Clocked car advice

sarahdh

I have seen an old camper van (a 1998) that I thought of buying as a project, but when I checked it's MOT history I can see that the mileage has been altered:

Dec 2005 - 193k
Dec 2006 - 208k
Feb 2008 - 22k

July 2008 - 84k

July 2008 (MOT retest) - 845k

July 2009 - 85k

July 2010 - 86k

July 2011 - 87k

May 2012 - 88k

May 2013 - 89k

May 2014 - 89k

May 2015 - 90k

I think it was converted, so it would make sense that it put quite a lot of miles on as a van, then not many each year as a camper van. Some of the discrepancies are obviously typos, but it clearly isn't displaying the correct mileage (now being sold as 93k miles).

I don't mind how many miles it has done, and I'm aware of the wear and tear and work it needs. That being said, is there anything legally that would prevent me from buying it?

My main questions are:

- Would it invalidate insurance/could it actually be insured? I would have to be insured of course, so if it wouldn't be covered that would be a deal breaker.

- I would be happy just accepting that I couldn't sell it on, and would just scrap it when it eventually 'died', but I am curious if it could it legally be sold on if I was completely transparent about the mileage history. I guess it would just be 'mileage unknown', as I don't think there's any way to actually tell!

Nobbie1967

I don’t see any problem with buying it and insuring it. Just quote the mileage on the odometer, the insurance company don’t care if this is accurate. Same with selling, just be upfront that the odometer is not accurate, so buy on condition as you are.

400ixl

Why would it affect insurance? Insurance asks how many miles you will drive, not how many the car has done. It relies on the requirement that you as the owner must keep it in a road worthy condition as the method for ensuring it is deemed as fit to be on the highway.

If the speedo has been replaced usually there is documentation to state at what mileage it was changed and what mileage the new one read at the point of change. This isn't a legal requirement though. The illegal part would be to knowingly misrepresent the true mileage.

sarahdh

400ixl said:

Why would it affect insurance? Insurance asks how many miles you will drive, not how many the car has done. It relies on the requirement that you as the owner must keep it in a road worthy condition as the method for ensuring it is deemed as fit to be on the highway.

If the speedo has been replaced usually there is documentation to state at what mileage it was changed and what mileage the new one read at the point of change. This isn't a legal requirement though. The illegal part would be to knowingly misrepresent the true mileage.

I was thinking they could maybe say something like 'if we knew it was XXX miles older we would have considered it more of a risk', I don't know, like more likely to be faulty and cause an accident or something? Then if I was involved in an accident they could use it as an excuse to not pay out. You always seem to hear they'll look for any inaccuracy to avoid paying out on claims. It will be great if this is no issue though!

Sandtree

They don't ask for its mileage though when quoting.

The only impact on insurance is that it could devalue the vehicle in the event of a total loss because some buyers may be put off it but then again you can use the mileage uncertainty to negotiate a lower price too so no loss.

jimjames

Of sarahdh said:

- I would be happy just accepting that I couldn't sell it on, and would just scrap it when it eventually 'died', but I am curious if it could it legally be sold on if I was completely transparent about the mileage history. I guess it would just be 'mileage unknown', as I don't think there's any way to actually tell!

Of course you could sell it on, in exactly the same way you are considering buying it. It's not illegal to sell unless you misrepresent the mileage - which isn't easy to do when it's all shown on the MOT history.

sarahdh

jimjames said:

Of sarahdh said:

- I would be happy just accepting that I couldn't sell it on, and would just scrap it when it eventually 'died', but I am curious if it could it legally be sold on if I was completely transparent about the mileage history. I guess it would just be 'mileage unknown', as I don't think there's any way to actually tell!

Of course you could sell it on, in exactly the same way you are considering buying it. It's not illegal to sell unless you misrepresent the mileage - which isn't easy to do when it's all shown on the MOT history.

Ah that's good to know! When I was googling it was saying 'it is an offence to sell on a clocked car', so I wasn't expecting to even be able to.

Herzlos

Nah it's only an offense to misrepresent the mileage, so if you're up front about the discrepancy then you'll be fine.

As for insurance, the mileage at the time of any incident would affect the value, but that's the extent of it.

What kind of state is a 24 year old, 300k mile van in? Are you stripping it back to what's left of the metal and starting over?

sarahdh

Herzlos said:

Nah it's only an offense to misrepresent the mileage, so if you're up front about the discrepancy then you'll be fine.

As for insurance, the mileage at the time of any incident would affect the value, but that's the extent of it.

What kind of state is a 24 year old, 300k mile van in? Are you stripping it back to what's left of the metal and starting over?

Well it starts and runs, so that's a start 

It will definitely need a full de rusting, but my father in law is a welder, so will be hopefully be putting him to work!