BMW 2004 - Car with mileage clocked - legal advise needed

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Wed 23 Mar 2011 14:55
BMW 2004 - Car with mileage clocked - legal advise needed - Jay M

I bought a BMW 318i ES 2004 reg from a private seller back in Feb this year- the car was advertised on Auto Trader and eBay indicating a mileage of 64K (whereas the actual as confirmed from a BMW garage later on turned out to be 111K). Also, the eBay ad mentioned 'HPI Clear' which is not the case.

I need advise from legal perspective regards the following:

The car has costed me about 4200 GBP - I bought the car for 3700 GBP and have spent on brake servo/master cylinder problem. Since the mileage is clocked to almost half I haven't got any offer above 3000 GBP (loss of about 1.5K)

I went back to the seller the very same day I bought the car (I was prompted by a copied BMW garage service receipt with the 'milage' field blanked out). The seller said he wasn't aware who did it and as per his knowledge the milage should be 64K.

What sort of legal action can be initiated against the seller - as I believe he intentionally blanked out the 'milage' on the BMW service receipt in his name just to make more mone - case of fraud if I am not wrong. I have the e-bay advertisement saved with me as a proof.

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Wed 23 Mar 2011 15:53
BMW 2004 - Car with mileage clocked - legal advice needed - LucyBC

Cars sold by private sellers on eBay have to be "as described" so if it was not you can attempt to reverse the transaction through eBay's complaint's procedure or by returning the vehicle and suing the seller for your loss if they won't refund you.

"Clocking" a car is a serious offence but you have to show he did it or knew it was "clocked" when he sold it, which is never easy and the police and Trading Standards are rarely interested in these straightened times.

If you want to sue the seller then I can probably help you with that but we will need considerably more information sent to asklucy@honestjohn.co.uk:

Vehicle: Make, model, year, registration plate, date of purchase, purchase price, details of the mileage dispute

Your details: Name, address and contact number.

Seller details: Name, address, contact name for anyone you dealt with plus their email address(es) if possible.

Timeline: detailing precise dates of what happened when.

Once we have this information I will come back to you with a detailed assessment as to how to proceed.

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Fri 25 Mar 2011 07:35
BMW 2004 - Car with mileage clocked - legal advice needed - Peter D

Be aware that the ECU provides the distance travelled in Km by default and 64,000 equals 102,000 Km. Regards Peter

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