Mileage rollbacks: A growing problem?

[-crookedtail-]

How rife is this now? I’d argue it’s more common than ever with the amount of rollback/correction services available.

I had a look at a car listed by a dealer on AT, a 335d touring. Something didn’t add up with the mileage:

- Dealer’s info claims the service history and last MOT in October shows 86k miles
- But the dealers own linked video, recorded and uploaded on 8th Sept (date visible on the car’s dashboard), clearly shows around 95k miles
-Then the dealer photo of the same dashboard on 28th Sept (Cars dashboard) mysteriously shows 86k miles

So in the space of three weeks, the car somehow lost nearly 9,000 miles.
This isn’t a case of estimated mileage or misreading, it’s the same dashboard, same trip computer layout, same car.

That’s a massive red flag for a rollback, especially when they’re using the lower figure in the listing and leaning on the MOT entry that matches it. It’s relatively high mileage either way so why bother?

Conclusion: I’m staying well away from this one. If the air fresheners didn’t put me off, this certainly does as they’re willing to fudge mileage this blatantly, I don’t trust anything else about the car or the seller.

It was obvious in this case to anyone with a tiny amount of attention to detail, but what other (less obvious) signs do you look for to spot this?

It seems with mileage restricted leases this must go on all the time

[pb8g09]

I test drove a BMW 330d once from an actual BMW franchise that claimed 40k miles but had all the wear on the bolsters and steering wheel of a 100k car. Sure enough the MoT history said so too...

[ZX10R NIN]

It's not a growing problem but it's an issue, always buy on condition & do your checks.

[drdino]

It's an interesting one, just looked at the ad. Why go for a haircut and only take <10k miles off?

[Uncle Meat]

^ to take it back to the last MOT. But did it really do 9000 miles since then in just over a month?

[mmm-five]

I thought the more common mileage scam were the current crop of mileage blockers on leased/PCP vehicles to avoid excess mileage charges and/or maintain the agreed future value?

[BlackStang5point0]

Uncle Meat said:

^ to take it back to the last MOT. But did it really do 9000 miles since then in just over a month?

No read it again. Vid taken early Sept shows 95k miles. Pic taken later on in Sept shows 86k miles as does the last MOT from early Oct.

I rather suspect the dealer has given it a haircut before its Oct MOT as its true mileage is a bit close to the magical 100k.

For info the 2024 MOT has the mileage at 84k miles so 'plausable' had he not failed to cover his tracks in the video. Rather naughty me thinks.

[Hippea]

pb8g09 said:

I test drove a BMW 330d once from an actual BMW franchise that claimed 40k miles but had all the wear on the bolsters and steering wheel of a 100k car. Sure enough the MoT history said so too...

I test drove a approved used M140i from a BMW dealer a few years back with 30k, could tell it was at least double that when I got in it, a few other things didn't add up as well. Sure enough it had been clocked and it was pulled from sale

[aterribleusername]

Mileage blockers are rife within the leasing fraternity who only pay for 5000 miles but do a lot more. My nephews friends are at the age where they can get a decent car on lease and they almost all use blockers so they can drive all over the place and not worry about it. One has one on a Seat Ibiza FR and it only increments 1 mile for every 5 so someone could be buying a 15k miles car after 3 years but it's actually done 75k and due some big bills. To give the guy credit though he does change the oil a the 'right' miles but no receipts etc as it's done on the drive.

[Hippea]

aterribleusername said:

Mileage blockers are rife within the leasing fraternity who only pay for 5000 miles but do a lot more. My nephews friends are at the age where they can get a decent car on lease and they almost all use blockers so they can drive all over the place and not worry about it. One has one on a Seat Ibiza FR and it only increments 1 mile for every 5 so someone could be buying a 15k miles car after 3 years but it's actually done 75k and due some big bills. To give the guy credit though he does change the oil a the 'right' miles but no receipts etc as it's done on the drive.

Educate the uneducated, is that legal?

[Trevor555]

-crookedtail- said:

How rife is this now?

Pretty common still.

I still do a bit of inspection/buying for local dealers, and I, and they, come accross a few.

Not always obvious from the interior, more likely to tell by looking at the engine, as it diss colours over use.

[mikeyr]

Hippea said:

Educate the uneducated, is that legal?

Unethical too. Anyway...

FROM RAC WEBSITE:
When it comes to the use of mileage blockers, it is not illegal to alter the data on a vehicle in the UK.

However, under UK law it is illegal to not disclose any known mileage discrepancies when you are selling a vehicle or providing official documents at an MOT or service.

Also, citizens can be arrested for mileage fraud under the Consumer Regulation Act.

[Hugo Stiglitz]

Mileage blockers - whenever you see a nice exec car that's a taxi.... check out its mot history.

[Dave Hedgehog]

going to be a lot more common when the pay per mile EV tax comes into place

[ZX10R NIN]

Dave Hedgehog said:

going to be a lot more common when the pay per mile EV tax comes into place

That's why a duty on electricity makes more sense than by the mile as you pay for your usage rather than by the mile.

[Trevor555]

Dave Hedgehog said:

going to be a lot more common when the pay per mile EV tax comes into place

That was my first thought when I heard about it.

I thought all these smart motorways would eventually become toll roads, using the ANPR to capture usage?

May well be on top of any other charges I guess.

[Dog Biscuit]

Hugo Stiglitz said:

Mileage blockers - whenever you see a nice exec car that's a taxi.... check out its mot history.

Yeah sub 3 year old Corolla and Prius are worth a bit of extra checking for sure.

[samoht]

Hippea said:

Educate the uneducated, is that legal?

Fraud includes "dishonestly making a false representation with a view to gain".

So you can make your own car display any mileage you like.

However if you sell it to someone and gain a higher price by deceiving them that the mileage is lower than it truly is, that's fraud and hence illegal.

I assume a similar argument applies to handing back a lease car.

[Its Just Adz]

It's always happened, at all levels.
Even the top end dealers sell cars with a haircut