Baku, July 14 — A disturbing trend has emerged in Azerbaijan’s used car market: some vehicles imported on demand are arriving in the country with tampered odometers—before even crossing the border.
This type of fraud, aimed at artificially inflating the resale value of a vehicle, is becoming increasingly common, according to local auto expert Vusal Mehtiyev.
“A high mileage reading is a clear sign that a car has seen heavy use,” Mehtiyev explains. “That typically means more wear and tear and a greater risk of costly mechanical failures down the line.”
To conceal that reality, unscrupulous sellers manipulate the odometer to display a lower mileage, hoping to pass the vehicle off as lightly used. The result is a deceptively higher price and a buyer who may not discover the vehicle’s true condition until much later.
What makes the situation more troubling is that these manipulations often go unnoticed during import. “Odometer tampering is usually only detected after the car arrives in Azerbaijan and undergoes a thorough inspection by a qualified technician,” Mehtiyev adds.
Under Azerbaijani law, odometer fraud is punishable as consumer deception. If the financial damage is between 40 and 500 AZN, offenders can face fines of 3,000 to 5,000 AZN and mandatory public service. For losses above 500 AZN, penalties increase sharply—with fines up to 7,000 AZN or up to six months of imprisonment.
As demand for used foreign cars remains high, experts urge prospective buyers to insist on independent diagnostics and request verified service histories when importing vehicles. Without such precautions, they warn, buyers risk paying a premium for a car that may break down far sooner than expected.
