Willoughby

Few years ago I sold a 3 years old car that I bought at BCA with warrantied mileage. About 2 years later turned out it had been chipped to adjust the mileage. Unfortunately its not just the issue of sorting the customer out (who in my case couldn't have been any more understanding - and in the end wanted to keep the car) The bigger worry is that if you end up with a car that you know has been clocked - you'll need to draw the attention of this to any prospective buyer ......which is a bit like saying it was a damaged and repaired.... I'd just try and have a conversation with the bloke you bought it from and try to come to some sort of reasonable agreement, if he won't play ball then I think you are stuck with the problem - I'd then price it accordingly, be 100% up front with enquiries and get rid and move on.... I feel your pain..

I've not seen the Chinese stuff in the flesh yet, but don't expect there to be a lot wrong with it, you'll get a long warranty, lots of gadgets and a big saving on the European stuff ......ok might not have the badge, or the so called "driving experience" but with the groups loosing out on the transition to Agency model sales they'll be glad of the profit opportunity and will jump on board and will push these new brands hard...

'bout 12 months ago sold a van to a a trader with an irish accent and a van full of tarmac, was already in the trade - so just photocopied V5 and gave him the lot - 6 months later had a letter from the plod with a photo of it going through a redlight and a summons.......So I assume he'd not registered it in his name, it also wasn't taxed ....... so I just returned summons with a copy of the bill of sale .... I half expected something from the DVLA but haven't heard any more - so just keep a paper trail, can't see you can do anything else...

After more problems car only went back to customer last week, so last week got the EZS with the chip on but doesn't really help as its just a circuit board covered in tape... have taken some legal advice which was basically that assuming I could overcome the fact that the car was purchased some years ago well outside any auction claim period, I would need to prove that the mileage on the car was missrepresented at the time of my purchase. Which I am unable to do as it doesn't have much if any service history prior to my purchase, and the problem was caused well before it ever saw an MOT. This raises the question of how can mileage be warrantied if a car doesn't have a correctly documented history? as I bought the car for the mrs to use I didn't really think much about this at the time - I suppose if I had raised it at that point - things could have been different - A big lesson learned. I did get a bit of discount from Merc for the job, and the customer is happy so from where I sit now I think it could have been massively worse . . . . suppose its the 1 on 100 that's a nightmare....

Car should be fixed today and back to customer, then will get my hands on the ECU you never know under the tape it might show some information that could be helpful ...... I'll then have just about as much info as I can gather and will then give it my best shot with BCA and Mercedes. Will let you know....

Thanks for all your advice and info guys...car is W205, C220. As you can see its a dogs breakfast.....Merc still say not possible to find any dates or mileage changes in other module, have now spoken to 4 or 5 good Merc Indies and couple of companies who fix and decode ECU's and my key guy all think its unlikely they can do much. When I get the thing back and take the tape off it might just open up some other possibilities - I've told them to get the car fixed and back on the road to keep customer happy. Then gather the best evidence to see what Merc and BCA say.

Same as everyone else, did speak to them eventually - basically if it has to be manually processed its just in a pile, eventually gets done - but you just have to wait....they won't do anything other than tell you to wait....

Now spoken with Mech at Merc, seems the device was soldered onto the EZS and then wrapped in black tape - real botch - problem remains that neither he or Merc Tech dept think their is any way to establish either the real mileage or find when it was fitted, without that think its going to be an uphill struggle with Merc and BCA particularly as it was bought years ago - not yet given up though.....More you look into it on the Net there's a shedload of people out their making a full time living at doing it... With quite a few happy to show all the top end cars they're doing - it really is an eye opener. And with the move towards online auctions with no viewing - chances of spotting a wrong'en are diminishing further.....will keep you informed..

No problem.....I use a very good Indie.....I'm still awaiting the report from the main dealer - really am hoping they give a date when it was corrected as I now have the invoice for the sat nav work and replacement of Control unit etc... will let you know how i get on...

I'll dig the invoice out which will have it on. Do you think I should speak with the dealer and tell them about the sat-nav update etc ........or is it likely they might then tray and cover their tracks.........at the moment car is with the dealer and I'm awaiting them producing a summary of the problem and hopefully a date when the discrepancy occurred......

Hi Dave... This is very interesting About a month before I sold the car to my customer I had the sat nav completely pack up. .........The car was about a month out of warranty and I took it into my Merc Main dealer. First they said it migh just want a software update, then it needed a head unit (I think), they fitted this and then rang to say the new head unit wasn't compatible with the Sat nav software in the car and I had to buy the latest sat nav upgrade for it to work....cost me about £1800 in total and they had the car about a month. Do you think the problem could be to do with this..... Look forward to hearing from you...

Fortunately customer is "on side" I've dealt with him for years and appreciates I'm stuck in the middle. If under any circumstances things started to get difficult I'd just refund him and buy it back to take any heat out of the situation. Defo' got my fingers crossed the dealer can say when the odo was changed from looking at the cars diagnostics - if it's something fitted into the loom i'm told it may not be possible to track when it was done which really is the worst case for me. Found a copy of the Auction listing sheet, which under service history info stated: "Service history info: 03/12/15:None:1" looking at this I suspect it refers to service date, mileage (None) and 1st service - at this date the car would have been 12 months old.... Don't think it came with a service book or printout.......but car was sold as warrantied mileage.

Bought an 18 month old Merc estate with 18,000 miles in a BCA Mercedes Assured sale with warrantied mileage back in April 2016 (think the sale was Mercedes Finance) , my wife actually ran the car for just over 12 months and then I sold it just over a year ago. The guy who now has it had some problem with it and took it into a Main dealer. As part of the fix they have tried to update the software in the ECU. They have told the owner that the car has had a mileage correction done and the software upgrade has now corrupted the ECU and the car can't be started - its basically dead. Needs new ECU and programming at a cost of £2500! The current owner is someone who I've dealt with before and is 100% straight, so I can only assume the clocking was done by the previous owner before it went to BCA and I bought it. I've asked the owner to try and find out from the Merc dealer if they can tell him when the mileage was changed.......which should confirm it was before I bought it. The guy is very happy with the car (but clearly not the current situation) - so i'm not yet in a position where he saying take it back and refund me.....If he ends up with the car fixed and assuming he gets some recompense for the extra miles (although don't know how many yet) I think he will still keep it.... Assuming they confirm it was changed before I bought the car.... any advice on best course of action.......do I fix it and then go after BCA for the repair and an allowance for the extra miles, or do I tell them it wasn't as described and somehow get them to take it back? Has anyone had anything similar....... What a nightmare!

With the sort of thing we do, we regularly get cherished plates on cars and have a list on my wall of about 1/2 dozen decent ones that we have for sale........problem is we've had them for years and years, there are quite a few companies out there that will advertise and sell your reg on a no sale no fee but there are litterally thousands out there for sale...so unless its a real good'en i'd leave it on the car and tell the buyer its worth a few hundred quid but that you'll thow it for the asking price.....

Just bought a car in auction from Finance Co due to owner going bust. Auction only had the green slip and the keys. I see online that its already sorned. Would prefer not to apply for a V5 as its a 1 owner car..... I assume I can drop the first digit on the green slip doc ref number to put new keepers details in online when I sell it.....and they use the Green slip ref no to tax it......anyone already done this.... if so did if cause any problems....... Thanks

ok thanks for the info....

After 24 hours buyer decided he didn't like the car he'd just bought, and wanted to upgrade to another I have in stock - not ideal - but ok he's bought a few over the years from me........ Car was "in the Trade" He taxed online with his Credit Card - think for 6 months, using the new keeper slip. Fortunately I've not yet done the change of ownership online...so he just gives me all the paperwork back and I start again like the deal never happened.... Do i "put it back into the trade online".....and this triggers a refund of his tax back onto his card? ..........or should I put it in his name online, he then SORNS it, and then sends v5 to me when he gets it from Swansea and I then do another sold to trade etc....

I buy very little normally at auction but yesterday I was surprised to see ex lease cars in the 10k-20k bracket pretty much all making cap clean or even more....as if it was just business as usual! Unless you really need stock would have thought it best to sit tight for at least the next couple of weeks to just see what happens.....whilst I appreciate its different from the last financial crisis anyone who remembers the turmoil that caused wont want to see it again.....

Yes just been on to then now, its down - can't tell me when it will be back up....

We do lots of cherished transfers, for speed and simplicity I'd suggest you tell the customer to go online and put his number on retention. This costs him £80. He then automatically gets the retention certificate and a new V5 back normally within 7 days. When he gets the V5 back for the car he's bought from you - he can simply transfer it across (as the retention Cert & his car are both in the same name)... Anything else means you end up posting the application and change of ownership to the the DVLA , which at present are taking about 10 days to turn around - but stand the risk that they will find something they are not happy with, and end up returning it to you, to start all over again......

Have a look at RAC car passport - 2.99 a go - seems to work well.....the printout is also handy to give to the customer.

Not sure but I would have thought that taxing it on the V5C/2 i.e a new keeper will log it at the DVLA as having a new owner on the date the tax was issued...they'd then just be awaiting the new owners details to be sent/input .........so suspect its definitely bending the rules, bet if you rang the DVLA they'd tell you that you need to put it in your name.... Sort of thing that isn't a problem until you have a bump or get a tug from the plod.........

Once had this with a customer who although paid in full kept dragging his feet about collection, order form now states will store car for 14 days following sale foc, then £35 per week storage charges apply. .

We don't do much on finance but when we do could be a 20K or 30K deal - so use a broker. Advice we got from FCA was that even if you only refer customers to a broker you still need a Limited Permissions. Main reason being that the introduction confers a level of financial awareness/responsibility hence you should have a licence.... any doubt FCA do a "Decision Tool" that defines what licence if any you need.....

Don't think its quite that easy as it would be seen by the tax man as appropriation of company assets at below market value, particularly if they have either been written down or had work done by the business without reflecting that in the their sale value......So you should sell them at something like market value - taking into account their condition, if they had a few issues (say engine problem or some other issues) you would value them accordingly! - just keep a written note on file in case you were ever asked to justify it.