The number on the dashboard can lie. A used car showing 100,000 km may have covered several times that distance, leaving the buyer to overpay for a vehicle with a hidden past. Belgium has fought odometer fraud for nearly two decades, yet new data suggest the problem has not gone away.

The latest warning comes from vehicle data company carVertical. In its 2026 Transparency Index, the share of used cars checked in Belgium with signs of mileage manipulation rose from 2.1 per cent to 2.5 per cent.

The average amount of mileage removed from affected vehicles fell by 12.3 per cent, from 65,932 to 57,853 kilometres. Belgium remained eighth among 23 markets in the company’s ranking. However, the findings come from vehicle history reports that carVertical customers bought. They are not a representative sample of all used cars sold in Belgium and do not prove that fraud is rising across the whole market.

The findings come as the EU prepares tougher checks on vehicle histories. The European Parliament and the Council of the EU are now negotiating new roadworthiness rules that also target odometer fraud. Separately, the EU has adopted rules to stop damaged or unroadworthy vehicles from being traded as ordinary used cars.

A long fight against clocking

Mileage manipulation is not a new problem in Belgium. Before Car-Pass arrived, more than 60,000 cars a year had their odometers turned back, according to the non-profit that runs the system.

Belgium passed a law against odometer fraud in 2004, and Car-Pass became compulsory at the end of 2006. The system records a vehicle’s mileage over time, so buyers can check whether the reading on the dashboard matches the car’s history.

Under Belgian rules, sellers must generally hand a Car-Pass to a private buyer when they sell a used vehicle registered in Belgium. Since its launch, the system has cut recorded mileage fraud sharply. In 2025, Car-Pass detected 1,466 cases of odometer fraud, according to its annual report. Of these, 923 involved domestic sales and 543 concerned vehicles imported into Belgium.

That puts the fraud rate at 0.12 per cent for domestic sales and 0.50 per cent for imported vehicles. Both figures sit far below the 2.5 per cent in carVertical’s study. Yet the two cannot be directly compared. Car-Pass measures fraud among the certificates it issued for used car sales, while carVertical only sees cars that its customers chose to check.

Blind spot at the border

Cars bought abroad pose a particular challenge. When a vehicle crosses a border, its mileage and repair history may stay in databases that buyers in another country cannot easily reach. In carVertical’s latest study, 48.5 per cent of vehicles checked in Belgium had been imported, down from 55.2 per cent a year earlier. That figure reflects only the company’s customer sample, however. Car-Pass reported that imports made up 12.7 per cent of the vehicles it certified in 2025.

Belgium has already taken steps to close gaps in foreign vehicle records. Car-Pass began exchanging mileage data with the Netherlands in November 2016. Since 2020, it has also received odometer readings from carmakers’ databases for vehicles imported into Belgium.

But records of a car’s earlier life abroad are not always available. Ramūnas Pletkus is a data expert at carVertical. He says vehicle data often stay locked in national or private databases. For buyers, a car may therefore arrive in Belgium without a full record of how far it travelled before import.

Europe’s riskiest markets

The study reveals wide gaps between Europe’s used car markets. The United Kingdom ranked first for transparency, followed by Germany and Switzerland. Finland came fourth and France fifth.

At the other end of the ranking, Ukraine, Bulgaria, and Latvia came out as the three least transparent markets. Ukraine remained last, a position it has held since 2024. Imported vehicles made up 76.3 per cent of cars checked there, one of the highest shares in the study.

In Bulgaria, 10.4 per cent of checked vehicles showed signs of mileage manipulation. That was the highest share in the study. Some 42.8 per cent had recorded damage. In Latvia, almost 70 per cent of checked vehicles came from abroad, and 58.5 per cent had a damage record.

The United Kingdom, by contrast, had an import share of just 2.4 per cent. That was the lowest in the study. Yet 4 per cent of checked vehicles there showed signs of altered mileage. That is more than in Belgium. The ranking combines six factors: the share of clocked odometers, the average rollback, the share of damaged cars, the damage value, the import share, and vehicle age. A high rank therefore does not necessarily mean little mileage fraud.

Damage on record

Mileage is only one part of a vehicle’s history. The carVertical study found that 54 per cent of vehicles checked in Belgium had a recorded history of damage. That is almost unchanged from 54.1 per cent the previous year. The average recorded damage value fell from €4,831 to €4,600. These figures do not mean that more than half of Belgium’s used cars are unsafe.

A damage record may concern a car that a garage has already fixed. The study leaves out minor damage under €500, such as a broken side mirror. But it does not say how serious the remaining damage was or whether mechanics repaired it properly. Still, past accidents and repairs can affect a vehicle’s value.

A rolled-back mileage reading doesn’t just mislead a buyer, it directly inflates the price they pay for a car that’s worth less than advertised. — Ramūnas Pletkus, data expert at carVertical

Mr Pletkus says hidden histories hit buyers’ wallets first. “A rolled-back mileage reading doesn’t just mislead a buyer, it directly inflates the price they pay for a car that’s worth less than advertised,” he said. He also stressed that access to vehicle data is not just a financial issue. It is also a matter of physical safety for the people who drive these cars every day.

EU push for open car records

Tracing a vehicle’s past is also on the EU agenda. In April 2025, the European Commission proposed an update of the EU’s roadworthiness rules. Under the plan, member states would record odometer readings in national databases and share mileage histories with each other. The European Parliament wants to go further. Lawmakers want repair shops to log odometer readings and carmakers to report data from connected cars.

The rules are not law yet. The Council agreed its position in December 2025, and Parliament adopted its mandate in May 2026. Negotiators held their second round of talks on 20 October. Any deal will still need formal approval from both institutions. Until then, no complete EU-wide vehicle history system exists. National records, access to information, and cooperation between authorities will decide whether such measures work.

New rules for end-of-life cars

The study’s findings also touch on new EU vehicle legislation. In June 2026, Parliament and the Council adopted a regulation on end-of-life vehicles. It appeared in the EU’s Official Journal in July. The rules aim to stop old or wrecked vehicles from being sold or exported without control. Such cars should no longer pass as ordinary used cars. The regulation also sets clear criteria for when a vehicle reaches the end of its useful life.

Businesses that sell used vehicles will have to prove that each car is roadworthy or is not an end-of-life vehicle. Private sellers will need such documents in only two cases. One is when an insurer has declared the car a total economic loss. The other is a sale concluded entirely through an online platform.

The rules also ban the export of vehicles that are no longer roadworthy to countries outside the EU. Most provisions will apply from 1 September 2028. The export ban follows on 1 September 2031.

These measures tackle the risk of unsafe vehicles changing hands or vanishing from official records. They do not, however, stop mileage fraud directly. A car with a doctored odometer can still be fully roadworthy. It then falls outside the legal definition of an end-of-life vehicle.

Before the handshake

The latest data show that buyers should look beyond the number on the odometer. In Belgium, the first step is the Car-Pass. It lists the car’s past mileage readings and its maintenance history. It also flags open recalls and, for used electric cars, the health of the battery.

Belgium has made substantial progress against odometer fraud since the early 2000s. The latest findings do not overturn that record. But suspicious mileage readings still turn up in the cars that buyers check. For buyers, the question remains the same as 20 years ago. Is the car they are paying for really the car in the advert?