HPI check on car shows higher mileage


Recommended Posts

My son bought a new(er) car and decided to sell the old one privately. That was three months ago. Dropped price a few times so getting a bit desperate to sell it now. Chap turns up yesterday evening and likes the car, makes an offer (below the asking price); son reluctantly agrees.

Chummie says before agreeing the deal, is it OK to run an HPI check? (I know what that is though have never done it myself). He's struggling with data on phone so son even invites him in and gives him router password (that's an aside but just demonstrating son being open and honest; he will change the password of course).

HPI check has a red flag saying the car had 87k miles on the clock end-March 2012 (that's around when son bought it with 27k on the clock; it now has around 45k). Son is shocked and gets all the paperwork out. He has service history from new until his purchase plus first MOT and an MOT at time of his purchase (it was about 3.5 years old so dealer MOT'd it again). Mileage on service history and MOTs are all credible and incremental numbers. Both check the VIN on the car; all OK.

My son has no reason to believe there's anything untoward, says HPI must be wrong. Dealer was Millennium Motors, Mapperley Top (no longer trading so no way to enquire provenance of the car).

Don't know where HPI get data from but I'd guess dealers would quite happily sell reg. numbers with odometer readings.

Anyway, potential buyer is not convinced and walks away, saying he might get back to son today. I advise son to see what today brings.

Any experience here with HPI errors?

Link to post
Share on other sites

DVLA have been known to get mileages mixed up before, esp on MOTs.

If the mileage works out OK on service history etc, then I wouldn't be too worried.

Mind you, was it Millinium Moter's where Melissa bought her first car from ?

Link to post
Share on other sites

The above mot checker, and this tool-

https://totalcarcheck.co.uk/

are useful,but the only way to be sure of the actual mileage is to ask a dealer to connect the vehicle to their diagnostic equipment. They can extract the actual mileage from the ECU (part of the electrical system), as this is very difficult to tamper with, unlike the odometer.

Link to post
Share on other sites

It was Nottingham Auto Park, not Millennium. That place changes hands on a regular basis.

Anyway, the gov site and totalcarcheck.co.uk show incremental steps in mileage since 2011 (though 2 test in 2012 only 300 miles apart - maybe that was when they re-did it on sale to son, I will ask).

The worry is that it puts people off. Might be harder to sell and annoying if it is down to a typo somewhere.

16/3/11 20430

14/3/12 26743

10/4/12 27067

22/3/13 33828

21/3/14 38692

20/3/15 43082

28/3/16 49103

Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...