Unexpected Stamp in Service Book

[Ron99]

I looked at a two-year-old car today at a car supermarket.

In the service book there was a stamp (not a service stamp) which said the following:

Europcar Buyback
Sensible Automotive
Henstridge Airfield
Henstridge
Somerset
BA80TN

Car was obtained by supermarket from a main dealer. Previous owner had it for a year and did 3k (diesel!). Not sure of first owner, but they apparently only did 3k in it too. One stamp in service book; main dealer. Second stamp will be from car supermarket when they sell the car.

Am I being paranoid or is the car probably a clocked ex-rental car?

Thanks,
Ron

Edited by Ron99 on Tuesday 26th February 18:46

[Paul Dishman]

Sounds more like an ex-rental

[Jamescrs]

Definitely sounds an ex rental don't see any other reason europcar would have a stamp in it unless it's been in their hands at some time

[Ron99]

Thanks.

(I meant to say ex-hire or ex-rental car with 'mileage correction' - I'll edit in a moment)

[Summit_Detailing]

BCA have a facility at Henstridge so more than likely the car has gone there once off-hire from Europcar.

cheers,

Chris

[Wooda80]

The car is almost certainly ex-rental, given the Europcar stamp. Do I understand from the your original post that the car has had another owner since the rental company?

What makes you think that it has been clocked?

[Ron99]

Wooda80 said:

The car is almost certainly ex-rental, given the Europcar stamp. Do I understand from the your original post that the car has had another owner since the rental company?

What makes you think that it has been clocked?

Car is two years old and has two previous owners. The most recent was a private individual. Prior to that I don't know but I'm guessing a rental company.

The car only has 6k on the clock, 3k in each year. I could believe that's why the private individual got rid (3k in a DPF-diesel in a year is likely to be unsuitable) but an ex-rental that only did 3k in its first year leaves me suspicious.
I've been led to believe that it's now standard practice that rental companies to carry out 'mileage adjustment' before selling their cars on.

This particular car was part-ex'd to a main dealer, but it ended up at the car supermarket. It's unusual for main dealers to auction-off decent stock when it could be sold on their forecourt under an approved used scheme. The car supermarket actually informed me the car has just been fitted with a new ECU due to a problem they found.

So I wonder why the main dealer didn't want it, why it did so few recorded miles with its first owner, and what the new ECU has to do with any of its past.

[Jonnny]

Could have been a Fleet pool car.. So not many miles?

Wrong service book?

[Pistonheader101]

Fairly normal