Clocked motor

[sri150]

Had a lucky escape at w/e. The mrs has been looking at a replacement for her Jeep GC as its a bit thirsty. Saw a nice Honda CRV in Luton, private seller, low miles, history etc. On paper it looked a bit cheap for the miles but I thought it was worth a look (2.5 hours away). Did a HPI check before I left and all ok (just needed to enter the V5 serial no. and MOT no. to complete the check).

Arrived and waited for the guy. Straight away I knew it wasnt a private seller and he admitted he was a trader who buys and sells a few cars. thought ok, he prob got it cheap and is selling cheap so everyones a winner. All looked good, genuine history all in place, etc. One slight concern was that the numbers on the gear stick had worn away. Engine immaculate (more than just a steam clean). Agreed on a price and left a small £200 deposit.

Before I left I noted down the MOT no., V5 serial no. etc. Got home and entered them on my HPI check and MOT site.................the car which was advertised as having 64k had in fact covered 155k!!!!! Even tho it was 5-years old it didnt look like it had covered that amount.

Now I know this is common practice but never had this happen to me before. Basically all the history and clocks had been changed.

Was peed off at the thought of wasting my day and losing £200 but could have been worse (altho I always do HPI, etc checks). Saying that last time I bought my Vec it wasnt as widely available to be able to check mileages so easily.

I phoned the 'trader' and he denied all knowledge, but to my amazement he deposited the £200 back in my account!!! Result. It could have been my stern words but I thought he would hang up and that would be that!!. He may be an innocent party, but it doesnt half make you suspicious when looking at second hand cars.

[triple595]

yep you have to look at the wear n tear on items like the gear knob and steering wheel, not always the case though as these can be altered.


hpi checks are best before parting with your hard earned, lucky escape

[sri150]

yep you have to look at the wear n tear on items like the gear knob and steering wheel, not always the case though as these can be altered.


hpi checks are best before parting with your hard earned, lucky escape

yea the gear knob was the first alarm bell, but pedals, seats, etc all appeared to match the 'false' mileage.

Yea, there was never any intention of me parting with big sums of cash, but prob was I couldnt complete the mileage part of the HPI check until I got home with the info from the V5, etc and had access to internet (my phone is pants!!).

When I bought my vec c. (5-years ago) the HPI checks werent as comprehensive......or at least at that time the mileages werent as thoroughly verified.

It is a worry tho. I reported it to Autotrader and car has now gone, but any less suspecting person could quite easily have just done a basic HPI check (stolen, written off, finance, etc) which was all clear and away they go.

[Das]

I phoned the 'trader' and he denied all knowledge, but to my amazement he deposited the £200 back in my account!!! Result.

Im guessing he didn't want you phoning trading standards. Lucky escape that I guess, HPi to the rescue again.

[sri150]

Im guessing he didn't want you phoning trading standards. Lucky escape that I guess, HPi to the rescue again.

Problem was it wasnt a garage, just an individual who buys and sells cars so I dont beleive there is much that can be done. Did phone the Govt. fraud line (advertised on Direct Gov site ), but to be honest they werent interested. If I hadnt got my money back they said thats fraud and may have looked into it. Strange one as a lot of sites say it is a civil matter so Police not interested - although I have watched many cop shows where they go after car gangs who clock vehicles??

Surely to claim a car has 'X' mileage when in fact it doesnt and all the history, etc has been falsified is fraud??? Guess it would be hard to prove that the indivuivdual selling the car knew this.

Hey ho I'm only £20 down from cost of diesel and 6 hours lost from my weekend......could have been way worse!!

[Deztroyer]

where is the car advertised... might be worth a call to them telling them that the infirmation in the advertisement is false ... and then report his phone number and the registration to the local trading standards office you visitted ... they might be interested in a "trader" selling and clocking cars for profit !!

and i'm amazed that the police were not interested as technically the chaps obtaining a precunary advantage by falsly misleading someone by giving them infirmation contrary to the truth

if he has no disclaimer on the mileage then he commits an offence as a dealer
they must complete checks to confirm the mileage is correct, if they have then no disclaimer is needed.
but they should use Disclaimers where:-

• You cannot discover a vehicle’s true mileage.
• Checks would be impracticable given the age of the vehicle or number of previous keepers.
• Vehicles are offered for sale and you have not completed mileage checks. If checks prove inconclusive, the continued use of a disclaimer is advisable.

basically to cover their bums ...

report them to trading standards even if you give then the reg and contact number and a link to the advert ... its something to prevent a n other getting bitten by buying from this seller ....


dont name and shame them ... till you have a difinitive response from Trading standards

[Big-Pete]

Yet another thread moved from Gen Chat

Gen Chat: Any non-car related chat

[Derek Mc]

I have been through this myself with a clocked car, the dealer selling also bought it in good faith from Blackbushe site he was very good with me and I also got a refund. it is such an easy practice to do on modern cars that they do not usually show miles that easily.

[chrisvectra]

where should it have been pete???

[Big-Pete]

where should it have been pete???

Here in "Off Topic" as it's not vectra-c / Signum related, and Gen Chat is for non car related topics