clocked cars

C_Breeze

how can you tell if a cars mileage has been altered.
i know to look for worn seats and shiny wheels, service booklet etc. but is there a technical way to check it??

my dad bought a Mercedes C class and it reads around 60,000 miles

its a 2001 , and there is mild wear on the driver seat (its grey leather).

is that avg miles for a car that yr?

Is there anyway to check it and be 100% sure?

Tipsy Mac

Depends really. An average car does around 10-12k miles a year. I think some of the newer cars with digital speedo can be hooked up in a main dealers with some diagnostics tool and it will tell if the original milage has been changed (there's probably some crack for this now too). Contacting the previous owner would be another option, I think for €5 you at the Motor Taxation Office you can found out who previously owned the car.

Squirrel

If it was serviced at a dealer ask them to check their records, and they should match up with the NCT which it should have from last year

andyeire

Ring mercedes they usually have a full service record on all cars that have been serviced within the merc network.Or the dealer who sold it new should be able to give the first 3 years at least .Who is going to buy a merc and not service it at dealer for at least first few years.

C_Breeze

not so easy , the merc is LHD and was first bought in Luxembourg ( my dad is foreign) ..so no way to check NCT, service, dealer etc.

andyeire

Ring them in Luxemborg you will almost definately get somebody who speaks english.I know that merc here can look at service history of a car originaly sold in the UK.

Integra

Your local Merc dealer can check that out for you by connecting the car up to diagnostics..... Any time its connected up and verfied, the info is sent to the manufacturer... I know this is the case for Audi so I assume Merc would be the same

Guy:Incognito

Integra wrote:

Your local Merc dealer can check that out for you by connecting the car up to diagnostics..... Any time its connected up and verfied, the info is sent to the manufacturer... I know this is the case for Audi so I assume Merc would be the same

I know it's prbably unworkable and maufacturers wouldnt be interested, but the should all have details uploaded from their dealers, then if they get a car with details that are wrong (two uploads, with the latwer have a lower mileage) they should be able to notify the vehicle liencing people wo could then put a permenant note on the vlcso that any potential buyer would be aware.

colm_mcm

would it not have made sense to look for this before the car was bought?

stratos

It's a tricky one. The car as a whole should tell you if it's been clocked.
A worn seat on it's own may mean nothing, the driver may have kept keys or coins in his pocket.
An indicator I like is the brake disc wear. but really it's the feel and look of the car a high milage car will be loose and feel worn.
It's so easy to clock cars now I just ignore the mileometer, give it a good drive checking for 2nd easy selection and rocking it in first gear on the clutch to feel driveline wear, and the myriad of other usefull tests.