MILEAGE History DISCREPANCY

[mapleleaf]

So the saga continues with the purchase of my SL 320 -

the DVLA spot check has been done so the reg transfer can now take place. :bannana:

The car was advertised as having 31k miles , which it showed when I did the test drive.

I have a mate at a dealership who did me a favour printed off a vehicle warranty history.

This looked fine, nothing serious or untoward but then I looked at the mileage recorded at each visit & it went from 24493 on 23 Dec 2002 to 69346 on 8 July 2003! A different dealer recorded 71108 on 16 Sept 2003 and that same dealer recorded 71493 on 8 Dec 2003.

naturally I mentioned this to the dealer I'm buying off and they looked into in. Meantime I paid £40 for an AA internet vehicle check which last showed it having a VMC check by a dealer in May 2003 at 30,000 miles

My dealer has just called to explain as follows:

each warranty job has a claim number and on 8 July 2003 the claim number was 4 69346 and the numpty keying in the mileage used this figure (minus the 4 which is apparantly a prefix & is displayed slightly away from the rest of the number) by mistake.

Plausible for a 1 off I thought , but what about the other two 71k entries?? ahh well, it seems that the numpty at that dealership was too lazy to enter the correct mileage and simply added the mileage since the previous warranty claim to the 69346 . then they did it again on the next visit.

My dealer is now running around trying to obtain the original hand written records when the car was booked in at the 2 other dealers to prove to me the mileage showing on the car of 31k is correct. they also have a VMC certificate to that effect.

I'm getting a headache.

 

[sym]

45000 miles in 7 months is pretty high mileage for any car - let alone an SL !!

I reckon you are safe, but bet you must have got a shock !!

S.

 

[mapleleaf]

Not half ! Sometimes to much information can be a bad thing!

 

[pammy]

I'd have died hope they do get enough evidence to prove all is well!!

 

[Shude]

I had a similar problem about a year ago when I was checking up on my new car, the National Mileage Register or something came back with a mileage issue with the car! The HPI check people made it sound like a disaster on the phone, but when I checked with the mileage people they said that on one of the mileage recordings the mileage was "1" mile, previous recording was about 65,000 and the next recording (about 3 months later) was nearly 75,000. I didn't think anyone would really drive about 850 miles per day for 3 months so assumed that some dipstick has accidently entered a "1" instead of the correct mileage because it was 5:30pm and they wanted to close up for the day or something

 

[marcos]

Steve,

all sounds a bit strange but sometimes these things do have a simple explanation.
As Sym says 45,000mls is a lot in 6 months so it looks like it might be just a silly error.
Hope it all gets sorted out mate.

 

[PJH]

each warranty job has a claim number and on 8 July 2003 the claim number was 4 69346 and the numpty keying in the mileage used this figure (minus the 4 which is apparantly a prefix & is displayed slightly away from the rest of the number) by mistake.

Plausible for a 1 off I thought , but what about the other two 71k entries?? ahh well, it seems that the numpty at that dealership was too lazy to enter the correct mileage and simply added the mileage since the previous warranty claim to the 69346 . then they did it again on the next visit.

ERM, so the dealer thinks it's numpty can add up ?

 

[jaymanek]

Yes have had plenty of mileage discrepancies. Usually due to the owner gussing the mileage when buying road tax. I think the HPI people should make it really clear to the person doing the check that the mileage records are mostly self reported and so can be mistakes. Have lost out selling some of my past cars due to silly dicprepancies. On one, the mileage record went 42000 to 560000. Obviously a 0 added on by mistake, but enough to put my buyer off! I have a rant about it evertime i speak to AA...

Anyway, in this case, i would very carefully check the history, the written part, not electronic. Can you be sure that the 29000 wasnt a misprint? Very easy to play with mileage and history these days, those numptys at the delaer can be very dangerous...
Y
ou will also have a problem selling if its not cleared up.. Be careful, esp as its a low mileage car.. Obviously the car should be absolutley as new at that mileage...

Jay

 

[Dave K]

Be careful of all this. Here's my story :

I went to view a E300TD a couple of years back. The dealer (not MB) gave me the mileage (64k) over the phone so I could do an HPI check before I went to see the car (it wasn't local). It came back as a discrpency. I rang the dealer who said that they had given me a rough number and that the true mileage was 64343 (I'm making the numbers up buy you get the drift I hope). I ran this through HPI and the discrpency was resolved. Great. But then I got thinking....it meant that the mileage had been recorded VERY recently i.e sometime between 64000 and 64343 miles. The condition of the car made me mildly suspcious that the mileage still wan't right (i.e. too low) and I didn't buy it. After much digging around, and finding the old owner and servicing dealer, I managed to work out the fiddle. The dealer bought the car with many more miles on it. He did an HPI check which came back with mileage not recorded. He then wound back the clock, submitted the V5 (log book) for a subtle details change (the colour in this case - changed form "Champagne" to "Gold" or something like that) and included the new mileage on the V5. This new figure got recorded as the first mileage entry for this vehicle and the HPI check came back with a recorded figure and no mileage discrepancy when I gave them the correct mileage on the odometer. I may not have been suspicous at all had the dealer given me the correct mileage on the odometer instead of three of hundred too low. So beware of the HPI/AA mileage checks. It's easy to fiddle if no mileage has been recorded previously for a vehicle.

 

[mapleleaf]

The plot thickens

first 26 Months the car was recorded as having done 30k miles. Since May 2003 to date the dealer tells me it is showing just 31k miles. I didnt spot it before but only 1,000 miles in 1 year having done average 1153 / month previously. Hmmmm

It looks like maybe (and a very tenuous maybe) the dealer has had it in stock for a year as I dont think dealers register as a keeper.

I've just faxed a two page letter and await their explaination .. watch this space.

 

[PJH]

The plot thickens

first 26 Months the car was recorded as having done 30k miles. Since May 2003 to date the dealer tells me it is showing just 31k miles. I didnt spot it before but only 1,000 miles in 1 year having done average 1153 / month previously. Hmmmm

It looks like maybe (and a very tenuous maybe) the dealer has had it in stock for a year as I dont think dealers register as a keeper.

I've just faxed a two page letter and await their explaination .. watch this space.

This link posted by the 'late' samuelellis may help to detect how long a vehicle has been 'between keepers', but it's not foolproof.

Also, I suspect some 2nd hand dealers may rotate cars amongst themselves so as to fake sales to the passing public. Near where I live I have noticed a few cars disappear and reappear a few months later at the same dealer.

 

[mapleleaf]

thanks

I gave it a whirl and it came up same as the AA 1 keeper change only Nov 2001. Looks like its been with a dealer then since May 2003

 

[C240Sport97]

I'm amazed they have kept the car so long! Isn't it strange that it went in for 'warranty' work 3x during the dealer's ownership?

thanks

I gave it a whirl and it came up same as the AA 1 keeper change only Nov 2001. Looks like its been with a dealer then since May 2003

 

[mapleleaf]

just heard from the Dealer General manager as follows:

Mileage issue - was a clerical data input error PLus poor record keeping by next dealer when recording mileage for warranty work - dealerships all in same group. Manager will put in writing true mileage position ie 31k .

reason for only 1k in last 10 months: the dealership group bought the car May 2003 and just kept moving it around the various outlets - my thoughts on this are they were probably trying to even out the mileage.

they wil also corect the entries on teh MB computer.

So a happy ending if a tad stresfful along the route. We pick the car up tomorrow

 

[esox]

Mileage.

Many years ago i went to view a Bavarian Murder Weapon at an `Arfur Daley type motor sales establishment,the car showed 45,000M,i asked to see the log-book and made a point of remembering the previos keeper(which happened to be the Footwork Arrows motor racing team).I got their number and phoned them up to ask about the cars history,they were very helpfull and said "Yes,we sold that car at auction on the South coast and it had 114,000 miles on it at the time". Where did the 69,000 miles go???