signal that an odometer has been wound back.

Method

• Source: 100% of the RDW open register (opendata.rdw.nl), not a sample — official public data, pulled in July 2026.
• Field analysed: tellerstandoordeel, the RDW’s official judgment on whether a vehicle’s mileage readings are consistent.
• Honest caveat: “inconsistent” is a strong signal of clocking, but a small share may be data-entry errors rather than fraud. The Netherlands is one of the few countries that publishes such a per-vehicle judgment at scale — so it is the best open-data proxy for a problem that is EU-wide.

Why it is a Europe-wide problem

Odometer fraud spikes on imported cars: a vehicle effectively “starts from zero” when it crosses a border, and its foreign mileage drops out of national registers. EU estimates put 5-12% of cars sold cross-border as having a tampered odometer — so the Dutch 2-3% figure on its own home market is a conservative floor.

How to protect yourself — for free

The habit to build before any purchase: check the official mileage history.

• UK: the free GOV.UK MOT history checker shows the mileage recorded at every test — a reading that jumps around is your clocking check, done for £0.
• Elsewhere: the Dutch RDW and the German KBA expose recorded readings; in France, HistoVec is free and official (if the seller shares it).
• Before an import: no register follows a car across the border — check the recorded mileage in every country the vehicle was registered in before you commit.

Mileage that does not rise logically is the red flag. At Automano, the VIN decode is free and unlimited (specs, recalls), and on UK cars the Essentiel report adds the DVSA MOT history with the recorded odometer at every test once you add the reg plate — on Dutch cars, the Pro report adds the RDW APK history with its official odometer judgment.

Data: RDW open register (opendata.rdw.nl), July 2026. Analysis: Automano.