Motorcheck ie and mileage

quad_red

Hi folks,

My sister has a 2006 Ford Focus which she bought in a private sale 2 or 3 years ago from a dealer.

A fine little car, hasn't had any big issues barring an errant wiper motor problem. It was serviced by an indie garage today and the garage told her that there was no way the mileage on the clock was accurate (120k km). Called him myself there. He seemed decent and knowledgeable and has been a mechanic for a long time. He said the mechanical wear and tear indicated significant mileage. Wouldn't/couldn't be exact but says "multiples" of the claimed figure. Now, the car is still mechanically fine but my sister paid a premium for a car with reasonably low miles. To find out it's got a large number of miles on the clock is disappointing.

Now, I got a motorcheck on the car before she bought it and it checked out. It isn't didn't show as an import, the mileage appeared to check out. The engine/chassis numbers checked out etc. From the log book it had been serviced once by a dealer and then a number of different garages.

How exactly does motorcheck establish mileage? Could it be wrong?

Thanks,
Quad

mickdw

It is most likely that there are no valid mileage records for motorcheck to work from considering it's an Irish car from new.

Superdedupity

Tbh, in 6 months of abuse, let alone 2-3yrs, someone could cause what some would deem to be excessive wear on a car. Not 100% sure of the mechanics motivations.

Can you please specify exactly what is excessively worn for the mileage? If its just a shiny gear knob and pedals, and some seat wear, that's down to driver rather than mileage:)

biko

That's 75000 miles which would be normal for the year.
That said you never know of course.

Did the mech say exactly how he could tell?

rocky

Presumably it's a diesel? A good mileage verification is calling garages in the service book to see if their records match. Before buying the car .

Bpmull

Them focus mk2 have a lot of different suspension items that wear quickly compared to other cars. Front and rear bushings track rods that kind of stuff. I had to replace a lot of them but my mechanic said that they all go at low enough mileage however if your mechanic doesn't service many of them then he may think the mileage is higher than it is. If the car is plugged into diagnostics in a main dealer would that not give proper ecu mileage.