How to Check the Total Mileage of a Car?
2 Answers
The total mileage of a car is usually displayed on the dashboard. To check other information such as average fuel consumption or remaining range, press the left button on the dashboard several times. To verify the actual mileage of a car, you can check the maintenance records at a 4S store, use an OBD computer to read the engine mileage, read the transmission mileage with an OBD computer, observe the wear on brake discs, tire wear, and interior wear, among other methods. If maintenance records are unavailable or the car hasn't been serviced at a 4S store, you can use an OBD diagnostic tool to read the car's data and check the engine and transmission mileage. This method is quite common. However, some car computers are highly restricted or require specialized OBD tools for reading, making it impossible to check the mileage with a standard OBD computer. In such cases, you can only rely on experience to estimate the mileage.
Checking a car's total mileage isn't actually difficult. Here are the methods I commonly use myself. The most straightforward way is to look at the dashboard - after starting the car, that large number is the current odometer reading. If you're buying a used car and worried about odometer rollback, you'll need to check historical records: flip through the maintenance manual (dealerships record mileage during each service); mobile apps can check cloud data (some brands connected to vehicle networking can display real-time data); dealers also use the OBD diagnostic port to read actual data during inspections. Last time when helping a friend check a car, we discovered the dashboard showed 50,000 km but the transmission data read by diagnostic equipment showed 110,000 km - more than double the difference! I recommend cross-verifying through multiple channels for reliability.
