'I spent hundreds of unnecessary dollars in oil changes': Man finds out his car's odometer was set to kilometers instead of miles 7 years after he bought it

Author image for Isabella Penn
Isabella Penn
Nov 19, 2023 1:00 PM EST

New fear unlocked. So, this man bought a used car about seven years ago. Everything checked out, the car ran great, and all of the paperwork was in order. The only peculiar thing he noticed was that he was putting "miles" on the car pretty fast, but he didn't think much of it because he drove a lot and took a lot of weekend trips. Fast forward SEVEN years when he took the car into the shop. After arguing with the technician about how many miles were on the car, the OP uncovered the unfortunate truth. 

Although the OP was upset about this new discovery and the paperwork/insurance issues he now has, the comment section is filled with Redditors hyping the OP up by telling him that he just gained an extra 68,000 miles to his car! And because it's well maintained, it's going to run for, like, ever. One user claimed that the car now belongs to Reddit, so we must know how long the car actually runs. Hopefully there's an update to this story in the future!

Like cars? Read this next: 37 Automobile Memes for the Car Guys in Need of Some Fuel to Power Through the Week

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  • 01
    Cheezburger Image 9838294272
    via Malte Luk
  • 02
    Posted by u/blueskysunny1 1 day ago 2 TIFU by assuming that the car I bought in the US was set to miles...for 7 years.
    via u/blueskysunny1
  • 03
    In 2016, my 18 year old self purchased a common used car from an old man who lived in Ohio. Everything checked out, he had a clean title in hand, maintenance records, and the test drive revealed no issues.
    via u/blueskysunny1
  • 04
    Shortly after purchasing the car, my father remarked that I was really putting on the miles fast and as a result, there were pretty frequent oil changes. I brushed his comments aside as I did drive the car daily and take it on some weekend adventures.
    via u/blueskysunny1
  • 05
    Fast forward to this year, with my car now at 179k it had to go into a service shop for repair after some warning lights came on. The shop provided me with a diagnostic sheet from a tool they plugged into my car, which showed my car only
    via u/blueskysunny1
  • 06
    had 111k miles. I pointed out the mistake but the mechanic was confident the sheet was correct. We took a look at the odometer and he remarked how it was unusual that there was no indication of the unit it was in, but
    via u/blueskysunny1
  • 07
    he noted the speedometer was labeled in miles. After some debate we pulled up a km to miles calculator, finding that 179k km equals (you guessed it) 111k miles. We then tested the theory by driving and recording the distance to check versus the odometer, and
    via u/blueskysunny1
  • 08
    sure enough it confirmed our suspicions that my "mileage" was actually "kilometage". The mechanic went to toggle the setting that should have put it back to miles, but discovered feature to be broken, leaving my car's
    via u/blueskysunny1
  • 09
    odometer stuck in km. He said I could pay to have someone try to fix it, but then pointed out that all of this car's records (title, maintenance, insurance, etc) including the ones from the previous owner were also
    via u/blueskysunny1
  • 10
    in kilometers marked incorrectly as miles. Trying to reverse it back to miles would be a lengthy and expensive process and I might get flagged for trying to commit odometer fraud by "rolling it back".
    via u/blueskysunny1
  • 11
    So now I'm stuck with my car with an odometer and all of its records in km marked incorrectly as miles. I'll likely be unable to sell it with the false paperwork and have spent hundreds of unnecessary dollars in extra oil changes and other routine maintenance based on the
    via u/blueskysunny1
  • 12
    "mileage". The upside is I purchased it for a good deal since the previous owner was also under the impression that it was in miles. TLDR: My car's odometer has been in km for at least 7 years and no one noticed.
    via u/blueskysunny1
  • 13
    ETA: only the ODOMETER (which counts distance traveled) is in km. The SPEEDOMETER (measures the speed) is in MPH, though it also shows much smaller/less prominent KPH measure under MPH that I never pay attention to.
    via u/blueskysunny1
  • 14
    This means I have always been driving at the correct speed, in MPH. The car is a Mazda CX-7 suv, a Japan built US market vehicle with absolutely no modifications done by myself or the prior elderly owner who was the first owner.
    via u/blueskysunny1
  • 15
    desolater543 - 1 day ago Hey at least you know it was well maintained Imao
    via u/desolater543
  • 16
    desolater543. 1 day ago They need to keep the car! it belongs to reddit now and we need to know how long it runs for.
    via u/desolater543
  • 17
    TurbanGhetto - 1 day ago you're stoked your car has 68,000 miles less on it than you thought it did that's worth way way more than any additional $$$ you spent on maintenance
    via u/TurbanGhetto
  • 18
    ShibbyShibby89 - 1 day ago Thats actually not bad. If it was like 300km, you'd be worried and looking for a new car. But 179kms is amazing. Still got heaps of life left in it!
    via u/ShibbyShibby89
  • 19
    PATRAN L Darthmullet 1 day ago I don't imagine the value of a third hand 10+ year old car with 111k miles is all that high enough to truly be concerned with being able to resell it (at least in some manner more official than a handshake and title sign-off, where I don't think this would matter at all), I think its kind of funny to be honest and hey, in the end your vehicle is well maintained.
    via u/Darthmullet
  • 20
    Temporary-Good 9696 1 day ago I borrowed a friend's car which she had brought from Canada. I kept thinking it had an unusually smooth ride because I would feel like i was driving normal speed (about 30-35 mph) but then I would look at the speedometer and it would say I was 20 over where I thought I was. Took much longer to figure out than one would hope.
    via u/Temporary-Good9696

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