Millions of clocked cars on UK roads

More than 2.4 million cars in the UK may have been clocked, according to a study of mileage data from one million vehicles.

Rapid Car Check carried out the study using its own mileage history checking tool, which highlights whether a vehicle’s mileage has been lowered between MOT tests or has a mixture of odometer readings (miles and kilometres).

Of the 1,000,000 vehicles checked, 64,986 failed the test — giving a failure rate of 6.49%.

The results showed that 60,501 vehicles had a mileage reduction, 7,509 had odometer readings in both miles and kilometres and 3,024 had both mixed readings and a lowered mileage.

With around 38 million cars on UK roads, this equates to more than 2.4 million vehicles with mileage discrepancies.

On average, vehicle mileages had been wound back by 70,000 miles.

The Renault Scenic and Grand Scenic had the highest failure rates, although AM Online noted that these models were known to have a faulty instrument cluster which may have been replaced legitimately in a number of cases.

The Ford Fiesta, Nissan Qashqai and Fiat 500 were among the cars least likely to have a mileage discrepancy.

Overall, vehicles registered between 1995 and 1999 had the highest rates of discrepancy.

The figures are in line with data from the the Local Government Association, which estimates that more than two million cars now have fraudulently altered odometer readings following a huge increase in the number of people using mileage correction services.

Buyers are advised to check a car’s history before handing over their money. Rapid Car Check offers a free vehicle history check which includes the vehicle’s recent mileage as recorded on its MOT certificate, as well as tax status and other MOT data such as MOT due date and previous MOT records.

Its deluxe check at £8.99 also includes checks for outstanding finance and whether the vehicle is recorded as stolen, scrapped, written off by insurers, imported/exported or had a registration plate change.

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