Cartell Report strangeness

medi_bai

Hey all,

Went to have a quick look at a car this weekend, being sold by a private seller. Car seems in nice enough nick, & about right for the mileage on the odometer.

First thing that made me a little wary of it is the fact that the couple selling the car have only had it a month or two, and have only VRT'd it on the first of this month. That would make me a little cautious, but perhaps they're just playing the amateur import game or some such!

Decided to get a cartell report done, to try get a better picture. Everything checks out as they said, except the mileage on the UK report. When taking the check and it asked for mileage I input 83000 as that was about right within a few hundred.

All the report tells me is "DATA CURRENTLY HELD ON THE NATIONAL MILEAGE REGISTER INDICATES THAT THERE MAY BE A MILEAGE DISCREPANCY ON THIS VEHICLE."

So I go and check the MOT info held on the car. It is a 2011 car, there are only 2 MOT's on record, and it tells me the last expired May 2015. The only 2 MOT's that are recorded are JAN 2014 where the car was recorded as having 30,693 miles and MAY 2014 where the car is recorded as having 32,381 miles.

There is no more MOT or mileage information to be had...

Does anyone know of any possible reasons for this? If the info hasn't been logged correctly and maybe I can hunt it down, or should I just run?

I honestly can't fault the car, it looks honest for it's supposed miles, but the circumstances around it all are just making me very suspicious of the whole thing.

Any help from you guys out there would be great, cheers!

Effects

Can't you run a milage check on it with an OBDII reader and software?

Eoinbmw

Rightly or wrongly if i ever have an uneasy or suspicious feeling on a car i always walk away !
Always another car out there!

medi_bai

Effects wrote: »

Can't you run a milage check on it with an OBDII reader and software?

I don't know much about using OBDII readers and such, but surely I would be using that to read the exact same value as is displayed by the odometer in the gauge cluster?

Anyway, it's not the mileage figure itself that bothers me. It's the fact this car seemed to disappear from any sort of recorded world for so long, then arrive to this country, only to have it try to be sold very soon after

medi_bai

Eoinbmw wrote: »

Rightly or wrongly if i ever have an uneasy or suspicious feeling on a car i always walk away !
Always another car out there!

Nothing wrong with that logic! She's a rare enough beast & not too easy to find though. Tbh unless I hear of plenty of evidence from people that this sort of thing happens all the time due to poor record keeping or such, I think I will walk!

As an aside, does anyone know any way to get car checks done cheaper, €25 each time I want a cartell report is steep enough!!

porsche boy

medi_bai wrote:

I don't know much about using OBDII readers and such, but surely I would be using that to read the exact same value as is displayed by the odometer in the gauge cluster?

The mileage is stored digitally on the engine ECU, separate to the dash display.

medi_bai

porsche boy wrote: »

The mileage is stored digitally on the engine ECU, separate to the dash display.

Interesting, I'll need to have a look into this. Still wouldn't explain it's disappearance off the face of the earth for about 3 years though

DesperateDan

porsche boy wrote: »

The mileage is stored digitally on the engine ECU, separate to the dash display.

I know nothing about cars, but that sure sounds like a stupid way of doing it

bazz26

Have you verified the car's service history with the garages who stamped the book?

Effects

medi_bai wrote: »

Anyway, it's not the mileage figure itself that bothers me. It's the fact this car seemed to disappear from any sort of recorded world for so long, then arrive to this country, only to have it try to be sold very soon after

There might be a good reason for that. Have you tried asking them? My current car dropped off the service history as the second owner had his own mechanic who worked on the car. No service record in the book after 14k and I bought it at 36k, third owner.

gooner99

Could the car have been in the North for the last few years. Could be wrong but I don't think records for cars MOT't there show up on the online database.

medi_bai

bazz26 wrote: »

Have you verified the car's service history with the garages who stamped the book?

I could go that route. Are garages happy enough to be annoyed about cars that once passed through their doors?

medi_bai

Effects wrote: »

There might be a good reason for that. Have you tried asking them? My current car dropped off the service history as the second owner had his own mechanic who worked on the car. No service record in the book after 14k and I bought it at 36k, third owner.

It's not service history that I'm worried about, it's the lack of MOT info.

medi_bai

gooner99 wrote: »

Could the car have been in the North for the last few years. Could be wrong but I don't think records for cars MOT't there show up on the online database.

Interesting, I'll certainly ask about this. That would explain alot.

bazz26

medi_bai wrote: »

I could go that route. Are garages happy enough to be annoyed about cars that once passed through their doors?

Well you are thinking of buying this car but I cannot see why they would be annoyed to be honest. They don't have to go into specifics but they can outline what was done and at what mileage. Joining those dots should help answer questions around whether the mileage is genuine or not. Otherwise all you have is a service book of worthless stamps that anyone can falsify if not verified.

Mintoe

medi_bai wrote: »

Nothing wrong with that logic! She's a rare enough beast & not too easy to find though. Tbh unless I hear of plenty of evidence from people that this sort of thing happens all the time due to poor record keeping or such, I think I will walk!

As an aside, does anyone know any way to get car checks done cheaper, €25 each time I want a cartell report is steep enough!!

Motorcheck.ie do good 3report bundle deals on their website which would be cheaper than Cartell & I always find their info more detailed

medi_bai

bazz26 wrote: »

Well you are thinking of buying this car but I cannot see why they would be annoyed to be honest. They don't have to go into specifics but they can outline what was done and at what mileage. Joining those dots should help answer questions around whether the mileage is genuine or not. Otherwise all you have is a service book of worthless stamps that anyone can falsify if not verified.

Yes, but the garage I would be asking about the provenance of the car are not the ones selling it. Would they really be interested in helping me out in this instance was all I was wondering.

Thanks again for all the replies so far.

Effects

Depends on the garage. Worth a call. I rang a Merc garage about checking a possibly clocked Merc a few years back. They had it on their system and had no problem telling me over the phone, it checked out ok. They even informed me that it had been a rental previously.
Reason I was worried is the independent dealer the Merc was coming from had already taken my trade in and had taken 40,000 miles off it!

medi_bai

Effects wrote: »

Depends on the garage. Worth a call. I rang a Merc garage about checking a possibly clocked Merc a few years back. They had it on their system and had no problem telling me over the phone, it checked out ok. They even informed me that it had been a rental previously.
Reason I was worried is the independent dealer the Merc was coming from had already taken my trade in and had taken 40,000 miles off it!

Wow! the joys of car buying! :pac:

Grand, I might see will they send me on pics/scans of the service book and call up the dealer mentioned on it. If that doesn't set me at ease, I think I will just have to do a runner!