Just discovered my car was "clocked" before I bought it in 2015

realh

I've just had my MoT done, and idly looking at the certificate I noticed the mileage history. In January 2015 it had done nearly 45000 miles, but when I bought it the following summer it had about 28000 on the clock.

I bought it from a franchised dealer, so they probably didn't clock it themselves, having too much to lose, but they should have made sure the mileage was consistent. So I thought it would be fair to call them first and get their side of the story, or would that be foolish and I should go straight to Trading Standards? Is 2.5 years too long for me to have any sort of claim?

Aylesbury_Duck

realh wrote: »

I've just had my MoT done, and idly looking at the certificate I noticed the mileage history. In January 2015 it had done nearly 45000 miles, but when I bought it the following summer it had about 28000 on the clock.

I bought it from a franchised dealer, so they probably didn't clock it themselves, having too much to lose, but they should have made sure the mileage was consistent. So I thought it would be fair to call them first and get their side of the story, or would that be foolish and I should go straight to Trading Standards? Is 2.5 years too long for me to have any sort of claim?

What do you want out of the situation?

Call them and ask them to explain it, if they can.

debtdebt

What was the mileage for the years leading up to the 45,000 reading? Was the 45,000 a one off? Possibly it was recorded as km rather than miles which ties in with your later mileage.

realh

I don't know what the mileage was before 2015, because that was its first MoT.

debtdebt

Service book?

realh

There's only one stamp in the book from before I bought it, done the day after the MoT I think. The mileage wasn't recorded. It is another franchised dealer though, so the one I bought from might be able to get better records from them. But now it looks as if the car may also not have been serviced in its first 3 years, despite being advertised with FSH.

realh

I think you may be right about the first one being recorded in km by mistake, the figures are very close, but only work out if it was transported from one dealer (Scotland) to the other (Hampshire) on the back of a lorry.

debtdebt

The time to have checked all this was pre sale rather than two and a half years after purchase. I doubt you're going to get anywhere.

arcon5

Don't some dealers mark the mileage on their system when they service them?
Maybe enquire about that.

But otherwise your just gonna be wasting time and energy as you can't prove anything.

loskie

could it have been 4500m but entered in error? The mileage entry on the MOT is only as good as the tester inputting the info.
Can the ECU be interrogated for the mileage.

These kind of issues come up often on forums and it never ceases to amaze me that people don't check at the time of purchase.

wgl2014

Why would anyone bother 'clocking' a car to remove 20k miles? It would make little difference to the cars value and as the OP has now noticed is easy to see on MOT's.
An incorrectly entered mileage is far more likely.