You may be wondering why the odometer reading in your vehicle differs from the distance calculated by an online mapping provider. The answer is simple: although vehicle odometer readings are close to the actual mileage traveled, they are not precise. Surprising to many, there is no federal law that regulates odometer accuracy, only guidelines by The Society of Automotive Engineers that allow for a margin of error of plus or minus four percent. A FOX19 report on odometer readings found that four vehicles of different makes all registered inaccurate readings. Some readings overshot the mileage driven, while others under reported the mileage driven. Even a variance of twenty feet per mile driven could result in a discrepancy of over five-hundred miles over the vehicle's lifetime.
