C270-hidden mileage.

[chris0161]

I bought a low mileage (30,000 miles) '04 C270 cdi. A couple of things i wanted to know about the car so i contacted the previous owner. He has just replied and told me that when he P/Ex'd it it had 23,000 miles on it.

He didn't say when he traded it in so i'm getting back in touch to try and find out.

Is it common practice for dealers to clock up so many miles using the car as their own personal transport without changing the paperwork over, if in fact that's what's happened?

He also states that at 22,000 miles he had the front pads replaced, i have the car booked in for next week to have the discs and pads replaced as the discs seem to have been destroyed by the pads that were fitted. Is it normal to need new discs at around 30,000 miles, or would it be more likely that the wrong (too hard) pads were fitted?

I know driving style and conditions make a difference but has anyone else experienced similar?

Thanks for any useful info on any of the above.

chris

 

[television]

As the owner of the car the dealer can do what he likes with it,,at least it has not been clocked.

30k is about right for the front disc,,but again it depends on how the car has been driven, some get more, others a little less

 

[gre1591]

I thought there was an unwritten law somewhere that says dealers only run cars until they use up all the fuel in the tank supplied at trade in time ! certainly I have never test driven a second hand car without a fuel gauge on empty that requires a top up of maybe a gallon (if your lucky) for a test drive .At a recent test drive in a £20 k Merc at the main dealers I encountered this phenomena yet again and offered cash out of my pocket money to fill er up a bit so we could have a decent run out in it! Seems pretty standard throughout the industry!

 

[discoking]

I thought there was an unwritten law somewhere that says dealers only run cars until they use up all the fuel in the tank supplied at trade in time ! certainly I have never test driven a second hand car without a fuel gauge on empty that requires a top up of maybe a gallon (if your lucky) for a test drive .At a recent test drive in a £20 k Merc at the main dealers I encountered this phenomena yet again and offered cash out of my pocket money to fill er up a bit so we could have a decent run out in it! Seems pretty standard throughout the industry!

The dealer owner may have used it,given it to his wife to use(common),let one of his salesmen use it as smoker...could be anything but nothing untoward at all about that.

As for the fuel thing take me as an example I have over 90 cars in stock and it's just not economicaly viable to fill each car with even a £10 of fuel. Fuel goes in as and when needed tho when a customer buys a car fuel is put in usually £10,if it need it.

 

[gre1591]

What a lovely unexpected explanation!

 

[Rory]

At a recent test drive in a £20 k Merc at the main dealers I encountered this phenomena yet again and offered cash out of my pocket money to fill er up a bit so we could have a decent run out in it!

Exactly the same happened to me when I bought my current car from MB Direct - and mine was being used by a salesman! It had absolutely no fuel in it and the salesman with me had "forgotten" his wallet!! I used my company fuel card to put fuel in without thinking and expected a rocket but no-one seemed to notice.

In the OP's case, I can only think that because the mileage was exceptionally low (why did someone buy a diesel and then only do 23K in 5yrs??) they thought it wouldn't make any difference to stick 7K on it.

 

[stuartmac]

Hi Chris,

Is it common practice for dealers to clock up so many miles using the car as their own personal transport without changing the paperwork over,

While it isn't common practice, if you're a registered 'motor trader', you don't have to 'change the paperwork over' - in fact, a vehicle can pass through several traders' hands without the last 'Registered Keeper' changing at all - stops the 'Number of Former Keepers' count on the V5 clocking up. Justin's explanation is probably correct.

Hth.

Regards,

 

[chris0161]

Exactly the same happened to me when I bought my current car from MB Direct - and mine was being used by a salesman! It had absolutely no fuel in it and the salesman with me had "forgotten" his wallet!! I used my company fuel card to put fuel in without thinking and expected a rocket but no-one seemed to notice.

In the OP's case, I can only think that because the mileage was exceptionally low (why did someone buy a diesel and then only do 23K in 5yrs??) they thought it wouldn't make any difference to stick 7K on it.

My thoughts when i bought it, (although by then it had 30,000 miles on it, still quite low) still, i'm not complaining. Is it just that diesels are becoming that popular that they are becoming the first choice of low mileage drivers as well as motorway sluggers.