Clocked cars costing Brits £750 million a year

Richard Aucock, Contributor
Fri, 13 Dec 2024

Car clocking is costing UK drivers more than £750 million every year with buyers overpaying thousands for used cars.

By falsely lowering a used car’s mileage, fraudsters can add nearly 30% to the sale price of a secondhand car.

This means, on average, those buying a clocked car are overpaying by an average of £4758 – a cumulative £762 million annually.

CarVertical, which carried out the analysis, estimates that 2.1% of all secondhand cars in the UK have been clocked. This, it says, puts 160,000 people at risk of buying a used car with a fraudulent mileage – and again, that’s annually.

While nearly-new cars are less likely to be clocked, CarVertical data shows some surprises in the makes of car with mileage discrepancies.

Kia tops the table, with CarVertical data indicating 8.56% of cars checked showing a discrepancy between their odometer and recorded mileage. Nissan is second, on 6.84%, with Dacia third on 6.16%.  

"Drivers in the UK are overpaying for clocked cars to the tune of more than three quarters of a billion pounds a year," says CarVertical expert Matas Buzelis.

"This fraudulent practice is not only cheating them out of their hard-earned money, it’s tricking them into buying a car that has travelled many more miles than they’re aware."

He said that although car dealers who manipulate mileages can be prosecuted under the Consumer Regulation Act, little effort is being made to catch scammers.

"Fixing the problem of odometer fraud in the UK and Europe therefore isn’t easy. Even for savvy buyers, it can be hard to detect."

Ask HJ

I part exchanged a car and now the garage are saying it has been clocked - where do I stand?

Yesterday I bought a second hand car from a garage and had my old 2007 car to trade in. We agreed a price and the deal was done. Today they have called to say there is a problem with the car I part exchanged. They say that the car has been clocked. I've had the car under two years and had never suspected a thing. Where do I stand? Please any advice would be great.

If the dealer has said your previous vehicle has been clocked, we would ask them to provide the evidence to show this. A look at the MoT history of the vehicle or paying for a vehicle history check should provide the mileage of the vehicle over its lifetime, and if a mileage change is shown then this would suggest it has been changed in the past. If this is the case then it depends on whether the dealer will still accept your vehicle as part exchange - if they will not, then unfortunately you will have to return the vehicle and sell your previous vehicle privately, although you will need to declare the mileage change when selling.

Answered by David Ross

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