Used-car buyers must double-check mileage clocked if they do not want to be taken for a ride

Buying a used car? Besides kicking the tyres and checking to see if it is mechanically sound, you should also scrutinise the odometer, which records the distance clocked by the vehicle.

If the figure looks suspicious, it is best to check back with the authorised dealer who serviced the car last. What does a suspicious figure look like? Well, the average mileage clocked by a privately owned car here is about 17,000km a year. So, the mileage of a five-year-old family car should not deviate too far from 85,000km.

A car previously owned by a private-hire, rental or limousine service company can clock up to six times the average mileage of a family car.

If a low-mileage car looks too good to be true, it often is. Company director Y.C. Kua, 41, found that out the hard way.

He bought a 2012 Volkswagen Touareg sport utility vehicle in March. It was advertised as having a mileage of 65,000km - about half the average distance clocked by cars its age.

Mr Kua did not think much of it, until he sent the car to Volkswagen Centre Singapore for glitches which surfaced a few days after he drove it home. It was there that he found out the car was last serviced at about 154,000km.

Shocked, he investigated further, and discovered that when his dealer previously purchased the vehicle from another dealer, it was recorded as having an odometer reading of 165,000km - 2½ times its advertised mileage.

Watchdog says SG Vehicles is only motor firm to be flagged twice; it drew 'high volume' of complaints.

SG Vehicles is the first and only motor company to be blackmarked twice by the consumer watchdog, Case said.

Case told The Straits Times that SG Vehicles had chalked up a "high volume" of complaints from consumers pertaining to "misleading claims, false claims and defective goods".

There were 39 complaints against the company last year, up from 36 in 2015. There were nine complaints in the first five months of this year.

Case said the company also operated under names like SG Vehicles Asia, SG Vehicles Continental and SG Vehicles Global.

The company, which operates out of Bukit Merah, was started in 1984, and is run by married couple Mark and Juliet Poh.

Case first flagged the company for unfair practices last year.

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A consumer is taking parallel importer SG Vehicles Global to court over a car he ordered a year ago, which has yet to be delivered.

Mr Mohamed Anwardeen, 35, placed a $2,000 cash deposit for a $105,000 Honda Vezel with the firm in June last year.

Over the next several weeks, Mr Mohamed, a civil servant, was asked by SG Vehicles Global salesman Sivassankar Gunasegaran, also called Shankar, to top up the deposit. He paid $8,000 by credit card and again $10,000 in cash. The last payment was in October, and was made at SG Vehicles Global's office in Bukit Merah, whereupon a receipt was issued. But in February this year, Shankar told the buyer he had absconded with the $10,000, and had surrendered himself to the police. He was charged and is due in court on July 15.

SG Vehicles Global then asked Mr Mohamed for another $10,000 to make good the money that its employee had run away with, if he still wanted the car.

Mr Mohamed refused.

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A motorist who bought a car which had clocked more than twice the mileage shown on its odometer took the seller to court and won.

Madam H.M. Peh, 35, an auditor, sued used-car dealer Right Car and recovered $20,000 last week.

Madam Peh and her husband Steve Long were looking to buy a car in late 2015, and spotted a 6½-year-old Nissan Presage advertised by Right Car, a second-hand dealer located in Turf City.

"We did an Internet search on them (the company) and there was nothing wrong," said Mr Long, 41.

The Presage's odometer - which records the distance clocked by a vehicle - showed that the seven-seater had clocked 75,000km.

"It looked nice," Mr Long said. "We asked the dealer if it was the real mileage, and he said yes."

They paid $59,000, and took delivery of the car in December 2015.

But within a month, the car developed a few mechanical problems.