BMW 5 series low mileage, no service history, worth a punt?

[Possum19]

I'm looking for a family wagon, that I can do 20k a year in and this looked like a reasonable price...but the dealer confirmed it has no service history.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202209089...

Worth a punt with a AA/RAC inspection prior to purchase maybe? Or am I a total fool for even considering?!

[Muzzer79]

Why risk it?

Why not just buy one that does have service history?

Plenty of 5 series' out there.....

[Earthdweller]

That car will have a very full and thorough service history .. serviced on the dot with no expense spared in the 200k miles (guess) it did Policing the roads of Lancashire

Ex Lancashire Police traffic car PO61EWV based at Blackpool



https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/207725/resp...

Edited by Earthdweller on Friday 7th October 14:58

[_Hoppers]

The steering wheel has seen more than 60k!

[anonymous-user]

Crikey, if people are going to clock cars they should at least make it a plausible number.

[Lord_Howit_Hertz]

Its a clocked cop car, which way you run from it is up to you! haha

[bennno]

Why no MOT until almost 8 years old?

[LuS1fer]

JackJarvis said:

Crikey, if people are going to clock cars they should at least make it a plausible number.

"Lovely car, I had many a comfortable ride in the back of this very car, back in the day..."

[Earthdweller]

bennno said:

Why no MOT until almost 8 years old?

Because it was a police car and they are exempt from MOT’s

[Funk]

Lord_Howit_Hertz said:

Its a clocked cop car, which way you run from it is up to you! haha

100% clocked, the 'missing history' would give the game away clearly. Be interesting to get a code reader on it, I bet it's had a 1 knocked off the front of the supposed 60,000 miles!

[Possum19]

I'm taking the general gist to be a polite no to this one...

[Earthdweller]

Possum19 said:

I'm taking the general gist to be a polite no to this one...

Well, it will have had one owner for most of its life .. a hard one, it probably doesn’t have a single original panel on it, having been crashed several times, maybe the dashboard if you’re lucky, it will have been thrashed within an inch of its life by multiple driver’s but at least the engine will be nice and loose and it will have done at least double the mileage showing on the odo ( my opinion )

But it will have been serviced regularly and properly

Would I buy it ?

Possibly having gone and looked at it VERY closely .. would I pay retail money for it ? .. not a cat in hells chance

Thrashed trashed and abused 11 year old BMW what could possibly go wrong ?

[sixor8]

Seeing as it's a dealer, it deserves reporting too.

MoT history suggests it was clocked over 4 years ago so they could claim ignorance I suppose.

Some police cars are regularly MoT tested (a lot of ex-police go through Brightwells and checking history will tell you), usually the small ones that aren't maintained by their in-house departments like the bigger vehicles.

[Sheepshanks]

The dealer's reviews are remarkably binary!

[budgie smuggler]

Earthdweller said:

That car will have a very full and thorough service history .. serviced on the dot with no expense spared in the 200k miles (guess) it did Policing the roads of Lancashire

Ex Lancashire Police traffic car PO61EWV based at Blackpool

eta- lol @ the dealers reviews, 25% 1* on autotrader and 2.3/5 on Google after they apparently cleared their profile to get rid of all the old bad reviews. Sound like a right bunch of jokers.

[TorqueDirty]

_Hoppers said:

The steering wheel has seen more than 60k!

Look at the electronic handbrake button!

[SteveR1979]

Black Wheels

Definitely clocked.

[Wilmslowboy]

Mot history suggests the owner needed the MOT station to tell them all 4 tyres were in a terrible state.


Nearside Rear Tyre has ply or cords exposed Worn through to cords (5.2.3 (d) (ii))
Offside Rear Tyre has ply or cords exposed Worn through to cords (5.2.3 (d) (ii))

Nearside Front Tyre worn close to legal limit/worn on edge Bald inner tread (5.2.3 (e))
Offside Front Tyre worn close to legal limit/worn on edge Bald inner tread (5.2.3 (e))

[W201_190e]

I wouldn’t, the engines are known for issues with timing chains (yes even the 6 cylinders, I know as we fix them) and the big two issues with that are BMW’s ridiculously flawed long life service schedules and also missing service intervals. These are engines that just don’t like to be dicked around with when it comes to servicing. Spend more and get something with full documented service history.

[Belle427]

W201_190e said:

I wouldn’t, the engines are known for issues with timing chains (yes even the 6 cylinders, I know as we fix them) and the big two issues with that are BMW’s ridiculously flawed long life service schedules and also missing service intervals. These are engines that just don’t like to be dicked around with when it comes to servicing. Spend more and get something with full documented service history.

I’m sure I read an article where they specified the police were to stop using them for this very reason.