₦airaland Forum

BizBooks:
In this Twitter age of 140 characters or less, most people (including myself) find it very
difficult to read long posts such as this. So if you do not have the time to read this,
here’s a summary:

1. Many Nigerian car dealers import cars with very high mileage since they are cheaper.
2. Some will not tell you that the car has very high mileage. Rather they will reduce it
drastically.
3. Do not trust the mileage of any tokunbo car you intend to buy in Nigeria. Verify the
mileage yourself via VIN check.

Here in the US, the conventional wisdom is that Nigerians don’t care about high mileage. I
have heard this from American car dealers numerous times. On one occasion, I was
negotiating price with a car dealer in New York. When I complained that the car has a very
high mileage, he asked where I was shipping it to. I replied “Nigeria” and he promptly
said: “Don’t worry. Nigerians don’t care about high mileage”. I have had similar
encounters with dealers in Chicago, Florida among others.

Now, the question is: could it be true that Nigerians don’t care about high mileage? The
answer is obviously no. Nigerians care about high mileage just as much as anybody else.
But then, how did Americans get the impression that we do not care about high mileage? The
answer lies in Nigerians that buy cars from the US for sale in Nigeria. They definitely do
not care about high mileage. In fact they seek such cars because they are much cheaper.
That’s where Americans got the impression that we do not care about high mileage.

At auctions, whenever a car with very high mileage (say 200,000 and above) comes up, the
Americans usually stand back. Nigerian dealers in attendance will then take over the
bidding especially if it is a Toyota or Honda product. I have seen Nigerian dealers buy
cars with 300,000 miles or more.

Now here comes my main reason for starting this thread. Since it has been established that
Nigerian car dealers regularly import cars with 200 or 300,000 miles, why is it that one
never sees a car for sale with 200,000 miles here and elsewhere in Nigeria? The answer is
simple. Once that car with 300,000 miles gets to Lagos, the mileage magically turns to
120,000 or less. That’s why you frequently see 1999 Toyota Camrys with 100,000 miles or
thereabout for sale in Nigeria.

The point I’m trying to make here is one I have made several times in the past. Do not
trust the mileage of any tokunbo car you see in Nigeria especially if it is an older model
car. You can only trust the mileage after you have independently done a VIN check and
verified that the stated mileage is indeed correct.

The practice of reducing the mileage on a car commonly known as odometer rollback is
illegal in the US. Doing so can land one in prison. Before selling a car to somebody, you
have to provide them with a form called Odometer Disclosure Form. On that form you will
indicate the car’s mileage and sign and swear under penalty of perjury that it is correct.
I assume that under the law, it is also illegal to roll back a car’s odometer in Nigeria.
But since that law is not enforced, nobody pays much attention to it. As a result,
odometer rollback is rampant in Nigeria.

Unfortunately, apart from running a VIN check, there is no scientific way of knowing if a
car’s odometer has been rolled back (as far as I know). A good rule of thumb is to
multiply the car’s age by 15,000 (some experts like Siena say 12,000. But let’s use 15,000
since the US is very big in land mass). So for instance to roughly estimate the mileage of
a 2000 model car, do the following:

13 (age of a 2000 model car) multiply by 15,000 = 195,000 miles (give or take a few
thousand).

Suffice it to say that this formula is not scientific. Use it as a general guide. If you
discover that the car’s mileage is much lower than the result of this formula, be cautious.

Disclosure: I also buy cars with very high mileage at auction. In fact, I have bought a
car with 180,000 miles, another with 190,000 miles and yet another with 208,000 miles.
However, I instructed my business partners back in Lagos never to reduce the mileage on my
cars. Unfortunately, I cannot guarantee that they adhere to this instruction since I am
not in Lagos. So treat every car’s mileage including mine with utmost suspicion.

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