The used car market is always a bit of a lottery, but in our latitudes it is sometimes a lottery without a single winning ticket. Why is Ukraine (and a number of neighboring countries) becoming a magnet for cars with a dark past? Itʼs simple: regulatory vacuum.
While in some countries (for example, in Belgium or the Netherlands) mileage is recorded at the state level or in independent registers almost every time you visit a gas station, in Ukraine this issue has not yet been resolved. There was a good draft law, registered back in 2020, but at the beginning of the work of the Rada, the peopleʼs deputies were drawn into "turbo mode", and later a big war began. Since then, the document has been lying on the shelves of the Parliament.
Ultimately, the question of the veracity of the odometer readings remains with us on the conscience of the seller. And conscience, as we know, is a somewhat fallible instrument. Therefore, cars from Europe, especially those with "twisted" mileage, flow like water along the path of least resistance: to where the legislation does not require a rigid fixation of the odometer history. This is how "ideal" cars come to us, which have actually already covered the way to the moon and back, but the classic "180 thousand" lights up on the dashboard.
Why do they "twist" the mileage?
“Odometer correction” is a favorite sport of dishonest sellers. This is the fastest and easiest way to increase the price of a car. You invest $50 in the services of a “hacker” or a simple device, the car “looks younger”, and its price jumps by a thousand or two dollars. Only at this stage can you “earn” more than on the entire complex of “turnkey car tuning”.
What about the visual condition of the car?
Indeed, the higher the mileage, the more noticeable its consequences should be: a worn interior, steering wheel and pedals, traces of gravel on the bumper, hood and headlight plastic... But the car "rejuvenation" industry is developing in line with demand.
And if regular detailing is a useful option, then in the hands of scammers it is a disguise tool. They hide the real condition of the car: they restore or replace the steering wheel trim, install new pedal pads, “refresh” the seat covers. Your eyes will work against you here — after all, before them is a picture of a “fresh, well-groomed car.”
So how do you check the mileage?
Some Ukrainian buyers, trusting advertising, rely on data from certain electronic resources that assure that the mileage has been “verified.” In reality, they only show the latest mileage record, if, firstly, it was possible to obtain it in principle; secondly, it could be a record from 10 or even 15 years ago; thirdly, even novice dealers do not take this option seriously, because it is enough to drive to an authorized service station with an already “wound up” mileage, say, to replace a license plate light bulb, and the “current” (necessary for the fraudster) odometer reading will be entered into their database.
However, you should not give up, because there are still methods for checking the history of a car. And the less time the car has been in Ukraine, the more fresh information you will receive about it. For example, if you have the VIN code of the car, this can be done quickly using Cebia .
First of all, the reports from this Czech company will show you the entire mileage history. And this is an important indicator, because it determines the remaining life of the car and its actual market value.
Cebia reports also contain information that is no less of concern to buyers — "damaged or not", that is, whether the car has been in an accident. If so, you will find out how severe the damage was, how much the repair was estimated to cost, and in some cases you will even receive a photo of the car with this damage.
Additionally, cars are checked to see if they have served as taxis, are not present in police wanted databases, are in credit or leasing collateral, etc. A nice bonus is decoding the configuration by VIN code and checking the manufacturerʼs recall campaigns, and a significant discount on each subsequent check, because you will have to do several of them until you come across a really decent offer.
So when you are considering a "freshly driven" car, or are still looking for options abroad, remember that every offer that you think is worth your attention should be checked with Cebia to make sure that you are buying a really good car that is worth your money.
