Can You Buy a Car With Zero Miles?

Can you buy a car with 0 miles? Apparently, NO. There’s almost no possible reason for a car to read zero (0) miles. It becomes more suspicious if it’s a used car. However, it is important to know that some drivers do reset the mileage of their vehicles to read anything they want.

In today’s article, we will explain why a car cannot legally read zero miles, irrespective of whether it is a used or brand new car. You can find new cars with 5 – 10 miles reading, but for 0 miles? That’s not possible.

Read Also: How Many Miles Should A New Car Have?

Can You Buy A Car With Zero Miles?

As briefly explained in the intro, no car can possibly read 0 miles, and this is because every car is tested before delivery to a dealership or the owner.

Also, the car has to be driven from the shipment port to the showroom or dealership lot; thus, it should read a few miles due to this short drive.

Regarding the number of miles, you should expect when buying a car. It points down to the type of car you’re going to buy. Are you buying a brand new car or a used car? If it is a used car, in what year was the car manufactured, and what purpose was it serving.

However, with all these questions notwithstanding, a brand car is expected to read below 200 miles. A new car that reads more than 200 miles is obviously a demo car – demo cars are regarded as new cars because someone hasn’t officially and legally owned them.

But, such cars may have been in use by the dealership for running business operations. Thus, they can read up to 500 miles and are still referred to as “new car.” You have to be careful not to buy this type of car as brand new.

Inarguably, you will pay less to buy a demo car, but most dealerships won’t tell you whether the car you selected is a demo car or a brand new ride. The number of miles should tell you that.

Coming over to used cars, some of them read up to 300,000 miles and still worth the buy. But then, a used car with over 200,000 miles is referred to as a high mileage vehicle. Such cars are cheaper but alleged to have the most increased risks.

When buying a used car, or any car, it is important that you ask the sales rep a bunch of questions to validate the car’s authenticity.

With all that is said so far, seeing a car with zero (0) mile is suspicious and calls for serious questioning. Arguably, the previous driver may have tampered with the odometer to reset the mileage reading. In as much as cash buyers would prefer cars with low mileage, zero (0) mileage shouldn’t be considered.

Can You Reset Car Mileage?

Yes, some drivers carry out DIY tricks to reset the mileage of their vehicle in a bid to increase the price of selling it as a “used car.” However, this action is not legal, and it’s prohibited in some regions and states.

For this reason, we would advise that you carefully inspect and cross-check any car you’re going to buy. Always perform a VIN lookup to validate various information regarding the car you want to buy. Information covered in the VIN lookup includes car maintenance, accidents, recalls, etc.

Double-check the information provided by the private or dealership with what you got from the VIN lookup (done by you). If one or more information does not correspond, that’s a red flag.

Conclusion

When some ask, “Can you buy a car with 0 miles?” simply tell them NO, because that’s not possible from any aspect. You should also be more careful when buying a used car from private sellers; you may get cheaper deals from them, but the risks are pretty high, more than the risks of buying from a dealership.

If you own a high mileage car, and someone advises to reset the mileage, we’d advise you to frown at that and not do it. There is nothing wrong with high mileage cars, you can use high mileage oils for the engine, and the car would last even longer.