Motoring Bargains; Buyer Beware?

[ernieh]

OK guys, these two cars are for sale at a garage in Fife; what do you think? (I've already checked the MOT History and I won't be buying either of them!)

FE59LSN - Audi
SO61ONF - MB C Class

Ernie

 

[Blobcat]

Link to the cars would be useful...

Lost a few miles has the audi, what's up with the Merc (apart from no MOT and lack of maintenance (probably because of the low miles))

 

[ernieh]

Here you go:

www.alistairbuchan.co.uk/used-cars/audi-a8-3-0-tdi-sport-lwb-saloon-quattro-4dr-east-wemyss-201904076715108
www.alistairbuchan.co.uk/used-cars/mercedes-benz-c-class-edition-unlisted-east-wemyss-201905188099728

Yes, the Audi has lost 40k somewhere.
What struck me about the Merc was that previous MOTs were clear and then there was this list all within a year. Maybe rescued from the Forth in a past life!

Ernie

 

[Blobcat]

Here you go:

Audi A8

Mercedes C220CDI

Yes, the Audi has lost 40k somewhere.
What struck me about the Merc was that previous MOTs were clear and then there was this list all within a year. Maybe rescued from the Forth in a past life!

Ernie

With the Merc it looks like a change of owner (or change of usage) from 2018/19 as the mileage has gone up significantly from previous years. What it's failed on is basic maintenance items
Low miles does not necessarily equal a good car - could have been sat parked up by the coast rusting away nicely with the sea air

Audi looks well dodgy with a duplicate service book with random stamps that don't line up with the MOT history...

 

[Yugguy]

If you looked at the history of cars we've owned there have been a couple of cars where mileage has gone from 13k to 2k, and from 2k-10k. It can happen.

 

[mercmancdi]

Or in my case the mot marked my km
as mls and refused to change it and with biggish mls it made quite a difference.

 

[Bogus]

If you looked at the history of cars we've owned there have been a couple of cars where mileage has gone from 13k to 2k, and from 2k-10k. It can happen.

The mot history website can suffer from bad info input. My sons car was due in may, he went on the site for the date, and site said it was due in september, and had a mileage significantly below his. Further research showed the-test was done in Birmingham, when car had never been south of selkirk. He phoned in to alert them, but that test info is still there along with its new may test, which of course shows a starship leap in mileage.

 

[Flyinspanner]

Wife’s car suffered wrong mileage input on the first MOT, the trip meter was on display, (4000miles ish) and they entered 40,000 miles. When it has only done 15k ish miles.

Numpties apparently couldn’t amend it.......

 

[A.J.]

Just a small thing on the MB, the wheels in the picture gallery are not the wheels that are shown on the car

 

[Blobcat]

Just a small thing on the MB, the wheels in the picture gallery are not the wheels that are shown on the car

They’re off a ford ranger or some other ford 4x4 thing

 

[ernieh]

The mot history website can suffer from bad info input. My sons car was due in may, he went on the site for the date, and site said it was due in september, and had a mileage significantly below his. Further research showed the-test was done in Birmingham, when car had never been south of selkirk. He phoned in to alert them, but that test info is still there along with its new may test, which of course shows a starship leap in mileage.

You're absolutely right, of course; like all computer systems, these can suffer from the GIGO Syndrome. (Garbage In; Garbage Out)

Nevertheless, taken with other available information, MOT History can help in making a decision on whether to view such a vehicle or not. Personally, I would give both of these a pass, the Audi because of the mileage discrepancies and the duplicate service history and the MB because I wouldn't trust a garage to correct all the faults picked up on MOT.

Ernie

 

[DSK]

Hmm.

Modern cars can still be and are clocked. High milers bought, clocked and re-marketed as low mileage examples.

With regards to the discrepancies of posters above, whose own cars are showing incorrect information, I wonder if this could be down to cloned number plates?

 

[Conor]

Agreed about user error.. On my last car the odometer readings in the service book were all wrong. mls/kms/mls.. it would appear the mechanic just read off the odometer and pay attention to the units.

I imagine the same think could happen in an MOT scenario.