BMW 640d - My old bmw is being offered for sale clocked - Luke cowell
Is it ok to post something non defamatory about my bmw 640d that is being sold with lower mileage than I sold it for on the forum? And I might hasten to add being now sold with a full service history - when I sold it with a part service history? I really don’t want a new buyer being ripped off. I only want to mention the reg and not name the seller (as clearly the car may have been sold on after I sold it)?
BMW 640d - My old bmw is being offered for sale clocked - argybargy

If its a garage then Trading Standards might be interested; though they've been so depleted by cuts over the last few years that they might only be able to "note your concern" rather than do anything about it.

If its a private seller then probably not much you can do. MOT history will show mileage, I think, so anyone who checks should smell a rat.

BMW 640d - My old bmw is being offered for sale clocked - oldroverboy.

You could tell the seller that you have reported it to the Police/trading standards as it is an offence to "clock" the car and also to lie about the service history.

give us a reg number so we can check the MOT history ourselves.

BMW 640d - My old bmw is being offered for sale clocked - daveyjp
Years ago a family member traded his car. A couple of weeks later he saw it on a forecourt. The garage owner was boyfriend of a friend's daughter and all the village knew he was a less than honest trader.

Family member saw the car and went to have a look. It had 'lost' tens of thousands miles in two weeks. Nothing he could do as no evidence who had done the clocking.

Clocked Cars Mileage - MikeM100

Earlier in the year I got interested in a VW Passat offered by a dealer until I looked at it's MOT history:

28/01/2016 143,775

04/03/2016 87,356

03/03/2017 92,071

So 56,419 miles 'lost' !

Clocked Cars Mileage - gordonbennet

Yes there was a Volvo for sale recently, but when i checked the MOT history it had a 120,000 mile haircut some 5 or 6 years previous.

I have no problem if it was a genuine thing, speedo failed, used unit fitted, then declared in writing at point of sale and kept with the vehicle.

BMW 640d - My old bmw is being offered for sale clocked - craig-pd130

Is the car being advertised as having a lower mileage (i.e. could be a misprint / mistype in the advert), or do you know for certain that the mileage on the car's odometer is different from when you sold it?

However, in either case, I don't see a problem with you posting a link to the advert / dealer's website, and pointing out the mileage that was actually on the car's clock when you sold it.

I wouldn't be concerned about the car being advertised as having a 'full service history' - in car advert speak, that usually just means that there is some actual evidence of services having been carried out.

BMW 640d - My old bmw is being offered for sale clocked - SLO76
Could be an error but while fiddling mileage is less common these days, with exception to high mileage prestige cars under Mot age thanks to the history check service. Faked service histories are however very commonplace. I regularly see cars pass through auction halls with little or no history only to reappear on a smaller Glasgow dealers adverts with FSH. I tend to steer punters away from these smaller dealers as most (but not all) are up to something dodgy.

No one should even consider buying a highly complex prestige car like this from a small non-franchise dealer. The temptation to fiddle histories and botch repairs is too high and they don't have the technical expertise or equipment to service or prep cars like this. If you can't afford an approved used example then you really can't afford to buy one. If you've enough know-how then a longterm owned private sale may be viable but you have got to verify that service history.

I've two friends I can think of who take cars on PCP's but never service them properly. One has his own stamp he bought online to stamp up the book (at least he does change the oil himself) and another gets a friend who works at a local main dealer to stamp hers. Both cars would be a disaster waiting to happen for the next owner, particularly the Focus 1.6 TDCi she has, which has never seen fresh oil.

Edited by SLO76 on 23/09/2017 at 15:46

BMW 640d - My old bmw is being offered for sale clocked - Manatee

It's a curiosity that certain types of dishonesty are regarrded as fair or just by those who practice them. A bit like taxi drivers overcharging for airport pickups - it's a long way out there, they might be two hours in a queue, they have to make a living somehow...etc.

Decades ago a second hand dealer in Leeds with a few convictions for clocking told me he had taken the speedo out of tidy but high mileage Volvo to find a sticker on the back that read "Oh no, not again". It's an old chestnut in the motor trade but he swore it was true -so it must have been;)

Harder to get away with now and almost certainly not as prevalent - but there are people with laptops who will do "mileage correction" on your M3 or whatever. Get it done every year before the MoT and you might get away with it.

BMW 640d - My old bmw is being offered for sale clocked - Happy Blue!

I did buy my FSH Mercedes from a small non-franchise dealer, but as MB service history is kept centrally, I was able to check with my local dealer that the car was everything that was claimed about it. Almost two years later, I have not found any evidence to the contrary and would recommend the dealer.

However, without that I would probably not have bought it.

BMW 640d - My old bmw is being offered for sale clocked - cws

I know the MB diagnostic tool <STAR> screen will trun red if the car appears to have been clocked (as I recall, certain modules must all match on mileage). It certainly is a worry and something I was very conscious of when buying my C250. A mate who is a head MB tech tells me they are seeing an increase in clocked-cars, epsecially for the E Class and that MB are trying to stay ahead by constantly introducing more checks within STAR. Interestingly they have also now introduced a check for engine re-maps. I also recall an article which claimed the UK had the highest clocking-rate in W.Europe.

BMW 640d - My old bmw is being offered for sale clocked - Manatee

I don't know if it still washes as an excuse, but selling a car with a sticker on the speedo "mileage not warranted as genuine" used to be regarded as sufficient to avoid prosecution.

BMW 640d - My old bmw is being offered for sale clocked - madf

I don't know if it still washes as an excuse, but selling a car with a sticker on the speedo "mileage not warranted as genuine" used to be regarded as sufficient to avoid prosecution.

I used to view that as "this car has been clocked and I know it " and went elsewhere as a strict rule...

BMW 640d - My old bmw is being offered for sale clocked - SLO76

I don't know if it still washes as an excuse, but selling a car with a sticker on the speedo "mileage not warranted as genuine" used to be regarded as sufficient to avoid prosecution.

That was a trading standards obligation we all had to abide by and was used by legitimate dealers to inform customers of the status of any mileage checks we were carrying out. Until the previous owner had been contacted to verify the mileage the sticker would be marked as incorrect even if it otherwise checked out and had a full verifiable service record and looked its mileage. If the car had been in stock for more than a month and was still a ticketed as incorrect it meant either the last owner hadn't responded or we had our doubts about the mileage ourselves. Customers were supposed to be fully informed of our reasons for marking it as incorrect but some of the more money hungry salesmen on the payroll would often tell lies or avoid the truth and would pay the price if the thing came back to bite them. A common thing with the dodgier end of the market was to mark all order forms as mileage incorrect in the small print or to mark it on the form after delivery had taken place and the form had been signed. Back in those days however I'd say at least 25% of the used stock we bought or took in part-ex in were carrying dishonest mileages. It was rife. Thankfully this figure is tiny by comparison today.
BMW 640d - My old bmw is being offered for sale clocked - saltire69

www.honestjohn.co.uk/news/legal-motoring-advice/20.../

Clocking still rife in the uk.