I once bought a 10 year old car with 26,000 miles on it and that was genuine, so anything's possible.

Old person doing 3k a year is perfectly plausible, especially in something which is tailor made for going around town and costing 2p a journey to do so.

There's no harm in being cautious, especially with the amount of Prius' you see with 150,000+ on them after a handful of years, but most of those were probably company cars so if yours was privately owned it's not as concerning.

The Toyota dealer and yourself can only go by the evidence provided. Doesn't matter whether the MOT certificates were done by a Toyota dealer, or an independent garage. As long as the MOT certificates are genuine and the mileage tallies, that is all that matters. Yes, the car could have been clocked between MOT's, but as there is no other evidence of service history, how can you prove or disprove that the mileage isn't genuine, apart from obvious signs like heavily worn steering wheel, pedal rubbers, etc?

If you're not happy, walk away ..........

A car with 4-5K a year in the ownership of someone as you describe sounds perfectly possible. I have been retired for many years and now do 6-7K a year. Anyway, if the annual mileages on the MoT certificates increase regularly that should be adequate proof - only a desperate person would bother to give a car an annual 'clocking'. Or do you think the DVLA record has been tampered with?

If the general impression and appearance of the car are consistent with the data presented, don't worry. If you are satisfied, any subsequent buyer will be too.

Thank you for the replies everyone. It's really put things into perspective. I think I will probably buy the car.

Other than doing the usual interior and body work checks their is no real way of knowing if a car is clocked. service and MOT'S are so easy to fake. Just clock the car before service and MOT and you can get away with it

I suspect is getting alot worse because of personal contract hire and mileage limitations. If you think it's been clocked, I would trust your instincts. I know and am sure others here will know just how bad it is and main dealers couldn't care less. As long as everything looks lagit and can be backed up ( to some degree) they will sell it even of they can see it's been clocked