Most receipts for cars sold with 100k+ have mileage disclaimers saying that the mileage is not guaranteed and should be presumed to be incorrect.
It is only illegal if the trader claims the 119k is genuine. Which he won't do unless he is Extremely Stupid!
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That garage seems somewhat honest to me ;) At least they didn't try to put 54k miles only!
A friend of mine once wanted to buy a car with 43k on odo. Car data check revealed mileage as 343k. That Nissan Primera was no doubt used as mini cab.
If you challenge the garage, they will probably take the ad off autotrader - though they can still sell from forecourt.
The V5 form has a space for mileage. Did you not fill it up? [optional entry though]
Over 100k miles, price doesn't vary that much for mileage.
Edited by movilogo on 20/10/2008 at 15:42
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Stupidly I did not fill it in.
It sounds to me then it only becomes illegal if advertised as genuine miles.
Does a disclaimer protect them from the trading standards then?
Surely the first person to HPI the car will see the huge mismatch as i thought every mot carried out logs the mileage electronically.
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>>What can I do without incriminating myself ?>>
Why would you be incriminating yourself?
>>Over 100k miles, price doesn't vary that much for mileage.>>
The difference is significant though that is not the point, if the garage lies about the mileage what else are they hiding on that car and others.
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Isn't it illegal to wind back mileage under ANY circumstances? - i think it is! Especially by a licenced trader with the intention of "enhancing" it for sale at a profit. I remember years ago i had a right pain when my "Speedo" packed up, and i replaced it with one from a "Scrappy" that showed less mileage.
Billy
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You could have clocked it forward billy...
The speedo packed up in my last Skoda and I replaced it with one showing twice the mileage... but did I look bothered?
:o}
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I'd drop a phone call to your local trading standards. It needs stamping out.
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It could just be an honest mistake with the advert and the car may still be showing the correct mileage.
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i remember my wife saying that when she was still a uni student and needed another banger to get 60miles from home to uni ,she looked at a replacment metro
(the old A-series engines and built in rust...)
she rang the previous owner from details given by the dealer, and said "please can you tell me the milage on your car when you traded it in"
the rude owner said "what ever it says on the speedo" and hung up....
my misses walked away from that deal.....
most prvious owners are more than happy to talk about good times and bad with cars they have got rid off....
once had a fiesta rs turbo and had a chap rang me about it, as he was looking at buying it from a dealer, i told him about it being keyed twice in 9 months, and it was a scum bag magnet. but apart from that was in mechanically good condition when i traded it in for a descret golf...
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i would ring up and ask about the car, just to say your interested in it, and was the milage ok, and was it hpi checked....if they say yes....i think a call to trading standards would be on the cards.
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University days ... I remember going with a friend to see a mini with a 'genuine' 35,000 miles on the clock. But when I started looking through the old MOTs, they all said 35k and a bit - it turned out that most of the digits on the odometer didn't advance - when it got to about 35999, it went back to 35000, and had done for years!
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This may well be and probably is an urban myth, but I seem to remember being told that this was how the phrase "on the clock" came into usage.
The theory being that if a car was advertised as having say 50,000 miles "on the clock" and the odometer did indeed read 50k then no misrepresentation had taken place even if the true mileage the car had covered was much higher and the odometer reading had been tampered with.
All in the wordsmithery or spin as it is now more popularly referred to.
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I have seen dealers use the 'disclaimer' stickers and also using the phrase " with X,000 miles showing".
My previous neighbour was in the motor trade and told me that clocking is absolutely endemic. It seems that the move to electronic odo's has promoted it, rather than reduced it. Apparently some owners who cover large mileages are in the habit of having the odo set back a few thousand miles before each annual service to provide a 'history' of low mileage. Moreover a lot of insurance these days is on an agreed annual mileage basis so that is a further incentive to regulary trim back the miles.
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What a lot of disgusting monkeys people are sometimes.
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They sure are Lud. Money is such a seductive mistress. I run a small business. People I have known for years regularly lie to me about money they owe me. They even seem to consider it a sport.
Fat chance I would give for them being truthful to a stranger buying one of their motor cars.
Sometimes I really dislike humans.
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Just search on Google for "clocking of digital speedometer" and see how many hits you get!
Some claim clocking itself is not illegal - it only becomes an offense when you try to get financial advantage using that.
Edited by movilogo on 20/10/2008 at 18:09
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>>The theory being that if a car was advertised as having say 50,000 miles "on the clock" and the odometer did indeed read 50k then no misrepresentation had taken place <<
>>it only becomes an offense when you try to get financial advantage using that.<<
But by "enhancing" a vehicle in this way, it will always "look" a better buy, so will sell faster, - and that in any trade is a "financial advantage" therefore illegal? - surely?
Anyway it's still a naughty, nasty, deceitful practice perpetuated by slimey bounders, that robs honest folk of thier "hard-earned cash" and that wants abolishing!
rant over!
This should really go in the "Car buying -pet hates" thread - Grrr!
Billy
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just looked on google like you said WOW didnt relise it was that simple.
I would have done it myself had I known !! (joking)
I thought there were new and improved methods of keeping track of a vehicles mileage
and at the first discrepency the history would be investigated and the owner at the time
be prosecuted.
Obviously at the next M.O.T this will flag up and it would be fairly easy to see who was
the registered owner to have clocked it.
Am wrong in thinking that all cases are followed up then ?
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I would never buy a car without all the receipts/MOTs etc as this is the only way you can tell. I once bought a genuine 4000 mile car, its amazing how quickly Fords eat piston rings! (it had actually done 104k, I knew this really as did the seller, it was just funny to show people),
Sometimes a new speedo may have to be fitted, or the old may have been faulty, this is why sometimes genuine cars show the wrong milleages. but a good read of the history will confirm this - no history walk away.
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I went to look at a Golf once for a Nigerian woman friend. It wasn't a total shed but it wasn't a particularly nice one for the money. The seller was a youngish Englishwoman south of the river.
The car was the proud owner of not one but two original manufacturer's service books. Somehow where one book had services missing the other had them in, all written in the same handwriting and biro in the latter case and with the same backstreet garage service stamp. It was clear that the car had no meaningful service record and had been clocked, partly from the demeanour of the seller which was a bit too professionally blank. I told my friend all this and suggested a considerably lower offer but by then the silly girl had agreed to take the car for the asking price. It was all right but gave her a bit of trouble.
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I remember buying an old Morris 1000 van for farm work,probably in the early seventies.The van had an indicated mileage of 85k. Weeks later,I was stopped by a local farmer who asked how it was going,as it used to be his until a few months previously. I replied it was going well considering it had 85k on the clock. 85k,he replied,it had over a hundred thou on it when I sold it! Despite this huge mileage( for this era),it proved very reliable. They don`t make them like that any more,thank goodness !
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 20/10/2008 at 21:43
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