The Federal Odometer Act, passed in 1972, modified the United States Code

United States Code

The Code of Laws of the United States of America is a compilation and codification of the general and permanent federal laws of the United States...

 to prohibit tampering with a motor vehicle's odometer

Odometer

An odometer or odograph is an instrument that indicates distance traveled by a vehicle, such as a bicycle or automobile. The device may be electronic, mechanical, or a combination of the two. The word derives from the Greek words hodós and métron...

 and to provide safeguards to protect purchasers in the sale of motor vehicles with altered or reset odometers.

The Act provides definitions and civil and criminal penalties for odometer fraud

Odometer fraud

Odometer fraud, also referred to as "busting miles" or "clocking" is the illegal practice of rolling back odometers to make it appear that vehicles have lower mileage than they actually do...

.

Interpretations

The Act was intended to protect consumers buying used vehicles from odometer fraud, and is typically applied against sellers who intentionally tamper with an odometer to misrepresent the actual miles an automobile has been driven. However, in 2004 and 2006, two class action

Class action

In law, a class action, a class suit, or a representative action is a form of lawsuit in which a large group of people collectively bring a claim to court and/or in which a class of defendants is being sued...

 lawsuits were filed against American Honda Motor Co Inc

Honda

is a Japanese public multinational corporation primarily known as a manufacturer of automobiles and motorcycles.Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, as well as the world's largest manufacturer of internal combustion engines measured by volume, producing more than...

and two of its suppliers alleging that they had violated the Federal Odometer Act because the odometers in approximately 6,000,000 Honda and Acura vehicles overstated the actual mileage by 2% to 4% even though the Act contains no provisions for odometer accuracy. Subsequently, Honda changed the tolerance of its odometers from -1%/+3.75% to ±2.5%.