As the car was an import could both the 2014 MOT's be in km's (Incorrectly entered in miles by the tester)?

Between the 2014 and 2015 MOT's has the speedo been swapped for a UK speedo (ie mph from kph). Is it not a legal requirement to do this with imports?

2020 MOT's same mileage as the car was left at the MOT centre for repair?

What does the Full dealer history show regarding the mileage and speedo?

As an import this is most likely due to speedo connversion from kph to mph.

I understand this can be done in a number of ways depending on the car - new instrunents, display overlay or (I suspect increasingly) electronically.

Electronically is almost certainly the cheapest if you know what you are doing as I assume it needs no dismantling or spare parts.

The change in 2014 suggests the car went from 26000 km (approx 16000 miles) to 27000 in 12 days - implausible.

So perhaps the owner decided it was easier to reset the odometer to "correct" the error. Or maybe instrument replacement for some reason.

To be honest most 11 year old cars with somewhere between 21k and 37k on the clock have not been driven enough. Judge it on condition and driving impressions, not mileage.

Nothing suspicious there. As has been said, it's a legal requirement for the speedo to read in miles, so the second entry was clearly incorrectly entered as miles. And from some of the mileage entries I'd guess that the owner still had interests abroad and didn't spend all his time in the UK. Lastly, it's a fair bet that he left it with the garage to be fixed at the last MOT, and perhaps left it a few days before authorising the repair. I don't think there is anything I'd be concerned about.

At a guess both 2014 figures are in Km. Difference is approx 370 miles; not really a lot in a fortnight.

By 2015 the car has been re-calibrated for miles and, by inference, mileage was re-started at 0*. There's reasonably consistent low mileage annual use after that. The fact it was tested on 14 April 2015 is fine. It was tested at first opportunity to make use of the concession that allows the May expiry date to be held.

I wonder if previous owner had either given up driving or died a while after the 2019 MoT? If it was then passed to a garage, say by executors to facilitate sale, then perhaps, with Covid still affecting workshop capacity, fixing the wiper was not an urgent job.

At the end of the day a prospective purchaser will need to satisfy themselves as to history and, more importantly with an underused vehicle, condition.

* We've experienced similar in past, didn't involve km but speedo failure in our BX in mid/late nineties was cured with a replacement unit. Actually second time for that car as it had failed in previous ownership but a sticker on the speedo and the clear history made position abundantly clear.

Edited by Bromptonaut on 06/09/2020 at 16:32