Selling a car thats been clocked

[smellmycheese]

Okay.....father in law buys vw passat from son who's fucked off to ireland with some tart. Son (my brother in law) bought it off an old mate with a fleet of private hire cabs (alarm bells?) Father in law (F.I.L) asks me if he should get cambelt done, I tell him to have a look in the service history "what's one of them" he replies. He's not a car person, nor is the son. Guess what....cars got no history. Son asks bloke he bought it off "err I don't know I got it out the block". I ring VW, give them the reg and woman tells me cambelt was done in 2012 at 90,000 miles. Good news? No, car has 66,000 'on clock'. Anyway I don't F.I.L cos I don't wanna upset him just tellin him it needs doin for peace of mind. That was last year. Now F.I.L wants to sell car and has asked me to sell it for him, I've told him what happened and it's had a haircut etc... but where do I go from here? Car needs to be sold but whoever buys it only needs to get on the blower as I did to find out it's past then FIL or me is in the brown stuff.

I expect the usual replies of 'just burn the fucker' etc... but that ain't gonna happen.

[Hertz]

Doesn't the MOT certificate have the last 5 years worth of mileage on it? Might be worth checking if it tally's up with the 90,000 in 2012?

[Sealtainn]

Up to you if you want to declare the fact that it's been clocked or not.

You could advertise it with the "shown" mileage and state that as the car has no history then you cannot confirm it as correct and leave it up to the buyers to find out themselves. They may well do just that and then you get some awkward questions or they don't & buy it, get issued a receipt with the usual "Sold as seen, no warranty blah blah blah" and if they find out at a later date as you did then tough tits.

Personally I would be brutally honest as I am with all my cars when they are sold - all known faults are listed so someone who is travelling any distance to view/purchase doesn't get any nasty surprises.

[purplebargeken]

Possible speedo change?

[holbeck]

I'd go with the truth.

 

In that the car was known to have 90,000 on it in 2012 and has covered at least X miles more in the ownership of FIL/BIL.

 

That way no-one has been deceived.

[Richard]

90k is a suspiciously low mileage for a PH, I suspect it's had more than one visit to the hairdresser.

[Lacquer Peel]

 

✓ Approved

[sierraman]

Put it through auction, there's usually an indemnity on a general entry when mileage is know to be incorrect.

 

I had a Sierra once, bought at 94k, got the paperwork back listing previous owners, been company car, several owners all over the shop, was likely to have been 194k.

[Cavcraft]

Mention on the advert what you have found and say that the mileage reading is incorrect and you are not sure what it should be, due to what you mentioned.

Make sure you put all that on the receipt, too.

 

By the way, have you checked MOT history on line? That way you'll see the yearly differences until it had the haircut and you might be able to work out roughly what it should be.

[Timewaster]

No help but I remember every used car lot in the 1990s putting disclaimer stickers on the clocks of every car on the forecourt.

 

The equivalent of repeatedly saying "allegedly" on Have I Got News For You.

[Jerzy Woking]

I have purchased a couple of cars where the recorded mileage just never looked right with the wear and tear on the rest of it**, but bought them anyway as I was happy that the seller was genuine about the cars mileage. I feel if you make a big fuss about the recorded mileage being wrong, you will put potential buyers off. Whatever, just don't lie, don't over elaborate-"caveat Emptor".

 

 

** my 250,000 mile Lexus LS400 could have easily passed as a car with 60,000 miles on it.

[Tamworthbay]

Is it an estate? And where are you? May be interested.....

[BorniteIdentity]

I'd just play a dead straight bat on it. You may find a better buyer by doing just that.

 

A good example is that 405 on eBay. Painfully honest advert leads to a better price as people have more confidence.

 

If it's a cheap car, I only care that it's got fresh oil and a long mot. If it's an expensive car, bet your Bollocks to a barn dance that I'll be checking the mileage and will find out anyway.

 

Be honest. It's unsettlingly liberating.

[twosmoke300]

Didn't someone on here say that some ph places give the cars a haircut every year ! As much to avoid income tax as to increase resale value . Dodgy bastards

[Pillock]

The amount of cars that go through Cannock with a discrepancy, sometimes a quarter of a million miles missing, is scary.

Some of it will be replacement clocks. Some will be Quentin-wannabes. Just be honest then they've got no leg to stand on chipping you on price, or wanting it cheap or they'll call the cops. 

 

It's not an offence to sell a car with a mileage discrepancy. It's not even an offence to alter the mileage. It's only an offence to gain from it, apparently - so to do it and not inform the new owners at resale time.

 

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/car-news/consumer-news/88547/car-clocking-is-mileage-correction-legal

[D Spares & Tyres]

I have clocked a couple of cars in the past.....

 

But only on cheap older cars. Often its about perception and image. If they see 250,000 they will either pass it by or buy it and their mates will laugh.

 

I`ve let people have a good look round the car, drive it and then when they have decided they like it I mentioned that the speedo was broken so the mileage shown is lower than it really is.

 

the public perception is that 100,000 miles plus is totally worn out but when shown the reality of how its been cared for that counts then they tend to get it.

[Jerzy Woking]

I buy stuff with high mileage just to show cars and motorbikes can handle big mileages easily with regular maintenance and a little mechanical sympathy. I had an Escort estate (1.6 petrol) that was driven between London and Aberdeen twice a week for 4 years. I bought it from a mate at 6 years old when it had just done a little over 400,000 miles. The steering wheel was shinier than a mirror, and the drivers seat as flat as a pancake. Still ran well though.

[dieselassist]

...any chance yr bro' in law can bring it over to here to punt it on? selling clocked cars being a prosecutable offense is a grey area here; if if a bone-fide (LOL) 'sells cars for a living' car dealer, knowingly sells a car that he knows to be clocked/mileage corrected, he can be prosecuted (in theory) but in 'real life', only dealers that are 'serial clockers' /being doin it years have been done...

 

Clocked cars, esp  VAG's being sold on the private market, is common enough here - thers even folk offering 'mileage correction', n advertise same - their excuse is its for folk that have had replacement clocks fitted n they are readjusting the mileage to 'the right'/actual mileage  of the car....

[Aston Martin]

Get one of those stickers that all dodgy garages have on the speedo... Mileage not verified.

[Taff]

are we talking a £250 car or a £2500 car? Because I can't help but wonder if you aren't unduly worrying yourself, mate

[inconsistant]

Distract potential buyers with slam, rack and fruit.

[CortinaDave]

I bought an MG blind on ebay with 110k "genuine miles". Turned out to be 170K when i researched into it later. ouch!

[colino]

Traders have to be upfront with mileages, they are expected to use their professional skills to pass on that they have checked and know what they are selling.  Private sellers are not obliged to volunteer anything, it is very much caveat emptor. However, if they are asked a direct question and lie, they will most certainly lose in a small claims court down the line.

Better to be upfront, if brief, in the description and don't fill any blanks for the prospective purchaser.  Unless you know that it has been clocked and how, simply point out the potential mileage discrepancy and the car sells or it doesn't.

[Pillock]

What Taff said. Worrying too much, just be upfront and say you've seen a discrepancy in the MOT miles and leave it there.

[Essex V6]

I buy stuff with high mileage just to show cars and motorbikes can handle big mileages easily with regular maintenance and a little mechanical sympathy. I had an Escort estate (1.6 petrol) that was driven between London and Aberdeen twice a week for 4 years. I bought it from a mate at 6 years old when it had just done a little over 400,000 miles. The steering wheel was shinier than a mirror, and the drivers seat as flat as a pancake. Still ran well though.

London to Aberdeen twice a week in an Escrote - the boy deserves a medal

[Jerzy Woking]

^ ^ ^ ^1984 1.6L three door estate no less. Looked nice when I got it. I ran it for 18 months, never washed it, never serviced it. By then it still ran like a Swiss watch, but had more holes than Swiss cheese. It got bridged.

[greengartside]

How did it rack up 400k in 6 years?

[Ghosty]

This is a big problem with Mk1 Focuses as something (LCD?) fails in the dash binnacle, and replacing it sets the mileage to 0.

Two examples: an ST170 on eBay for £1800 with claimed 37k - in the description it says the clocks were replaced at 26k, actual mileage thus about 60-63k.

And when I bought an MTB frame off Retrobike a few weeks ago, the seller had a 52 plate Focus Ghia with 250 miles on the clock - according to him the actual mileage was 18k. 

But now, I have to wonder if it was really 18k...

[meshking]

My focus has had replacement binnacle, I bought it from auction with 1500 miles on the clock. In the service history there is a letter from the garage that changed the binnacle with the old mileage listed. I've also got the old binnacle, but the mileage is backed up by the mot history.

[sierraman]

In fairness I'd be judging a 52 plate car on the condition of it and its likelyhood of lasting until the next MOT as opposed to looking for a mileage car. I've been in loads of low mileage stuff that feels stiff and drove like a dog as its been sat most of its life. Something that's spent it's life on the motorway usually feels a lot more willing and often stuff like the steering, suspension etc often has scarcely any wear.