Clocked car; fake mileage | Ford Mondeo News & FAQs

Hi

How do you tell if a car has been clocked?

I am buying a Ford Mondeo zetec tdci on a 54 plate and it has 35,000 on the clock....

Thank you

Hi

Well... As you probably know from our REAL AVERAGE MILEAGES in our price guide, that's 20-30,000 lower than normal.

So this car is either at 130,000 miles, clocked or low mileage.

You need to do everything to try and develop a feel about whether the car is legitimate or not, because there are lots of ways to get tricked.

Here are my top tips:

• Get a data check, this will tell you the last reported mileage that the DVLA know
• Check the cabin condition - how saggy is the seat, how shiny is the gearshift, how tired are the pedals? If it's done over 80,000 plastics will be shiny, seats will sag or frey a bit.
• Look in the service book and call the dealers that have stamped it for services. They will have a computer record of the mileage at each service. If there is no service book, call the dealer on the numberplate as a start. If there is no service history, no dealer name on the plates or back window, then start to get suspicuous.

Good luck.