1 in 5 cars are clocked

[Kace]

So I see it was reported today that 1 in 5 used cars in Ireland are clocked and that this includes luxuries.

What are your best strategies to avoid picking up something that's clocked ?

1. Verifiable service history
2. No excessive wear where you wouldn't expect it
3. Old NCT certs
4. .....?

[Myfeckin FTO]

So I see it was reported today that 1 in 5 used cars in Ireland are clocked and that this includes luxuries.

What are your best strategies to avoid picking up something that's clocked ?

1. Verifiable service history
2. No excessive wear where you wouldn't expect it
3. Old NCT certs
4. .....?

I'm surprised that the figures are as low as one in five. I reckon its much greater than that.
Service history would be my number one. Also a check on motorcheck.ie is good as it lists known mileage from service history/NCT's etc.
Excessive wear on seats/gear levers/carpets/steering wheels etc is also an easy spot.

Only last week while car shopping for my sister 3 of the 5 cars she was interested in were very obviously clocked - the most obvious of which was a 05 S40 diesel with 80k kms which judging by the wear on the interior had easily double that mileage. The owner wouldn't provide any service history or NCT certs so I advised her to walk.

[d_dan]

One way is to check the screws around the dash cluster. The average joe wont have a reason to have taken the plastic clear cover or shroud off at any stage.