Has my new car been clocked?

[zortonesta]

Morning all, bit of a quandary this one.

I'm going to pick up a late eighties E30 M10 this weekend but something is bugging me that I noticed last night.

I've been doing some online checks on the car and the last MOT has recorded mileage of 52408 (very low mileage but all previous MOTs and service history seems to check out) however the current odometer reading is 52065 - slightly less than it was in August.

You can see where I'm going here.... but if it has been tampered with I can't understand why you'd go to that trouble for the sake of 400 miles. So could it be that the test centre recorded the mileage as 52408 instead of 52048? This would check out as it hasn't done much moving in the past few months as the owner has a modern car and the cob webs on it would suggest it's been stood for a bit.

I'm yet to contact the current owner, I just wanted to see if it's a common thing to have the wrong reading documented at the test station.

Thanks all

[Awarded]

What was the MOT mileage for the previous few years?

Are there any other receipts with the vehicle mileage on? Service history etc

[Brianmoooore]

So could it be that the test centre recorded the mileage as 52408 instead of 52048?

This! Wouldn't say it's common, but it happens.
Clocked would be 152408 to 52408, which, because of the quality of E30 trim, would easily pass a cursory visual inspection.

[zortonesta]

@awarded yes quite a bit, nothing seems to be recorded above 50k though, however the last MOT in 2014 was 51937 - so it's done 111 miles in a year! Like I said it does appear to have been sat a while and the guy I'm buying it off has a modern car for his day to day plus a 2002 and two Morris Minors so it's not that wacky to assume it's done that little mileage in a year. Still, it pose some questions though eh?
'
@brianmoooore Makes sense but yeah I didn't notice any paperwork indicating anything above 50k - there's about 10 years worth of MOTs ranging from 30k > 50k so maybe it's just me worrying. My hope was to get an unmolested e30 with reasonable mileage and a decent history and this could be the one but you know one question leads to another....

Thanks both for your replies.

[HairyScreech]

Sounds like a mistake to me, it is not uncommon to see weekend cars with mileage like that, My Z3 has had daft mileage on the last 4 MOTs, something like 1000 miles between the first 3 and only another 100miles on the last one.

Plenty of age/lack of use related issues though, best to check the tyres for deterioration, ditto the bushes, brake hoses and prop guibo. Rubber ages and perishes over time.

[Nobby_N]

Unless you have every hand written MOT from the day it was 3 years old then the mileage will never be known if its correct, Even then its so easy to stop the clock going round, all about condition of car so get the pics up!

[zortonesta]

Super replies, thank you all. I feel a little more at ease now.

I collect it this weekend so will post pics when it's with me.

It's a proper time-warp though, all original; dealer plates, cassette deck, etc and even the wiper blades too by the looks of how perished they are! It's a basic spec model - manual window winders, manual sunroof, no power steering, nothing like that but I quite like that element of it, less to go wrong (I hope).

I had a good butchers around it before making an offer on it and there doesn't appear to be any rust so I presume it has been garaged at some point during it's life. Chrome bumpers are perfect too, just need a polish.

Don't get me wrong though it's not perfect, it does need some TLC - some advisories on last MOT down to some perishing bits of rubber here and there, it also needs a really good service and a new back box, nothing a couple of hundred quid won't sort mind you. There's a good BMW specialist near me so when I collect it's going straight there for the once over.

[Jesus325iTouring]

Probably nothing to worry about, my Jap turd came back from MOT with 1000 less on the ticket than it went in with.

[Cypriotgeeza]

I reckon it was the testers sausage fingers which is the culprit here