True mileage of some vehicles being hidden from used car buyers
Posted by Richard Sinclair
Used car buyers may come across potentially dangerous features such as broken car bulbs in the vehicles they look at, but another real threat that still exists is clocking.
Dealers are winding back the mileage clock of vehicles so that they can charge customers hundreds, or even thousands, of pounds more than the cars are worth, according to HPI.
A mileage discrepancy is found in eight out of every 100 vehicles checked by HPI, with modern digital odometers making it even easier for clocking to take place.
Nicola Johnson, consumer services manager at HPI, said: "Our analysis shows that clockers are avoiding the high end vehicles and concentrating on the every day vehicles."
She went on to say that clocked vehicles "may also represent a safety concern", as they could have also missed important services, which, potentially, makes them unreliable and un-roadworthy.
In December 2009, HPI announced that unsuspecting motorists were buying vehicles that had been written off by insurers.
