BUYERS WARNED OF CAR CLOCKING AS COUNCILS FAIL TO ACT

BUYERS WARNED OF CAR CLOCKING AS COUNCILS FAIL TO ACT

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Discussion

ReverseTriker

Original Poster:

24 posts

84 months

Tuesday 31st October 2017
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CAR BUYERS WARNED OF CAR CLOCKING RISK AS COUNCILS FAIL TO TACKLE MILEAGE TAMPERING

https://www.driving.co.uk/news/car-buyers-warned-c...


powerstroke

10,283 posts

161 months

Tuesday 31st October 2017
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In other news Bears st in woods and people rent cars on PCP and do more than the contracted milage ....

Yipper

5,964 posts

91 months

Tuesday 31st October 2017
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About 5-10% of cars are clocked and rising.

ReverseTriker

Original Poster:

24 posts

84 months

Tuesday 31st October 2017
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" there have been less than 150 prosecutions brought in the past five years, yet it is estimated that two million cars have had their mileage reduced illegally.

The newspaper submitted freedom of information requests to every council in Britain, which have responsibility for policing the crime of car clocking. The results should sound a note of caution for all used car buyers: one in five councils had not investigated a single case since 2012.

A further one in three councils has investigated less than one case a year."

powerstroke

10,283 posts

161 months

Wednesday 1st November 2017
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ReverseTriker said:
" there have been less than 150 prosecutions brought in the past five years, yet it is estimated that two million cars have had their mileage reduced illegally.

The newspaper submitted freedom of information requests to every council in Britain, which have responsibility for policing the crime of car clocking. The results should sound a note of caution for all used car buyers: one in five councils had not investigated a single case since 2012.

A further one in three councils has investigated less than one case a year."
Who do you suppose is doing the clocking ?? I don't think its car dealers, too much of a paper trail
and computer records service history ,MOT HPI , auction records etc , could it be Mr and Mrs average and would it be worth
the council and I assume you mean trading standards going for Mr Jones who has knocked 10 k off his PCP'd Golf every year so it was under the agreed milage ????

Riley Blue

20,984 posts

227 months

Wednesday 1st November 2017
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ReverseTriker said:
" there have been less than 150 prosecutions brought in the past five years, yet it is estimated that two million cars have had their mileage reduced illegally.

The newspaper submitted freedom of information requests to every council in Britain, which have responsibility for policing the crime of car clocking. The results should sound a note of caution for all used car buyers: one in five councils had not investigated a single case since 2012.

A further one in three councils has investigated less than one case a year."
I'm trying to figure out what mechanism exists for councils to be able to check, identify and enforce in instances of car clocking. They're not the vehicle licensing authority, don't keep vehicle data or carry out any checks on cars other than the taxis they license so how could they be expected to act?

powerstroke

10,283 posts

161 months

Wednesday 1st November 2017
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Riley Blue said:
ReverseTriker said:
" there have been less than 150 prosecutions brought in the past five years, yet it is estimated that two million cars have had their mileage reduced illegally.

The newspaper submitted freedom of information requests to every council in Britain, which have responsibility for policing the crime of car clocking. The results should sound a note of caution for all used car buyers: one in five councils had not investigated a single case since 2012.

A further one in three councils has investigated less than one case a year."
I'm trying to figure out what mechanism exists for councils to be able to check, identify and enforce in instances of car clocking. They're not the vehicle licensing authority, don't keep vehicle data or carry out any checks on cars other than the taxis they license so how could they be expected to act?

I think trading standards ,they would follow up a complaint of Mileage fraud back in the distant past when dealers would alter mileage before there were so many checks and records .

now its the car user who clocks they are the only people who can ...

lord trumpton

7,406 posts

127 months

Wednesday 1st November 2017
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I think the only way of stopping this is maybe to have mileage reading on cars sent automatically by a wifi signal to the dealer or lease company or some sort of central database - Live data sent out on a daily basis

powerstroke

10,283 posts

161 months

Wednesday 1st November 2017
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Yes that would be the only way ..

ReverseTriker

Original Poster:

24 posts

84 months

Wednesday 1st November 2017
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So, for example, you could not clock a Tesla, as it has Tesla monitoring its' data closely via wifi?

Does such close monitoring occur with other higher end cars ? If so, have the car manufacturers acted.

Perhaps with the pcp system , it is arguably such an unstable pack of cards , clocking is another disruptive element they want to bury

No surprise that the councils appear unfit for purpose, a similar lack of prosecution FOI revelation, recently occurred with rogue landlords and councils.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/oct/28/ro...





tortop45

434 posts

161 months

Wednesday 1st November 2017
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As i see it when you take your car in for a MOT the tester records the milage and is there to see when you come to buy a car on the MOT.The only problem is what sort of milage the car has dun up to that point which can be altered, coz you don,t need a MOT for the first 3 years.

PorkFan

292 posts

181 months

Sunday 26th November 2017
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Clocking is so easy now many people clock their cars annually just before the MOT each year

chr15b

3,467 posts

191 months

Sunday 26th November 2017
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My bmw has the total current mileage in the connected drive app, it gets updated each time I use the car. so I assume bmw must have a record of the current mileage?

snapdragon69

207 posts

184 months

Friday 15th December 2017
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Foreign taxi drivers are leasing cars as consumers and using them as taxis and have acquiantances who regularly reduce the mileage so that it is within the say 8,000 mile per year limit when they hand it back. UBER drivers are the worst as self-employed and have no reputation to uphold or assets to lose. The other group is Eastern Europeans who make regular trips across Europe, usully in older (5+years) executive class cars and then clock and sell them.

lord trumpton

7,406 posts

127 months

Friday 15th December 2017
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snapdragon69 said:
Foreign taxi drivers are leasing cars as consumers and using them as taxis and have acquiantances who regularly reduce the mileage so that it is within the say 8,000 mile per year limit when they hand it back. UBER drivers are the worst as self-employed and have no reputation to uphold or assets to lose. The other group is Eastern Europeans who make regular trips across Europe, usully in older (5+years) executive class cars and then clock and sell them.
Interesting...do you have any proof of this or source of info?

snapdragon69

207 posts

184 months

Wednesday 20th December 2017
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lord trumpton said:
Interesting...do you have any proof of this or source of info?
Yes, of course, or I wouldn't have said it.
The lease companies don't seem to care - it must be obvious due to the 6 monthly MOT starting at 1 year old.

Edited by snapdragon69 on Wednesday 20th December 22:56

bongtom

2,018 posts

84 months

Thursday 25th January 2018
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The act of clocking or reducing the mileage is not in itself illegal, which is why you get lots of "Mileage correct services" advertised. It only becomes a crime if you (the owner) sell the car and do not declare that the mileage may be incorrect, which is what traders say with that little sticker on the dash.

Most clockers do it the right way - in-between servicing it gets shaved so even if a check is done it will not show anything untoward. (Only an idiot will clock it more than the last MOT or service!

I was told (or might have read it on PH) that most franchisees will not say anything if they suspect a car has been clocked because it will be taken away from them to be inspected and they they lose money from servicing, and lose a customer. The manufacturers know it goes on but do not care. I guess the warranty repairs are less than the money made from the initial sale.
In fact I was told that the Mercedes C class (W203 IIRC) had a solid state EPROM or memory and therefore was impossible to change the mileage, without being caught with a simple check on the cars computer. Sales went down so they reverted back to the old system, which is still in use today. Not sure if it is BS mind!

I had a mate who got his clocked. The guy had about £20k of equipment in his van and proceeded to remove the cars chips (un-soldering them from the motherboard) and plugging them in to his machine. He said he only does this once to get the code (or something) and next time it would be quicker, and cheaper.
He also mentioned that he has done all cars, Lambo, Ferrari, RR etc. He said that some of the cars look like they had 500k let alone the actual 60k as they were so used and worn but others looked new and the corrected mileage would not look out of place.

Most clocked cars are never discovered because there is not a discrepancy between MOT/servicing. There is no way to tell if a car has been tampered with so I do not see how the council or manufacturers could do anything anyway.

If you buy a car without getting it checked then you're a fool!

MarkwG

4,858 posts

190 months

Thursday 25th January 2018
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bongtom said:
If you buy a car without getting it checked then you're a fool!
well, ok, but if there's no way of telling if it's been clocked between MOT &/or service, anyway, what's the point? Or do you mean a visual "does it look like a good car" check?

keith9849

97 posts

146 months

Wednesday 9th May 2018
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Councils used to have trading standards functions amongst other things. Now they don't. Their function is to collect your rates, put your kids into care, employ the unemployable, and dole out parking tickets. What is there about this that you don't understand?1

Jamaica

490 posts

55 months

Sunday 9th February 2020
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snapdragon69 said:
Foreign taxi drivers are leasing cars as consumers and using them as taxis and have acquiantances who regularly reduce the mileage so that it is within the say 8,000 mile per year limit when they hand it back. UBER drivers are the worst as self-employed and have no reputation to uphold or assets to lose. The other group is Eastern Europeans who make regular trips across Europe, usully in older (5+years) executive class cars and then clock and sell them.
They are the absolute worst tbh