Car clocking – don’t get caught out
It’s easy to think of clocked cars as a problem of yesteryear. One that’s been tackled so you no longer need to worry about it. But sadly, nothing could be further from the truth, as one in every 20 cars subjected to an HPI check is found to have been clocked. Where there’s easy money to be made, crooks will always strike – and with clocking so easy and the rewards potentially so great, it’s no wonder clocking is still such a big issue. So big in fact, that according to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), clocked cars cost the motor industry and consumers more than £100 million each year. According to used car valuation experts Glass’s, if you’re lucky enough to own a 12-plate BMW 530d SE Touring it’s worth little more than £15,000 with 150,000 miles on the clock. But halve this mileage and the car’s value jumps to just under £20,000. Cut the mileage to just 30,000 and the BMW is worth a whopping £23,000 – a 53 per cent (and £8000) increase over the 150,000-mile car. No wonder clocking is rife. Last year, one gang of criminals was imprisoned for clocking at least 255 cars, with four million miles being lost in the process. In 2013, a Nottingham-based dealer pocketed over £130,000 by wiping six million miles off 74 used cars that he sold online . With these scams far from unusual, you really need to have your wits about you.