Hello all,
Will be buying 2nd-hand car soon. Am concerned about buying a "clocked" car. Is it reasonable to ask the dealer/vendor to see the logbook/V5, in order to telephone the previous owner, and verify the mileage, or am I asking for a punch on the nose?
All views gratefully revieved
tim c
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reasonable ?
it should be compulsory
there are no good reasons for not letting you see it - walk away from anybody who says no !
when you've got tired of driving ...
www.mikes-walks.co.uk
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If it is an older car, ask to see the old MOT certificates as well.
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You may remember from my thread about someone clocking my old car that the mileage when sold was 88k and then a year later was 44k. It did have FSH (dealer) so suppose the log book disappeared.
Caveat emptore.
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I think its perfectly reasonable to ask to see the log book AND supporting evidence of true mileage.
In fact when the buyer came to view my previous car, I produced all the mot's, service invoices and service book etc for him to look through to verify the mileage and see the car had been properly maintained.
He was so impressed, he offered me just £100 below the asking price (car was worth around £7k).
If the seller doesn't want to show you, walk away.
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Last week my sister discovered a discrepancy on her VW Polo Mileage Clock. (We both know little about cars.)
We came to her car to take down the mileage as we are putting it up for sale. At first we thought it had done 86,556 miles - which we both were a bit surpised by - but then we realised the digital display was actually showing the trip mileage of 8655.6, and we pressed a button next to the display and it switched to the total mileage of 53,700.
However, in the next couple of days we were looking over paperwork and the previous MOTs, and on the MOT test taken in July 2002, the MOT station has recorded on the MOT certificate the mileage as being 67,614.
The only possible explanation we can give for this is that the MOT station has made an error and has also recorded the mileage from the "trip" display when it was actually 6761.4.
This now leaves us in a very difficult position when selling the car. Yesterday on Saturday, I took the car to get a fresh MOT at a different MOT station (the last MOT place not being open on the day) and it passed, but the owner picked up on the mileage discrepancy. He said it was possible to clock such a car as hers, but I really think he believed my earnest explanation that we hadn't clocked it but there has been some kind of error in recording the mileage at the last MOT.
He gave us a fresh MOT showing the mileage of 53,736 but warned that if any potential purchaser runs a HPI check it will be flagged up that there is a problem with the mileage as HPI have details of mileage recorded from all previous MOTs.
The MOTs which I have infront of me now show the mileage as this :
July 27th 1998. Recorded mileage 24,288
July 22nd 1999. Recorded mileage 29,395
July 26th 2000. Recorded mileage 36,619
July 26th 2001. Recorded mileage 45,023
July 16th 2002. Recorded mileage 67,614
and the latest I just had done
October 25th 2002. Recorded mileage 53,736.
The car has not been driven at all for past 6-8 weeks as she has got a new car?
Is there any action I can take? I'm sure that on July 16th 2002 the MOT station made an error in reading the mileage. It had not jumped up by 22,000+ from the year before. Is it likely they might see their way to recifying their mistake?
Thanks if you can help - and sorry about length of this post.
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Id say you need to contact the DoT about this one and explain the situation. The more evidence you have to verify the mileage ie service records the better.
Personally, I find it a bit difficult to believe two people couldn't tell the difference between the mileage reading and the trip reading. Does the car not have separate mileage and trip readings?
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Thanks for the suggestion - perhaps the DoT is the way to go. First though, tomorrow, I'll approach the MOT station who did the test in July 2002.
Just to clarify - we believe it was the MOT station in July 2002 who misread the trip reading for the total mileometer reading. No second person misread the reading, except for myself and my sister for just a few moments until I realised it the display was showing the trip reading.
No - the car only has one digital display - and you have to press a button to switch between - trip reading, reset trip reading to zero - and back to total mileometer reading.
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If there is only one display, then I can now see how the slip occurred. Strange of vw to use such an option. How much did that really save them?
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Back to the original question.
I have in the past asked to have the details of the previous owner in order to contact them.I must add,this has been when I've bought a car from a dealer.I haven't yet encountered a problem with this.In fact,I bought my missus a Nissan Micra 13SR just about 6 weeks ago,and did just that.And also when I bought my 2.0DLI Vectra in February from a different dealer.I am pleased to say,they were both helpful.
I also have done the reverse after I've sold a car.If anyone has rung me about it,I always tell them what I know.After all,I've nothing to lose.
However,I haven't bought a car private for a long time,but I guess if they are very cagey about your intentions,then tell them to put it where the sun don't shine,even if it is the car you've been after.
Remember.There's always another car elsewhere.
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