How to check the miles of a used car
Search the mileage history of a car, motorcycle or light-commercial
Car clocking has continued to rise over the last 10-years, and 1 in 17 of all vehicles we check for mileage have a discrepancy.
Why clock a car?
Mileage fraud and reducing odometer readings increases perceived value; it’s the main reason so many UK vehicles suffer alteration.
See the image below that shows a recent check ran through CarVeto database. This BMW is clocked by 390,000 miles. See the impact this has on perceived value.
Check Mileage Fraud
Suspicious readings produce a warning status in your report
(post 2005 vehicles over 3-years old)
Mercedes C Class with 451,000 miles
The same Mercedes C Class that is clocked to only 60,000 miles
Is there a way of protecting my money with a robust background check?
The majority of UK motorists will identify this car as illegitimate.
CarVeto history checks instantly flag this type of vehicle via a car mileage check system (see the orange ‘check warning’ banner).
But, some motorists buy without running background checks and fall into the trap of owning a vehicle that has suffered significant, illegal alterations.
Included with each CarVeto Gold check
- Write-off
- Theft/stolen
- Vehicle check (including dates of change & previous vrms)
- Colour changes
- VIC inspection
- Import/export
- askMID insurance database check
- Registered near (useful when buying privately)
- vehicle mileage check
- 20+ background checks
Each report is delivered instantly for download. We recommend adding the report to vehicle service history.
Mileage check result from CarVeto
What is the difference between mileage clocking versus mileage alteration?
There are instances where an odometer becomes faulty and irreparable. This forces the car owner to have it replaced.
These cases are perfectly legitimate and are usually carried out by the supplying, franchised dealer or approved manufacturer repair centre.
In these circumstances, a CarVeto mileage check will still highlight the discrepancy and flag the car with a Warning status i.e ‘do not buy the car before carrying out some additional checks’.
What must I expect with a genuine mileage replacement?
- Full documentation of the replacement parts including the date, mileage and technician who carried out the work.
- Confirm if the milometer was reset to zero at the time of replacement. This is usually the case, but not always. It depends on the vehicle type and repair centre that carried out the work.
Are there other considerations when buying this type of car?
Genuine milometers are a deterrent to buying and our rule of them is to opt for a different vehicle. However, if you remain interested in buying the car, ensure all the documentation is in place prior to purchase. Try to get as much information as you can about the replacement parts and what caused the car to suffer this type of issue.
Consider the difficulty you may encounter should you wish to sell the car on in future as mileage discrepancies last the life of the vehicle. Any free car check will flag up a marker likely to put off a potential buyer.
What about MOT technician human error?
Testers make mistakes and we have countless logs of car mileage having been added incorrectly at the time of MOT testing. This causes lots of issues as CarVeto will flag a mileage problem.
The only way to sort out this issue is returning the car to the MOT test centre and asking that the mistake be corrected on the MOT check DVLA database.
Are you concerned about mileage tampering?
Check the video
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The team, CarVeto.