Buying a new to me car

[Ian Parkin]

Went to look at a car today with every intention of buying it .. dealer said it hasn’t any service history recently.but that didn’t bother me too much

cars a Mercedes eclass estate reg WJ11 CYU

mileage in dealer ad says mileage is 85,000

mileage on dash says 85,000

dealer says in ad mot till march next year

checking on gov site says mot expired jan 2020

and checking history of mots ...mileage at jan 19 was 167,000

but looking further back its had more mot’s than hot dinners some years its had 6

why would this be

can one trust the gov mot site?

should i report the dealer?



having said all this the car was virtually unmarked and drove well much much better than my present car with 165,000 on the clock

 

[Uncle Benz]

Clocked to half the mileage. I’d report the dealer to trading standards. They take this sort of thing very seriously

 

[Ian Parkin]

But why would the car have had multiple mot’s in many years and in one year had 6

surely any dealer if theres a set of mot’s saying the mileage is 167,000 what would a fresh mot say?
he must be stupid to misrepresent the mileage

 

[Uncle Benz]

Could be sold a lot of times. It’s not unusual for a vendor to put a fresh mot on a car they are selling. A lot of buyers ask for it, as it gives them a year without worry and they assume the car is good if it passes.

 

[Uncle Benz]

Just looked myself. It had a few tests in 2014. Taxis need a test every six months by law. Clue there...

 

[dry run]

Unless it's really cheap and you are prepared to take a chance - walk away. There are many more of these cars for sale that won't have a dubious history!

 

[peterws1957]

Unless it's really cheap and you are prepared to take a chance - walk away. There are many more of these cars for sale that won't have a dubious history!

This exactly! Every red flag imaginable. I've never come across a car that had so many MOT's.

 

[LostKiwi]

No recent history (because that would show mileage), dodgy MOT history, mileage discrepancies from NOT history (a single MOT at a higher mileage may be a typo but several....?)

Report to trading standards and walk away. Dodgy as f*ck...

 

[malcolm E53 AMG]

As above stay well clear - it also has a safety recall due

 

[Blobcat]

 

[A.J.]

JUST WALK AWAY

 

[V6Matty]

Stop walking away RUN!!

 

[mioba]

Based on what ypu discovered OP, do you trust the seller, there is your answer.

And yes report it, get these con artists what thes deserve, its a crime. If you seen someone get mugged would you ignore it, a crimes a crime.

 

[DSK]

I've always said, its ****** hard to buy a good German car because many are heavily used, easily clocked, wear the miles well etc so the due diligence always has to be high and therefore, its well worth investing your time to be patient until you find the right car. Wrong cars are well disguised and waiting to bite those who are not diligent.

I echo what others have said, report it and find another as there's too many not be picky.