Clocked cars

P

paf

Guest
just wondering has anyone ever been caught with buying a clocked car, i heard of so many people getting caught, im trying to sit up some kind of place on the web where people have purchassed clocked cars and where they have been purchassed, alredy there are a couple of repeat offenders turning up,especially around the red cow and tallaght
 
Haven't actually bought one but have been to see a few that turned out to be clocked. Ususally diesel imports from the UK with all the manuals etc but service history "lost". Most seem to be ex lease cars that usually have over 90,000 when sold by the lease companies in the UK, the generally have a full print out of full service history when sold by the lease company, but this vanishes when the car appears in Ireland with 50,000 less miles. I've seen them in garages around the Red Cow and Naas Road also, but also in Harolds Cross and Templeogue.

I'd have no problem buying a UK import with high mileage as long as its a big diesel with full main dealer service history, particularly ex lease cars as they are usually well maintained. Has to be reflected in teh price also!
 
paf...would you care to name the repeat offenders in question? Or could you pm me with them? I'm particularly interested in this having narrowly averted buying an import that I found out was clocked.
 
i have no intention of naming them here,but if you waqnt to e mail me at [email protected] i will be only to happy to chat with what i have come up with and hear your story.
 
Yes I did buy a clocked BMW. It was imported from the UK. I bought it from a dealer in the Ballymount area who was selling it on behalf of a dealer in Rathgar. I eventually got a full refund only after i got the police involved.

I found alot of clocked BMW's being sold around Clondalkin and also in Clane.
 
My ( now ) husband bought a clocked car from a dealer here in Kerry ( not a Volvo dealer ) some years ago. It was a Volvo estate imported from Britain. Within a few days of buying it he felt there was something wrong with it- it drove like an old car, but the mileage was low. He did a search in Britain and low and behold it was clocked. He hadn't retained his copy of the SIMI agreement and requested a copy- this agreement usually contains the mileage of the car. This was ignored until I became involved- I am a solicitor. I dropped in to the dealers office and requested a copy of the SIMI agreement. I was polite but firm. I didn't mention the search- I wanted to see what mileage had been put down on the agreement before I did so. Although nothing was ever said, I knew they knew and they knew that I knew. They never gave us the SIMI agreement but we were presented with another equal value car within a week which we then traded in with another garage almost immediately as we no longer trusted this dealer. We accepted this in order to walk away from the deal without losing too much. Some months later we had a phone call from a would-be purchaser of the volvo- we advised him not to buy. We never received another call.
 
this is the risk you take to buy high spec english cars. i have used www.cargiant.co.uk in the past for buying cars from the UK very reliable and trustworthy and not a chance of them being clocked. they will even check rival sellers cars for you for free.
 
I know of a leading garage that bought a toyota avensis ex taxi with over 200k miles on it the car was in excellent condition they sold it with 40k on it, I got inside information on this.
 
Was at a car auction a no. of years back. I remember when a 2yr old Primera ex. taxi with 270K miles came on the block the sheepskin coats got very excited...
 
how do you know if a car is clocked??

are there websites you can get info on a car?

i'm looking to buy a second hand car at the moment and this is a big worry for me..
 
assuming it drives tightly and everything appears to work, check for wear and tear on the interior, esp the drivers seat which if cloth would usually start to wear a bit thin at the outside edge at about 100k miles or so. also look at a few examples of the car you want to buy with high and low mileages to get a feel for what to expect. i bought 2 uk cars recently and in the process did 5 or 6 checks on potential purchases with different websites. www.autocheck.co.uk @19.99 was the only one which gave a mileage history consisting of 6 different entries for an 03 car with 50k miles.
 
I was going to by a bmw from a big dealer in the uk got the mileage and the chassis number from him and got a mate of mine in BMW to check the service history on it, last serviced at 82K Klm's, being sold with 47K on the clock.
 
ANC said:
how do you know if a car is clocked??

are there websites you can get info on a car?

i'm looking to buy a second hand car at the moment and this is a big worry for me..
Click to expand...

Check it's service history. Speak to previous owner.

Use your eyes and ears.
 
Just logged in here looking for advice on something else and couldn't resist having a look at my own trade section. Clocking is only the start of it. When they're money laundering to beat the band, buying cars vat free in the U.K and importing them here without paying the vat, breaking all kinds of planning and environment laws that reputable garages are obeying at large costs, etc, etc, clocking is only the cream. And then there's the honest public. Yeah right.

Use your head when buying a car. It's not rocket science. Service history is vital. If it's not there, just walk. And not everybody keeps an up to date stamped service book. If you like the car, and the service book is empty, ask can you contact the previous owner, call them, ask them where they had the car serviced, call the garage concerned, and they'll have all the details on computer.

My rule on English imports is if they're isn't a stamped up service history with the phone no. of the garage that carried out the services legible in the service book, that you actually call the service dept in the U.K and verify, then it is clocked.


And stick with a good reputable garage. There's lots of us out there. We can't be that difficult to find.

With regard to dodgy garages, and getting someone to check out a car, I'd reccomend www.carcheck.ie Put it this way. I've heard them say that when they call certain garages to tell them they have been asked to check a car out, the salesman just tells them 'Oh sorry we just sold it'
 
i went looking at a car with my other half a few years ago. The dumbo selling it had clocked it but failed to take off the sticker some mechanics put on the car which shows the mileage and date of last oil change. talk about getting stung.
 
howareya said:
i went looking at a car with my other half a few years ago. The dumbo selling it had clocked it but failed to take off the sticker some mechanics put on the car which shows the mileage and date of last oil change. talk about getting stung.
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I hope you reported him to the cops. I think that may have been an attempted fraud.
 
tradefriend said:
Just logged in here looking for advice on something else and couldn't resist having a look at my own trade section. Clocking is only the start of it. When they're money laundering to beat the band, buying cars vat free in the U.K and importing them here without paying the vat, breaking all kinds of planning and environment laws that reputable garages are obeying at large costs, etc, etc, clocking is only the cream. And then there's the honest public. Yeah right.

Use your head when buying a car. It's not rocket science. Service history is vital. If it's not there, just walk. And not everybody keeps an up to date stamped service book. If you like the car, and the service book is empty, ask can you contact the previous owner, call them, ask them where they had the car serviced, call the garage concerned, and they'll have all the details on computer.

My rule on English imports is if they're isn't a stamped up service history with the phone no. of the garage that carried out the services legible in the service book, that you actually call the service dept in the U.K and verify, then it is clocked.


And stick with a good reputable garage. There's lots of us out there. We can't be that difficult to find.

With regard to dodgy garages, and getting someone to check out a car, I'd reccomend www.carcheck.ie Put it this way. I've heard them say that when they call certain garages to tell them they have been asked to check a car out, the salesman just tells them 'Oh sorry we just sold it'
Click to expand...
Where does this leave the DIY man when he wants to sell his car? I service my own car which is a lot cheaper that any garage, service history is great but it costs a lot of money.
 
I bought a passat and found out it had been clocked by 100k miles. Bought it in a garage in the south east area. It was perfect, leather throughout, even had orginal plastic in the boot. Spotless car. They are closed now and are opened in another county not far away from the orginal garage. They actually told me that it wasn't the first car they sold clocked!! Got most of my money back in the end after going to solicitors. then they wouldn't take my name off the car and had to go to guards about it. Guards told me that the reason they don't take name off ownership is a VAT issue as by doing so they have no proof they sold it and therefore don't have to pay vat on sales. Would love to name and shame them, but can't, here anyway.:rolleyes:
 
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