Mileage check
Winding back an odometer is not illegal in itself — selling the car without disclosing it is. The tools cost very little and the gain is thousands of pounds, so the only defence is a record with enough dated readings in it that a gap becomes obvious.
Free check first — the Pro report is the upgrade on your results page. See a sample report.
What the mileage check shows
Three independent sources of odometer readings, placed against each other rather than printed in three separate lists.
- Every MOT reading, in order
- The dated backbone of the record, and whether every reading rose.
- Recorded mileage entries
- Readings captured outside the MOT record, and any anomaly the provider has flagged against them.
- What each keeper covered
- Keeper dates crossed with odometer readings, so you can see how hard each owner used it — the single most useful thing in the whole record and the one nobody prints.
- What it is doing now, not on average
- A car whose first owner did 4,500 a year and whose current owner does 19,000 has a lifetime average that is true of nobody. We show the recent rate alongside it, and say which window 'recent' means.
- Projected mileage today
- What the car has probably covered since its last reading, at the rate it is actually being driven.
- Advert corroboration
- Where the car has been advertised, the mileage in the listing placed between the MOT readings either side of it — third-party support for the clock that no register can give.
What it cannot tell you
Readings are only as dense as the record. A car under three years old has no MOT history at all, and a car that has been off the road has gaps — an adjustment inside a gap is far harder to see than one between two annual tests.
A reading is also whatever the tester typed. Transposed digits happen, and a single odd figure in an otherwise consistent record is more often a typing error than a crime. What the report gives you is the whole sequence, so you can tell the difference.
Where this comes from
DVSA MOT test readings, the commercial mileage register and its anomaly flag, and UK advert history where the vehicle has been listed with a stated mileage.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
- Is clocking illegal?
- Adjusting an odometer is not an offence in itself. Selling a vehicle without disclosing that it has been adjusted is — it is fraud, and for a trader a breach of consumer protection law.
- What is a normal annual mileage in the UK?
- Around 7,000 to 8,000 miles a year for an average car, but the spread is enormous. A low figure matters less than a figure that does not match the car's condition and wear.
- Is high mileage actually bad?
- Not necessarily. Motorway miles are gentler than short urban journeys, and a well-serviced high-mileage car often beats a neglected low-mileage one. What the record lets you check is whether the mileage and the service and MOT history tell the same story.
- What should I do if I find a discrepancy?
- Ask the seller to explain it before anything else — errors do happen. If the explanation does not hold, walk away, and report a trade seller to Trading Standards.