I’m Absolutely Gutted

xion2000 · 13th May 2010, 22:33

Bought my first MG a few weeks ago, a Silver ZT+ CDTi 135 with 56,000 miles on the clock.
Found it through eBay and bought for £4000. The private seller was asking £4650 but was open to sensible offers, I offered £4000 and he accepted it. At that point I suspected that something wasn’t quite right, BUT the car looked and drove superb (for a 6 year old car of course) so I left a deposit and then returned 2 days later to collect my new baby.
The MG was to be a replacement for my long standing and hard working Rover 800 Sterling that I had owned for the last five years (bought via eBay from Essex & now sold via eBay)
Anyway I bought the car & drove it home to Middlesbrough from Carlisle, a really enjoyable 100 mile drive. Over the next few days/weeks I gave the car some severe looking over and as with any used car, you find a couple of skeletons in the closet, all be it little baby ones. The passenger side mirror has had a wallop at some point and a previous owner has glued it back into (roughly) the correct place, the electrics still operate but the mirror cannot be folded in (not the end of the world) and a couple of small scuffs and scratches here and there but nothing too serious. Looking more closely at the passenger side of the car I wasn’t sure if it had had some paint work carried out, I mentioned my thoughts to a few friends and family but everyone agreed that all the lines were good and if it had been re painted it would stand out a mile as silver is a NAUGHTY WORD-NAUGHTY WORD-NAUGHTY WORD- to match up (apparently!)
Anyway used the car for the next few weeks and everything was good, until today!!
I decided to wash the car again (god that’s twice in 2 weeks) as I’m washing it I realised that my suspicions were correct, there has been paint work carried out on the passenger side of the car as I noticed that the reflector pad stuck to the rear passenger door has actually been painted over (how sloppy), or well, it is 6 years old, it could of just had a bump repaired.
Anyway cutting to the chase, tonight I remembered that I’m seen an ad somewhere recently that mentioned that a vehicles MOT history can be checked via the Directgov website. I decided to have a butchers (not expecting to find anything amiss). So I inputted the car reg no & the last MOT test number and WOLLOP!! A punch straight to the stomach. When looking through the past MOT’s I found a major mileage discrepancy
MOT #1 - 08/05/2007 51,052 Miles
MOT #2 - 02/09/2008 40,905 Miles
MOT #3 - 20/10/2009 53,778 Miles
The car came with very little paperwork, only the V5, latest MOT certificate & Owner/Service manual (with 3 stamps).

I’m absolutely gutted, I really don’t know what the think.
The car looks & drives well but I now feel that it may have other dirty secrets in its past.

When looking for an MG, one of the main criteria was that it had to have less than 60,000 miles on the clock (just a figure that I came up with) and now by all accounts my car may have done in excess of 80,000 miles.

Members’ opinions would be greatly appreciated

PLEASE going easy on me I’m upset enough

MN190 · 13th May 2010, 22:40

How many owners has car had.
Is it worth contacting the previous listed owner if different to the person you bought car off?
It could be a mistake on the first mot with 5 typed in instead of 3

Greeners · 13th May 2010, 22:44

Get it put on a testbook and see if there are any VIN mismatches between the ECU, IPK AND LSM....

mimbo · 13th May 2010, 22:46

Am very sorry to read your thread

Have never brought a car from e bay, Its always worth paying a few quid and having the car checked out, No finance outstanding, written off??
etc etc

How can anyone sell something knowing it has a bad history

Is it worth contacting to persons you brought it from

It just gives these cars a bad name as it not down to the cars but the previous owners, Being dishonest

xion2000 · 13th May 2010, 22:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by MN190

How many owners has car had.
Is it worth contacting the previous listed owner if different to the person you bought car off?
It could be a mistake on the first mot with 5 typed in instead of 3

You could be right, the servive record shows 20,500 miles on 13/10/06.

I have the name and address of the owner prior to the one I bought the car from but can't find a telephone number. I may have to do it the old fashioned way and write to hime)

I forgot to mention, the guy I bought the car from had only owned it for about 3 months (He did give a fairly good reason for selling it so soon)

xion2000 · 13th May 2010, 22:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by mimbo

Am very sorry to read your thread

Have never brought a car from e bay, Its always worth paying a few quid and having the car checked out, No finance outstanding, written off??
etc etc

How can anyone sell something knowing it has a bad history

Is it worth contacting to persons you brought it from

It just gives these cars a bad name as it not down to the cars but the previous owners, Being dishonest

I did a check, and it was all clear, no oustanding finance, never written off, never recorded stolen & NO MILEAGE DISCREPENCY INDICATED BY DATA CURRENTLY HELD BY NMR.

mimbo · 13th May 2010, 22:51

Phoning the seller

Prepare a list of questions to ask the seller, and make notes while speaking to them.

1. How long have they owned the car?
2. Has the car had a recent MOT?
3. Is it taxed?
4. What condition is the car in?
5. Why are they selling it?
6. Has the car been involved in an accident?
7. What features does the car have?
8. Is it in full working order?

You should also make sure you have a landline number for the seller – not just their mobile.

mfrancis · 13th May 2010, 22:53

Also consider the car could have been cloned.
I have just sold a motorhome for a relation who unwittingly gave out too many details to an enquirer and that person cloned the original to get an MOT on his and sell it. When I viewed the VOSA website it now shows a very similar inconsistency but that is solely because the cloned vehicle was MOT'ed with 50k on the clock rather than the host vehicles 36k.
I hope that is understandable!
In brief there could be a good reason for it and nothing sinister.

xion2000 · 13th May 2010, 22:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by mimbo

Phoning the seller

Prepare a list of questions to ask the seller, and make notes while speaking to them.

1. How long have they owned the car?
2. Has the car had a recent MOT?
3. Is it taxed?
4. What condition is the car in?
5. Why are they selling it?
6. Has the car been involved in an accident?
7. What features does the car have?
8. Is it in full working order?

You should also make sure you have a landline number for the seller – not just their mobile.

I did

I don't actually think the chap I bought the car from had had anything done to the car, he either was completelly genuine about his reason for selling the car, or he discovered someting he din't like and decided to get rid.
Theres allways the chance that NM190 is right and its a simple typing error and the other minor issues are simply some regular repair work that has been carried out (go on Graham, say it one more time & I'm sure you'll convince yourself

)

baconbuttyman · 13th May 2010, 23:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by xion2000

You could be right, the servive record shows 20,500 miles on 13/10/06.

I have the name and address of the owner prior to the one I bought the car from but can't find a telephone number. I may have to do it the old fashioned way and write to hime)

I forgot to mention, the guy I bought the car from had only owned it for about 3 months (He did give a fairly good reason for selling it so soon)

without throwing a christian to the lions but could the previous owner found out the same as you and simply kept his mouth shut.

any way, its worth doing a history check on it now, i know its bolting the door afterwards n all but you will get a history check on it, and tbh worst comes to worst its only a few miles, contact the mot centres they may have more accurate knowlege, i have experience of the vosa site being wrong so dont pannick just yet, my old omega was out 15000 miles but a check with the mot centres and previous owner sorted that out. could be an error, it happes, look how may they write up a day and how many typos you do a day????. do your home work i am sure its fine, get a mechanic to check it out properly, better still the RAC have a great service for this. good luck and keep us informed

13th May 2010, 22:46	#4
mimbo Posted a thing or two Rover 75 216 Coupe Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Newbury (Berkshire) Posts: 1,167 Thanks: 0 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post	Am very sorry to read your thread Have never brought a car from e bay, Its always worth paying a few quid and having the car checked out, No finance outstanding, written off?? etc etc How can anyone sell something knowing it has a bad history Is it worth contacting to persons you brought it from It just gives these cars a bad name as it not down to the cars but the previous owners, Being dishonest __________________ http://i772.photobucket.com/albums/y...h_100_0150.jpg Rover 75 2.5 V6 Automatic 2002 connoisseur SE British Racing Green(HFF) P.James (Member 6589 ) Nuts about the 75

13th May 2010, 22:51	#7
mimbo Posted a thing or two Rover 75 216 Coupe Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Newbury (Berkshire) Posts: 1,167 Thanks: 0 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post	Phoning the seller Prepare a list of questions to ask the seller, and make notes while speaking to them. 1. How long have they owned the car? 2. Has the car had a recent MOT? 3. Is it taxed? 4. What condition is the car in? 5. Why are they selling it? 6. Has the car been involved in an accident? 7. What features does the car have? 8. Is it in full working order? You should also make sure you have a landline number for the seller – not just their mobile. __________________ http://i772.photobucket.com/albums/y...h_100_0150.jpg Rover 75 2.5 V6 Automatic 2002 connoisseur SE British Racing Green(HFF) P.James (Member 6589 ) Nuts about the 75

13th May 2010, 22:33	#1
xion2000 Avid contributor MG ZT+ CDTi 135 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Middlesbrough Posts: 209 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	I’m Absolutely Gutted Bought my first MG a few weeks ago, a Silver ZT+ CDTi 135 with 56,000 miles on the clock. Found it through eBay and bought for £4000. The private seller was asking £4650 but was open to sensible offers, I offered £4000 and he accepted it. At that point I suspected that something wasn’t quite right, BUT the car looked and drove superb (for a 6 year old car of course) so I left a deposit and then returned 2 days later to collect my new baby. The MG was to be a replacement for my long standing and hard working Rover 800 Sterling that I had owned for the last five years (bought via eBay from Essex & now sold via eBay) Anyway I bought the car & drove it home to Middlesbrough from Carlisle, a really enjoyable 100 mile drive. Over the next few days/weeks I gave the car some severe looking over and as with any used car, you find a couple of skeletons in the closet, all be it little baby ones. The passenger side mirror has had a wallop at some point and a previous owner has glued it back into (roughly) the correct place, the electrics still operate but the mirror cannot be folded in (not the end of the world) and a couple of small scuffs and scratches here and there but nothing too serious. Looking more closely at the passenger side of the car I wasn’t sure if it had had some paint work carried out, I mentioned my thoughts to a few friends and family but everyone agreed that all the lines were good and if it had been re painted it would stand out a mile as silver is a NAUGHTY WORD-NAUGHTY WORD-NAUGHTY WORD- to match up (apparently!) Anyway used the car for the next few weeks and everything was good, until today!! I decided to wash the car again (god that’s twice in 2 weeks) as I’m washing it I realised that my suspicions were correct, there has been paint work carried out on the passenger side of the car as I noticed that the reflector pad stuck to the rear passenger door has actually been painted over (how sloppy), or well, it is 6 years old, it could of just had a bump repaired. Anyway cutting to the chase, tonight I remembered that I’m seen an ad somewhere recently that mentioned that a vehicles MOT history can be checked via the Directgov website. I decided to have a butchers (not expecting to find anything amiss). So I inputted the car reg no & the last MOT test number and WOLLOP!! A punch straight to the stomach. When looking through the past MOT’s I found a major mileage discrepancy MOT #1 - 08/05/2007 51,052 Miles MOT #2 - 02/09/2008 40,905 Miles MOT #3 - 20/10/2009 53,778 Miles The car came with very little paperwork, only the V5, latest MOT certificate & Owner/Service manual (with 3 stamps). I’m absolutely gutted, I really don’t know what the think. The car looks & drives well but I now feel that it may have other dirty secrets in its past. When looking for an MG, one of the main criteria was that it had to have less than 60,000 miles on the clock (just a figure that I came up with) and now by all accounts my car may have done in excess of 80,000 miles. Members’ opinions would be greatly appreciated PLEASE going easy on me I’m upset enough

13th May 2010, 22:40	#2
MN190 Posted a thing or two MG ZT 190+ Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: North Norfolk Posts: 1,423 Thanks: 2 Thanked 11 Times in 11 Posts	How many owners has car had. Is it worth contacting the previous listed owner if different to the person you bought car off? It could be a mistake on the first mot with 5 typed in instead of 3

13th May 2010, 22:44	#3
Greeners Moderator MG-ZTT Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Ware, Herts Posts: 19,798 Thanks: 161 Thanked 1,249 Times in 1,036 Posts	Get it put on a testbook and see if there are any VIN mismatches between the ECU, IPK AND LSM.... __________________ *David* Impecunity is the mother of ingenuity Useful how to's for common problems Car Of The Month Jan 2014 [SatNav Power Down] [Coolant Level] [SatNav Repair] [Diesel Non Starting] [Paint Codes] [Rear Light Seals] [Reversing Light Switch] [Bleeding Brakes][Sunroof Drain] [Early ZT's][Instrument Pack Diagnostics][ATC Diagnostics]

13th May 2010, 22:53	#8
mfrancis Regular poster Rover 75 Connoisseur saloon 2.0 V6 auto Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Wymondham Posts: 60 Thanks: 0 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post	Also consider the car could have been cloned. I have just sold a motorhome for a relation who unwittingly gave out too many details to an enquirer and that person cloned the original to get an MOT on his and sell it. When I viewed the VOSA website it now shows a very similar inconsistency but that is solely because the cloned vehicle was MOT'ed with 50k on the clock rather than the host vehicles 36k. I hope that is understandable! In brief there could be a good reason for it and nothing sinister.