4 Owners Low mileage red flag ?

ontheroad1970

It could easily be a part of a person's estate and held up by probate being delayed because of the backlog,  My parents died a year apart from each other.  My mum last, and her probate came through first.  Ask some questions of the dealer, unfortunately because of data protection you won't be able to speak to previous owners.  If in doubt don't bother with it.  If you do decide to go for the low mileage one try and get a free service done on it because of the long gap in use - you would want to be sure the brake lines are tyres are good.

Ozzig

Because of covid and subsequent changes in the way I work, my 2017 has 42k on it. Normally it would have 70+k by now. 

bigbars

 angrycrow said:

The low mileage one actually had the four owners in 2 years with last change of keeper in 2019. They missed the last mot by 18 months and it's only covered 3000 between the Jan 2021 mot and the last mot in June 2023. 

The lack of mileage on the first MOT is not a concern as it was an automatic COVID extension. 

It is very likely the car was laid up shortly after the 2021 MOT and not returned to the road until June 2023. There could be a perfectly reasonable explanation but it could also be more sinister. 

The question is are you willing to gamble £4500 on it not being due to a major problem or being impounded following a serious collision.

Hg17xna 

You make a very good point. Red flag on the gamble… as it’s already priced more than others in the range…. thanks for your sanity. 

bigbars

Rang the dealer. They say it’s 3 owners, and the dealer px’d it, and he would be the de facto 4th. but had no explanation for the gap between the last couple of mots but assumed it wasn’t used because it wasn’t suitable as he had a growing family and had a company car. He said no accidents involving the previous owner but didn’t sound overly confident. And he hasn’t cleared the hp finance on it yet… more flags…as he said it should be cleared soon.. shouldn’t that be cleared before a listing?

 damn it looked so nice as well.

ontheroad1970

It's not uncommon for dealers to have dealer's finance on a car.  You can always have a call with the finance house at the point of sale before parting with cash

bigbars

I thought dealers are not designated as a new owner due to them being trade or am I wrong ?

The dealer kindly got in contact with the previous owner. On the subject of why the mot gap in 2022 his reply was. “So basically because I was driving the x3, the scirocco wasn’t used and was on the driveway. The car itself was still driven around the block regularly and cleaned and looked after / maintained but it just wasn’t being used at the time that’s all.” 

sparklymarkly

As the owner of a Scirocco (our second one - love them!) I wouldn’t necessarily be put off by the mileage as long as the services have been carried out properly. A one owner, high mileage car may well have been a company vehicle and they get serviced properly and on time (& anyone who gets a Scirocco as a company car will be a car enthusiast so will look after it well).
Scirocco timing belts need changing at 5years so as all the ones you’re looking at are 2017, check that’s been done as it’s not cheap.
I may have missed whether the ones you’re looking at a petrol or diesel. 71k on. VW diesel is nothing- my company Passat had done 149k when it went back to the leasing company.
Good luck finding the right car - we love ours.

sheramber

28 june 23 - 27 june 24 37k

We are not there yet

bigbars

Previous one was a petrol 2015 1.4 52k which was recently written off. So looking for a late model as I know they finished production in 2018.

 Particular about the colour so would prefer black, but seems difficult to find with the options I had on my old one. But like you I loved it, so keen to get another like one. As I’ve had a low mileage one and I was the 2nd owner I was just concerned on ownership and how possibly it may have been treated. Which put me off upgrading to an R. I’ve never had a high mileage car ever before.

Didn’t even think about the timing belt situation so thanks for the reminder. Although I got differing advice on their replacement. Vw dealer being vw said 5 years, independent said it wasn’t required until 70k so I never actually did mine as I only did 5k a year roughly. More show than go 

sparklymarkly

I think it’s 5 years or 70k - whichever comes first.
 I got ours done at 5yrs - think it had only done about 45k but better to be safe than sorry!