HPI Check - Mileage Discrepancy on 2002 BMW

[threesixty360]

Hi All,

I ran an HPI check on a BMW I am hoping to buy on Saturday. Declared mileage of 85,000.Five recorded owners.The seller has MOTs and service logs verifying the history. The car looks very tidy inside and out certainly not worn.Leather seats look very good.

The National Mileage Register (NMR) indicates a discrepancy.

These are the details given;

Sep 2002 First Registered
Apr 2003 Trade Association 22,923
Nov 2003 Trade Association 42,265
Jun 2004 Trade Association 65,836
Aug 2004 Trade Association 73,108
Sep 2004 BVRLA (British Vehicle Rental & Leasing Assoc) 74,450
Apr 2005 Franchised Dealer 1 (SIC)
Apr 2005 Franchised Dealer 87,816
Apr 2011 NMR 72,000
Apr 2011 NMR 172,000

So some odd numbers in there.

Sep 2004 is 74k - I think this mileage at this time is probably correct. Probably then sold by the leasing company.

Apr 2005 - 1 mile?? and 87k

Apr 2011 72k & 172k


What do you think? How accurate are these reports? I don't know what to believe!

[Tophatron]

What does the MoT history say? You can view it all online if you have the V5 document reference number.

[threesixty360]

Nice one I'll get the details and find out.

Are MOT mileage 100% correct then?

[Tophatron]

Well, they should be accurate to what the car was showing at the time of the MoT. If they're actually the real mileage is another question.

[powerandtorque]

I guess the way to look at it is do you believe that the car has really only done 11k miles in the last 8 years? Seems unlikely to me, but rather more likely that the mileage has been "adjusted".

Certainly check the MOT's online rather than relying on the paper copies that could have easily been faked, but to me it smells fishy. The 87k and 172k entries in the NMR would tie up with the sort of normal use/mileage of such a car IMO.

[Countdown]

Could the 72k in April 2011 just be a keying in error (subsequently corrected to 172k)?

[Sir_Dave]

threesixty360 said:

Sep 2002 First Registered
Apr 2003 Trade Association 22,923
Nov 2003 Trade Association 42,265
Jun 2004 Trade Association 65,836
Aug 2004 Trade Association 73,108
Sep 2004 BVRLA (British Vehicle Rental & Leasing Assoc) 74,450
Apr 2005 Franchised Dealer 1 (SIC)
Apr 2005 Franchised Dealer 87,816
Apr 2011 NMR 72,000
Apr 2011 NMR 172,000

Apr 05 - franchised dealer of 87k is probably the last 'real' mileage figure.

The rest, well, its not exactly hard to swop the instrument cluster on an e46 (to lower the miles), buy a service book on eBay, get it stamped up, etc. I know this as i bought one that had quite obviously been clocked in a similar way earlier on in the year.

That apparently had 85k, & a fully stamped book. Quick call to BMW and it had full main dealer history up to 165k miles lol. Needless to say i still bought it as it was mint, but the chap i sold it to wasnt quite so honest when he offloaded it ...

There are a lot of e46's out there, & quite a few will be clocked, if only as they hide the miles so well.

[All that jazz]

threesixty360 said:

Hi All,

I ran an HPI check on a BMW I am hoping to buy on Saturday. Declared mileage of 85,000.Five recorded owners.The seller has MOTs and service logs verifying the history. The car looks very tidy inside and out certainly not worn.Leather seats look very good.

The National Mileage Register (NMR) indicates a discrepancy.

These are the details given;

Sep 2002 First Registered
Apr 2003 Trade Association 22,923
Nov 2003 Trade Association 42,265
Jun 2004 Trade Association 65,836
Aug 2004 Trade Association 73,108
Sep 2004 BVRLA (British Vehicle Rental & Leasing Assoc) 74,450
Apr 2005 Franchised Dealer 1 (SIC)
Apr 2005 Franchised Dealer 87,816
Apr 2011 NMR 72,000
Apr 2011 NMR 172,000

So some odd numbers in there.

Sep 2004 is 74k - I think this mileage at this time is probably correct. Probably then sold by the leasing company.

Apr 2005 - 1 mile?? and 87k

Apr 2011 72k & 172k


What do you think? How accurate are these reports? I don't know what to believe!

These 'mileage check' thingies are generally a complete waste of time and in my experience are rarely accurate, however this one appears to be of some use for a change. They rely on the numpty at the other end inputting the data correctly (or even bothering to input it at all) and this can clearly be seen here. "1" from Apr 05 is clearly a case of the dealer/trader not being arsed to go and look at the odometer in the first instance, but then later adds it. Looks like it was sold to someone at that time and they've since put 85k on it over the course of the next 6 years. Second to last reading was imho a typo missing out the '1' but then swiftly corrected to show its current mileage.

First thing I would be doing is getting the serial off the current MoT cert and then inputting it online and looking at the car's complete MoT history and recorded mileages and seeing how that matches up with the HPi mileage report. It looks to me like it's either been clocked or it's had a new odo. Whether you can prove the seller/trader knows this already is another matter entirely.

[All that jazz]

And to add to my post above, if the stated mileage of 85k is correct then what's the car been doing for the past 7 years since early 2005 when it was already recorded with that mileage?

I'd be walking....

[threesixty360]

Well, the MOT check confirmed it.

Between Feb 2010 and Feb 2011 it lost 62k! Went from 136,000 to 74,000.

The car inside and out looked sweet, he had a BMW stamped service book confirming mileage - all looked kosher. I'm lucky I found out, the seller is gutted.

My advice to anyone looking at a car with low mileage is to do a FREE DVLA MOT history check.

[rallycross]

My 2006 bmw has done 181k miles, if someone clocked it today it would easily pass for 50k miles.

Dont go buying cars on the mileage - unless you can verfiy the mileage is correct, especially not quality german cars where 150k miles is nothing.

VOSA MOT history check is very usefull on cars over 3yrs old.
But just imagine how many are clocked before they get to their first MOT?

[Countdown]

threesixty360 said:

My advice to anyone looking at a car with low mileage is to do a FREE DVLA MOT history check.

Just to add - i think the DVLA MOT records only go back to 2006.

[Xeno]

Countdown said:

Could the 72k in April 2011 just be a keying in error (subsequently corrected to 172k)?

This.