Clocking a van by 275,000 miles

[rohrl]

275,000 miles is a major haircut. I'd have thought a 364,000 mile van was ready for the knacker's yard but apparently not.

I wonder who on PH can be confident that they've never owned a clocked car. Personally I've never bought a car brand new so I suppose it's almost a certainty that I've had a clocked car at some point.

Daily Mail (yes I know) Link

[k-ink]

It is about time anyone buying, renting or selling "mileage correction" equipment should get prison time.

[williredale]

Surely you can check the old MOTs online which will show the mileage?

[pistonchris]

k-ink said:

It is about time anyone buying, renting or selling "mileage correction" equipment should get prison time.

Agree you can by a lot of the machines that do it through ebay.
It's just wrong how they get away with it.

[Super Slo Mo]

rohrl said:

275,000 miles is a major haircut. I'd have thought a 364,000 mile van was ready for the knacker's yard but apparently not.

I wonder who on PH can be confident that they've never owned a clocked car. Personally I've never bought a car brand new so I suppose it's almost a certainty that I've had a clocked car at some point.

Daily Mail (yes I know) Link

Merc Sprinters can cope with 500,000 with the correct maintenance (according to a couple of mechanic friends, not first hand experience I hasten to add). Personally I'd be very suspicious of a van that has 'average' miles in car terms, their whole point is to pound up and down the motorways at high speed (well, perhaps I exaggerate a little, but they're not bought to go to the shops twice a week).

I know that my previous Passat wasn't clocked, it was my Dad's from new (it had 245,000 on it when I got it), as for the rest, I have no idea. I think we'd all be surprised how many miles cars really do, if clocking wasn't so prevalent.

It's the fact that we're obsessed with low mileage in this country that means there's easy money in it for the clockers. Perhaps cars should automatically connect with a central (or manufacturer) database every few hours (it'd maybe only need an SMS type message).

[rallycross]

Its hard to have any sympathy for these idiots though

Mr Denton said: 'I was looking for a larger van and when I saw the Mercedes it looked ideal. It was five years old when we bought it, so the 76,000 miles quoted in the advert was reasonable for a commercial vehicle.
'The price was a little bit lower than the dealer prices I’d seen"



So, having looked at 2nd hand 5+ year old vans he thought 76,000 miles was reasonable.
Reasonable? I think unbelieveable is a better choice of words.

[wolf1]

rallycross said:

Its hard to have any sympathy for these idiots though

Mr Denton said: 'I was looking for a larger van and when I saw the Mercedes it looked ideal. It was five years old when we bought it, so the 76,000 miles quoted in the advert was reasonable for a commercial vehicle.
'The price was a little bit lower than the dealer prices I’d seen"



So, having looked at 2nd hand 5+ year old vans he thought 76,000 miles was reasonable.
Reasonable? I think unbelieveable is a better choice of words.

Not all vans rack up high milages. British Telecoms vans tend to be pretty low. Went out to one of their transits today which was a 2007 with only 17000 miles on it. They aren't the only large fleet user to have vehicles with low miles when they are sold off.

[T5SOR]

williredale said:

Surely you can check the old MOTs online which will show the mileage?

They mean bugger all. Mine are always wrong. It's too much effort to go back and get it changed!

[Steffan]

I suspect the miscreant shyster will not get a prison sentence unless he has form for this type of offence. If he does I doubt it will be mean serving more than a few months.

The Courts are ineffective as deterrents because of ineffective sentencing. This kind of repeated deliberate fraud should ensure a punishment sufficient to deter the criminals. It will not hence the frequency of the crime.

[rohrl]

I used to be in van insurance and you might be surprised at how low miles most vans do. Couriers obviously do big miles, 50K or more a year, but most builders etc. just drive somewhere then leave the van parked outside all day. 15 to 20 thousand miles a year is towards the upper end for most tradesmen.

[Ari]

rallycross said:

Its hard to have any sympathy for these idiots though

Mr Denton said: 'I was looking for a larger van and when I saw the Mercedes it looked ideal. It was five years old when we bought it, so the 76,000 miles quoted in the advert was reasonable for a commercial vehicle.
'The price was a little bit lower than the dealer prices I’d seen"



So, having looked at 2nd hand 5+ year old vans he thought 76,000 miles was reasonable.
Reasonable? I think unbelieveable is a better choice of words.

Why?

I'm sure there are plenty of vans out there that do circa 15,000 miles a year.

[Graebob]

Stupid person sees bargain vehicle with "too good to be true" mileage, buys it, then whines when he does due diligence after the fact and realises it's fked. Standard Daily Wail bullst. Caveat emptor.

Spin on.

[Cyberprog]

Super Slo Mo said:

Merc Sprinters can cope with 500,000 with the correct maintenance (according to a couple of mechanic friends, not first hand experience I hasten to add). Personally I'd be very suspicious of a van that has 'average' miles in car terms, their whole point is to pound up and down the motorways at high speed (well, perhaps I exaggerate a little, but they're not bought to go to the shops twice a week).

I know that my previous Passat wasn't clocked, it was my Dad's from new (it had 245,000 on it when I got it), as for the rest, I have no idea. I think we'd all be surprised how many miles cars really do, if clocking wasn't so prevalent.

It's the fact that we're obsessed with low mileage in this country that means there's easy money in it for the clockers. Perhaps cars should automatically connect with a central (or manufacturer) database every few hours (it'd maybe only need an SMS type message).

You should always check the MOT history online before buying these days, at least once a year, the mileage is recorded

[Ari]

Oh right, so its the buyers fault...

Where do you stand on scantily clad girls being assaulted, "asking for it?"

[Caesar9]

It says that he forked out £6319 for the van.

Have I missed something but why was it not rounded to £6300, I've never paid something and £19 for a car.

[rohrl]

Cyberprog said:

You should always check the MOT history online before buying these days, at least once a year, the mileage is recorded

If you buy a "mileage correction" (yeah right, because that's a valid thing to need to do) kit off eBay you give it a short back n' sides before every MoT and Robert's your mother's brother you've got a genuine low-mileage vehicle with supporting documentation.

[rohrl]

Caesar9 said:

It says that he forked out £6319 for the van.

Have I missed something but why was it not rounded to £6300, I've never paid something and £19 for a car.

Seven and a half less the VAT?

Edited by rohrl on Friday 4th May 18:24

[stuartmmcfc]

rohrl said:

I used to be in van insurance and you might be surprised at how low miles most vans do. Couriers obviously do big miles, 50K or more a year, but most builders etc. just drive somewhere then leave the van parked outside all day. 15 to 20 thousand miles a year is towards the upper end for most tradesmen.

having been a tradesman for many years- vans used by us and fellow workmen might only do 80-100k in 5 years but the bodywork shows it tbh!
On the other hand I've seen plenty of Sprinters with 250k on the clock which look like they';ve done a 1/10th of that.

[CambsBill]

Forget the article, read some of the readers comments! Even for the Wail they're laughable.

[Ari]

rohrl said:

If you buy a "mileage correction" (yeah right, because that's a valid thing to need to do) kit off eBay you give it a short back n' sides before every MoT and Robert's your mother's brother you've got a genuine low-mileage vehicle with supporting documentation.

And if you're "buying" a vehicle on one of those finance deals where there's a residual value at the end that you never pay, just give the car back in against another one then you've got the motivation for doing so since these deals are set up to reflect expected mileage (ie the higher the annual mileage, the lower the residual value and the higher the monthly payments).