Checking for clocked cars

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British motorists are being cheated out of tens of millions of pounds every year. That's the price experts put on the crime of 'clocking', or winding back a car's odometer to show a lower mileage reading. It is believed that as many as one in three used cars bought in Britain have been clocked - a frightening statistic. It takes less than 15 minutes for a skilled crook to turn a tired 80,000-mile repmobile into a 30,000-mile 'one careful owner' family car. But in many cases, spotting cars that have had what the trade calls 'a haircut' is easy when you know how. Here our some top tips:

1. Detective work
Forget urban legends about dodgy geezers winding back car odometers using a power drill; that takes hours. The pros simply unscrew the instrument panel and set to work on the speedo with a screwdriver. So start by taking a good look at the dashboard. Are the retaining screws newly burred? Do the notches for the screwdriver shine more clearly than the rest of the screw? And are there signs that the instrument binnacle has been prised out with a blunt instrument? Small lumps of plastic where two plastic surfaces join are typical. If so, walk away.
Examine the speedo unit itself. Are the digits properly aligned? If not, chances are it's been tampered with. Some older cars still have a five-digit odometer. Be wary, as a 120,000-mile example would be showing just 20,000 on the clock. Most more modern cars have digital mileometers; unfortunately many of these are much more simple to fiddle with than the old-fashioned sort; crooks can just plug in a gadget armed up with a software programme from the internet and bobs their uncle. Unless and until manufacturers close these avenues crooks will continue to do this, so used car buyers must be on their guard.
2. Do your maths
Use your common sense: if the car you’re looking at is a 1991 J reg then you should expect it to have upwards of 140,000 miles. If, however, the odometer is reading something like 40,000 miles, it’s probably too good to be true. However if the seller is an old lady, a low mileage may be entirely believable. Bear in mind that an underused car is just as likely to cause you problems as an overused example. Sitting in the garage for years at a time does the electrics and mechanics of a car no good at all.
3. Condition
A high-mileage car will show its true colours after a thorough visual check. Worn pedal rubbers, sagging seats, stained upholstery and a heavily stone-chipped bonnet will point to a motor that's worked hard.
An ex-company car (check the name on the registration document) is unlikely to be genuine if it's showing less than 20,000 miles for every year of its life. Companies give employees cars for a reason - because they need to do a lot of driving. Holes in the centre console could mean the car has been used as a cab - that's where the two-way radio was attached. A former driving school car is also easily spotted by the poor panel gaps and resprayed bodywork that come from the numerous minor prangs of learner drivers.
4. History
The best safeguard of all is to shop for a car with a full service history. Look for the abbreviation 'FSH' in advertisements. You'll pay slightly more, but proof that a car has been regularly serviced is worth its weight in gold. A quick flick through the car's handbook will go a long way to confirming whether the mileage is genuine, as dealers enter the odometer reading every time the car is worked on.
5. Trust your judgement
Is the deal too good to be true? Are you getting an apparent bargain for a lot less than it’s worth? If so, be aware that the car may not be all it seems.
Also, exercise your judgement of the seller, be he a private vendor or car salesman. Is he shifty and evasive on the subject of the car’s history? Does he give vague answers? Is he unwilling to answer innocent questions to him properly, such as what he does for a living (assuming he’s a private seller)? For a private seller, does he have a surprisingly thick filofax, receive a large amount of mobile phone calls and seems to have large amounts of cash in notes knocking around? If so, he may well be a dealer posing as a private seller – nothing too wrong with that in itself, but why is he covering up this fact?
If he becomes hostile and aggressive about your wariness, walk away as quietly and politely as possible – but nonetheless get out of there; any bona fide seller should realise that not every person who turns up to view a car will buy; criminals are however often greedy, lazy and stupid and dislike going through time-consuming activities like persuading members of the public to buy dodgy cars; they will often reveal their true colours – just walk away.
In theory, new ways to buy and sell cars such as auction sites like eBay should attract no more crooks than the more traditional methods. However, there is some anecdotal evidence to suggest that clocked cars are more common on auction-site cars than elsewhere, so keep your guard up. You are not obligated to buy goods if you are the winner of an auction if you have legitimate grounds for doubting the veracity of the goods on sale.
Final golden rule
This isn’t rocket science. If a car looks dogged and tired, but the odometer is only showing an average mileage then it is likely that the vehicle in question has been clocked.