Suspect One Owners & Low Mileage Cars

ironclaw · 02-03-2016 9:16am #1

I've been looking at a few cars on behalf of a colleague recently and a lot of them are being sold as 'one owner' cars with usually suspicious low mileage. Two of them were missing there service books or the service book had been replaced by a new one with a single stamp a few thousand km's ago. Mileage wise, they are as low as 35k miles, when the average for other cars would be closer to 90km. Visually the cars were ragged, interior showing a much harder life and often with engine fault codes or clear signs of much higher mileage.

We're talking cars from 2007/2008, so the fact its a one owner is suspect enough but have I just been unlucky in finding these dodgy lemons or is there a new scam on the rise?

Henry Ford III · 02-03-2016 11:43am

Hard to say.

If a cars condition and service history (verified independently) all tally up there's no reason not to believe it.

Trying to sell mutton dressed as lamb is not a new idea.

Atlantic Dawn · 02-03-2016 11:44am

Were they 1 owner cars? Did you contact the first owner or verify any history?

bazz26 · 02-03-2016 1:16pm

Your average joe mainly judges a car in their head by the mileage on the clock and least number of owners. So these are cars advertised they seek out. Arthur Daley type chancers know this and basically describe to people what they want to hear.

Also on a smaller scale, there are people out there that are very hard or abusive to their cars and the car may well be one owner with low mileage but has still had a very hard life.

colm_mcm · 02-03-2016 3:37pm

a car that's used for loads of little journeys every day where everyone's getting in and out will have a harder life than one that's doing a motorway commute every day.
I wouldn't seek out cars purely based on having tiny mileage

ironclaw · 03-03-2016 8:58am

Thanks everyone. I'm not in the market myself and look at a lot of cars on behalf of people, but these had me thrown as the overall condition was not indicative of one owner or the mileage tallied. Then again, as you said, it could have been flung around for short distances every day of its life.

idnkph · 03-03-2016 9:08am

Surely someone selling a car has the log book to hand which clearly indicates the amount of owners?! If they describe it as one owner then it's easily checked off log book. If they are lying you walk away. ....

ironclaw · 03-03-2016 9:16am

idnkph wrote: »

Surely someone selling a car has the log book to hand which clearly indicates the amount of owners?! If they describe it as one owner then it's easily checked off log book. If they are lying you walk away. ....

Exactly. My initial thoughts were a fake log book or crafty edit, but of the two, one had its logbook that I could see and it appeared to be in order.

Suspect One Owners & Low Mileage Cars

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