Has my LCRs mileage been tampered with?...

[DOLBY]

Ok so i have a 55 plate LCR which i bought in august 2006 with 3300 miles on the clock. The car cost me £15995. The car was purchased in St.Albans at a well known dealership.

Thats the details over with, now i just got back from my friends house who just ran through a diagnostic check on my car using a program called 'magic dash' http://www.magicdash.com/ he checked the mileage (the true mileage) which came up 65000 km which works out to be around 40000 miles. On my clock is 28k.

Im really hoping the dealership in St. Albans didnt fiddle with the clock, as it should of been reading 15000 miles when i bought it, and bearing in mind it was 8 months old when i got it, seems to be huge mileage in such a short space of time.

Has anyone in my area got vagcom so i can double check the true mileage? or doesnt vagcom do this?....i will be pursuing this thouroughly as obviously the car would of been worth at least a grand cheaper than i paid for it, and i will be getting compensation for it...

hope someone can help...

 

[DOLBY]

can anyone give any advice to this?

 

[Mully]

get yourself onto hpi and do an experian check, not sure on price but this will bring up information about everytime a check has been done, i was gunna take a car in part ex and it had 80k on the clock, when i checked using hpi's experian check it had 80k on the year before when a main dealer serviced it, i would deffo give it a try

 

[LEE69]

vag-tacho does this but it reads the geuine mileage on the ECU, just like magic dash does (by the sounds of it)
Maybe your ECU went faulty and they installed a spare?

 

[DOLBY]

thanks guys, so magic dash is a good reference and not some 'ebay cheapo' gadget?....really hope it hasnt been clocked tho

 

[Mully]

this is took of the hpi website;

National Mileage Register
The HPI Check uses the database of the National Mileage Register to search around 125 million records. It provides the best intelligence available to protect against clocking and will help you decide whether the car that's showing a mileage of 32,000 may have actually covered 132,000 miles.

 

[DOLBY]

excuse me for being dumb, but how is this done?...it was only a few months old when i got it so it wasnt an old car....

 

[m0rk]

it can't be checked on HPI, that's daft.

What happens most of the time is that people who do big miles will pick up a car, rack up their regular mileage & clock the car down & chop it in for the next one.

I wouldn't loose sleep over it, worst case it's +10k or so. and totally unprovable. Just get the cambelt change in early

 

[DOLBY]

im just wondering how all this worked that is all. I have to disagree mork, it is definately provable. I brought the car on 3300 miles from a dealership, serviced it at 9k, then 20k. these will both be in the service book.
if it has been checked with at least 2 differnt programs giving virtually the same miles or kms, and the dealership sold it at 3300 miles, with conflicting evidence of regular servicing then i have a good case im sure

 

[m0rk]

How is using some third party software proving that you haven't tampered with it?

 

[DOLBY]

well like i say, i have service receipts stamped at tts bedford, and the mileage when it left the showroom

 

[Cupra Kev]

I thought this was something the new computerised MOT system was meant to help with (though there are ways around it)

Supposedly, as it's now computerised and the mileage recorded at each MOT then discrepancies in mileage will be fairly obvious.

The caveats I can see to this is:
- Clocking done before computerised MOT (and old paper MOT certificates conveniently "lost")
- Car sold to garage before 1st MOT (ie <3 years old) who then tamper with mileage - although as long as it's got dealer history then you should be able to check the mileage at each service with the dealer that did the servicing.

Saying that, if they're going to tamper with the odometer, then the service history is going to get lost or "updated" as well - might be an idea to give SEAT Customer Service a ring and see if they have records of any main dealer servicing done on your car along with mileages, or if any warranty work has been done on the car and where

Failing that, see what area the previous owner on the log book was from and ring a couple of local dealers to see if they serviced it.

These are just thoughts off the top of my head - not saying any of this is actually possible or will give you the answers you want

 

[DOLBY]

the first owner was seat uk...

 

[Cupra Kev]

the first owner was seat uk...

Have you written/phoned SEAT to see if they have any records of the servicing/mileage on the car - I'd imagine if it was a dealer or fleet car then there should be good records kept (just wondering if or how the DPA will affect this and what SEAT can/can't say regarding it?)

 

[m0rk]

Have you written/phoned SEAT to see if they have any records of the servicing/mileage on the car - I'd imagine if it was a dealer or fleet car then there should be good records kept (just wondering if or how the DPA will affect this and what SEAT can/can't say regarding it?)

How many services will a 3300mile car need?

It'll either be ex-press, or a company car, or a lease car (to an employee). And won't have been serviced before DOLBY bought it (I imagine)

It's impossible to prove that anything was done prior to him receiving the car.

But it assumes that the software you've used is correct too though.... is it still incrementing from the time you initially read it?

 

[Cupra Kev]

Well if the clock has been tampered with (playing devils advocate) then it should have been on 15k miles when he bought it (from the first post), and should have had at least 1 service done

 

[DOLBY]

well when i bought the car it was serviced a month earlier....then i had it serviced a month later just to make sure formy own piece of mind. (so it was serviced alot lol)....

well mork, this is why i asked the question if anyone has vagcom in my area so i can check the true mileage as the more evidence is better, just 1 program is not enough for it to go to court. im just inthe process of following this all up, because looking back i had alot of problems that a 3300 car shouldnt of had i.e creaking front suspension, knocking from front etc)

 

[LEE69]

You need vag tacho not vag com, to read the mileage on the ECU (and to change the dash if you would need too)

 

[DOLBY]

oh ok cheers lee...how much is the program?

 

[LEE69]

£20 ish of ebay with the disc.