New car strange MOT Odometer reading

Tgpenman

Hi all,

Would really appreciate some advice on this. I've just bought a 2008 Audi A3 1.4 with 48,000 on the clock for £5,299. This seemed like a very good price and after a test drive, I committed to buying it. Having now looked at the MOT history, I notice that there is one very off MOT reading. By year it goes 30,000 (roughly), 110,000, 43,000, 48,000. Am I to think that someone's tampered with this or could it just be human error at the MOT test centre? What would be my best course of action now?

Any help much appreciated!

forgotmyname

What do the service documents show the mileage between the MOT dates?

The answer will be there.

Richard53

Either someone has done 80k in a year (that's over 200 miles every single day) and then clocked it to be consistent with the previous mileage, or it's human error at the testing station. I'd go with the former.


Make a mileage timeline with all the service records, bills, receipts etc, and it should fall into place. I doubt it is possible to get the anomalous entry altered at this late stage, but at least you would have evidence that it was a glitch if you wanted to sell.

prowla

Highly likely to be an error in the MOT info; I've had this happen before.

I recently bought a used car where the MOT history went up to 40k and then started again; its dashboard had been replaced, so it started again at zero.

thescouselander

Seems suspicious to me. Do you know the owner history? Was there a change of ownership between the first 3 years where 30,000 miles were put on and who owned the car and then put on only 18,000 miles over the next 5 years?

Also was there a different owner for the year there seems to be very high milage.

Have you looked for signs of wear to check its consistent with the milage of the car? Giveaways are things like pedal rubbers, the gearstick gator and the drivers seat.

Tgpenman

thescouselander wrote: »

Seems suspicious to me. Do you know the owner history? Was there a change of ownership between the first 3 years where 30,000 miles were put on and who owned the car and then put on only 18,000 miles over the next 5 years?

Also was there a different owner for the year there seems to be very high milage.

Have you looked for signs of wear to check its consistent with the milage of the car? Giveaways are things like pedal rubbers, the gearstick gator and the drivers seat.

Thanks all so far. Going to get the service history today. Only 1 previous owner and RAC HPI check shows nothing suspicious. The strange reading just seems to tie in with the low price... Interior all looks very good - few signs of wear

Tgpenman

thescouselander wrote: »

Was there a change of ownership between the first 3 years where 30,000 miles were put on and who owned the car and then put on only 18,000 miles over the next 5 years?

Sorry no MOT history goes:

2011: 15000
2012: 20000
2013: 25000
2014: 30000
2015: 110000
Jan 2016: 43000
Sep 2016: 48000

All rounded up/down but weirdly consistently 5k each year besides the anomaly...

thescouselander

Sounds plausible it could just be an error then.

Johno100

Richard53 wrote: »

Either someone has done 80k in a year (that's over 200 miles every single day) and then clocked it to be consistent with the previous mileage, or it's human error at the testing station. I'd go with the former.

Make a mileage timeline with all the service records, bills, receipts etc, and it should fall into place. I doubt it is possible to get the anomalous entry altered at this late stage, but at least you would have evidence that it was a glitch if you wanted to sell.

You mean you'd go with the latter, human error?

daveyjp

You mention low price, how much lower than similar cars? As it has one owner contact them for an explanation.

loskie

is the mileage stored on the ecu?