Should I walk away?

b.gud

Hi guys,

I'm looking at buying a a 2008 focus from the UK. The one I'm looking at has 63k miles. I did an MOT history check and got a copy of the service history.
The garage also sent me a copy of the hpi check for it which was all good.

In the service history there was a service 2 months before the first mot and the miles was 31k then at the mot it was 53k the next mot (1 year later) and service were on the same day and the millage was about 44k (not sure the exact figure because I don't have the pages infront of me now) the next one ( a year later) was 58k.

So at the last 2 mots and service millage were the same but there a discrepancy with the first one. The car has had just one owner, so I'm wondering is it a human error during entering the mot details or something more suspicious?

So people of boards what would you do?

pa990

if in doubt, leave it out

Ardeehey

would agree, go with your gut....there's got to be a massive number of those cars on the UK market if you let that one go

desmo58

Is that service history/ mot hand written? 53K probably is 33K.

b.gud

desmo58 wrote: »

Is that service history/ mot hand written? 53K probably is 33K.

The service history is hand written the mot is digital so I'm thinking like you that it was 33k but the user input it wrong for the mot

mickdw

31k then 33k at MOT time two months later would make sense.
44k year later
58k year after that and over 60k now at around 6 years old

It looks genuine enough

corktina

do a motorcheck, see if the details agree.

theteal

mistakes happen, a young lad in a halfords auto centre entered the completely wrong mileage for the MOT on my old car a couple years ago. I had only just passed the mistaken figure by about 100 miles when MOTing the following year. I was looking at it when trading it in a few weeks ago thinking it looked like I was up to dodginess!

b.gud

mickdw wrote: »

31k then 33k at MOT time two months later would make sense.
44k year later
58k year after that and over 60k now at around 6 years old

It looks genuine enough

That's exactly actually what I was thinking that assuming it was a typo all the other numbers really seem to add up

b.gud

corktina wrote: »

do a motorcheck, see if the details agree.

Yup planning on doing that.

pred racer

If you have to ask "should I walk away" then the answer is yes!

b.gud

Thanks to everyone for their input. I spoke to a couple of other people who have bought in a couple of cars from the UK and they seem to be of a similar opinion to a couple of you guys that it's a human error and should have been 33k on the mot.

Think I'm gonna go ahead with it pending a full check. It's one of the best examples I've come across and the dealer if very reputable.

ironclaw

Without sound smart, just curious why your importing a 6 year old Focus? They are a dime a dozen here.

corktina

in the UK the mileage is recorded officially at each MoT and a check will give you the definitive answer on whether it a typo or it has been clocked.

theteal

corktina wrote: »

in the UK the mileage is recorded officially at each MoT and a check will give you the definitive answer on whether it a typo or it has been clocked.

the officially recorded mileage in my example above was mistakenly entered by the guy at the garage, the official VOSA print out had the wrong mileage on it

b.gud

ironclaw wrote: »

Without sound smart, just curious why your importing a 6 year old Focus? They are a dime a dozen here.

I did look around here but unfortunately the 1.8 diesel zetecs are not a dime a dozen particularly not in the condition this one appears to be in

corktina

theteal wrote: »

the officially recorded mileage in my example above was mistakenly entered by the guy at the garage, the official VOSA print out had the wrong mileage on it

I'm afraid that's just an assumption. If there is any suggestion of shennanigans , walking away is the best option, particularly as when it comes to re-selling said car, then a potential new buyer is going to be suspecting the car is clocked too.