Mileage verification

Mileage verification

Author
Discussion

Mrinsignia

Original Poster:

176 posts

78 months

Sunday 24th March
quotequote all
I'm on the hunt for my next car and will be spending (what is to me) a decent of money. I'm aware a lot of cars now have been clocked or have been fitted with various devices to affect the mileage. What service can I use to check if it has happened on a car I am interested in?

Auto810graphy

1,523 posts

99 months

Sunday 24th March
quotequote all
In short there are a few little tricks that can be done but most blockers / corrections are pretty much undetectable.

The best thing to do is look at the car and history and decide if the miles seem genuine. This is fairly hard as I have seen cars with 5000 miles that look like they have done 100k whilst 100k cars that look near new.

Depending on the manufacturer it’s best to take it into the local main dealer and ask them to complete a check however some don’t want to get involved.

ZX10R NIN

28,358 posts

132 months

Sunday 24th March
quotequote all
Buy on condition as unless they've been idiots you'll never know do a VCheck look at the MOT/Service history see how it all compares with the condition of the car & go from there.

autumnsum

435 posts

38 months

Sunday 24th March
quotequote all
Auto810graphy said:
In short there are a few little tricks that can be done but most blockers / corrections are pretty much undetectable.
I mean this just sounds like a programming challenge, I'm pretty sure there will be a way to detect that something is off. Can't you buy kit which looks for the signs of clocking?

ACCYSTAN

1,027 posts

128 months

Sunday 24th March
quotequote all
Condition is king, a simple check can be the condition of the pedal rubbers.

daqinggregg

3,052 posts

136 months

Monday 25th March
quotequote all
A lot depends on what you are buying and its age.

As an example five year old Focus ST, not a lot you can do, one year old BMW M2 slightly more.

As others have said above, buy on condition.

Check the date codes on the tyres; does the wear, correspond with the mileage.



7th month, 2019.

LightningBlue

568 posts

48 months

Monday 25th March
quotequote all
Condition should be a good indication along with MOT and service history. The thing is operator error can be a problem - I just bought an Audi TT where V Check flagged a mileage issue - it turned out that the trip computer hadn’t been reset since the car was almost new and that showed just over 1000 miles less than the odometer that was right next to it on the dash - the lower mileage had been inputted at one service and even the selling dealer advertised it at the lower mileage. I wish I’d taken a photo and could’ve got that discrepancy removed.

av185

19,411 posts

134 months

Monday 25th March
quotequote all
As others have posted check out the mileage against service dates and MOTs if applicable. Numerous owners particularly in a short period invariably a bad sign imo.

If the car has the original windscreen this can be a good guide to higher mileage same with front end and side paint adjoining arches and especially bonnet leading edge etc. Check wear points on seats( sagging) steering wheel gear lever and carpets etc.

Alickadoo

2,281 posts

30 months

Monday 25th March
quotequote all
daqinggregg said:
A lot depends on what you are buying and its age.

As an example five year old Focus ST, not a lot you can do, one year old BMW M2 slightly more.

As others have said above, buy on condition.

Check the date codes on the tyres; does the wear, correspond with the mileage.



7th month, 2019.
Or even the 7th week.

Hugo Stiglitz

38,038 posts

218 months

Monday 25th March
quotequote all
Where do you fit the blocker i.e. where does it sit where any marks etc can be detected?

Previous presence on ECU?

That's one thing that worries me how can you check a car that's had one.

daqinggregg

3,052 posts

136 months

Monday 25th March
quotequote all
Alickadoo said:
Or even the 7th week.
My mistake, you are correct. its week.

zedx19

2,896 posts

147 months

Monday 25th March
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Lot of modern cars the ECU mileage won't match the gearbox mileage, the blocker only stops 1 not both. I've no idea whether you can interrogate this via OBD though, might be a dealer only thing? I know someone at work who loves cars, looks after them but has a mileage blocker he flicks on for long journeys. I know full well his cars are not thrashed until warmed, cooled down properly and serviced as per the manufacturers guidance, condition will exceptional but he blocks to retain value. Then there's people who PCP a car on 5k mileage, mileage blocking to keep it below 5k but ragging it to death from cold and not servicing it except for once a year (Golf R's fall heavily into this bracket).

As others have said, you need to buy on condition.

ZX10R NIN

28,358 posts

132 months

Monday 25th March
quotequote all
People that do this normally do a thorough job on all the ECU's I read a fair few cars & I've only seen a small number of discrepancies between the ECU's.