Hi, i'll apologise now for the long post, i hope the situation is spelt out clearly withing my ramblings....

i recently got my fabia vrs bought from a Skoda dealer. The car is an 04 with 64000 miles and 2 previous owners.

The other day i was on the computer and realised i had a RAC HPI car data check left over from a bulk buy that i got from RAC. Anyway, out of curiosity i put the reg of my new Fab vRS in just to use up the last one....... Well blow me, it came back with a mileage discrepancy!

The report came back with the following results:

May 07 63000miles

Sep 07 54000miles

July 08 64000miles

Now, to be honest i don't think there is any problem with the mileage at all and really don't think anyone would of bothered to have tried to clock it for just 9000 miles - really wouldn't be worth it, plus all the service history looks legit mileage wise. However, i do think someone has keyed in the wrong figure at some point, and that 1st figure of 63000 should of been 53000..... This i'm sure would be right and would match the service records around a similar time, and apparently at that time it was traded in at a mazda dealer, and subsequently was bought from Mazda by the Skoda Dealer. It was then sold to it's 2nd listed owner before being traded in at the same Skoda dealer under a year later.

I think the mistake has been made during the trading of the car between the 2 dealers (Mazda & Skoda) and as such i'm confident that the car is legit as can be......

However, my problem is, when i come to sell/trade my car anyone that does a check is going presume the worst..... Either they will walk away, or they will want some serious money knocked off if they are willing to take my word it's all legit.....

Now, i have spoken to the dealer about the situation and he is confident the car is legit. I've told them i'm not saying it isn't but have tried to point out my issue that if i trade it in in six months, i'm going to come unstuck. The dealer isn't being that helpful, i have asked them to try and get this put right and so far the only offer of help i've had is that they will provide me with contact details of all the previous owners so i can verify the mileage. I've told them that this is of absolutely no use to me, as i'm in no way disputing that the mileage is incorrect, all i'm worried about is how it affects the saleability of the car........ Besides, i have spoken to trading standards and they have told me i'm in a strong position, as there was no disclaimer on the mileage and it is for the garage to do the leg work and make things right and prove to me that all is as it should be, to me that means they need to get this taken off the records somehow.

Trading standards have said that i am in a position that means i could reject the car, however i'm chuffed with the car itself (leaking doors 'n' all) and would be reluctant to part with it! They have also said that if i don't want to part with the car then maybe i should work out a figure for what i would lose on trying to sell it and see if the deler will refund the loss. I'm doubting the dealer would go for this, i think they'd rather have the car back......

So what do i do if the dealer cannot get this put right with HPI, DVLA or VOSA or whoever else might need to be dealt with??

The dealer isn't being particularly helpful, so far they haven't called me back with any info, when they have said they would - it has been me chasing them.......

Any suggestions on where to go with this, and how to get it put right are much appreciated!

Cheers

Steve

I would contact HPi in the first instance. I would also put the wind up your dealer as they may have a more vested interest in sorting it out, especially if it was a Skoda Approved Used.

The mileage can be varified by reading the data from the ECU with VAG-COM.

The mileage can be varified by reading the data from the ECU with VAG-COM.

Stu where about in Vag-Com do you find this data?

This should help John

Ross-Tech: VAG-COM Tour: Applications

I would contact HPi in the first instance. I would also put the wind up your dealer as they may have a more vested interest in sorting it out, especially if it was a Skoda Approved Used.

The mileage can be varified by reading the data from the ECU with VAG-COM.

ok, i will try and contact HPI tomorrow. I will also contact the dealer again and point out the fact that they could give me a VAG-com printout for me to use as proof of the error.

The car itself was a Skoda non-approved sale, sorry if it's a dumb question, but what's the difference between approved and non-approved?

I may also see if i can talk them into fixing my leaky doors by way of making a mends...... to my mind they should anyway, as they've sold it faulty...... or is this where the 'non-approved' part will play against me.....??

thanks for the info, much appreciated.

Steve

The leaky doors is a known manufacturing defect, I wouldn't offer them an olive branch like that just yet.

They sold you a car which they should have HPi'd and sorted out first.

I'm sure that a friend of mine had a similar issue when he bought a Corrado a few years ago. Again, car was fine but mileage was out (I think because of a dash change). He contacted HPI and logged the discrep and problem was sorted.

If Skoda won't fix your doors for free (and you don't want to do it yourself) get some quotes from an independent. Skoda wanted £270 to fix 2 doors, independent did it for £70 + VAT for all 4.

Steve, looking at those mileage figures I would guess that the May 07 figure is in error (possibly should have been 43000. How does the service history/receipts and MOT's tie up with those HPI details.

Faintree Garage in Bridgnorth charged me about £60.00 to fix the door carriers of the back two doors of my Fabia VRS. I don't understand what the reluctance to get your car fixed by a dealer is when some of them are as cheap, if not cheaper than independent garages.

I would have preferred to get it fixed by the dealer, it's just in this case it would have cost about £500 more!

Steve, looking at those mileage figures I would guess that the May 07 figure is in error (possibly should have been 43000. How does the service history/receipts and MOT's tie up with those HPI details.

Hi... Personally i think the 1st figure (may 07) is meant to be 53000.....

This would match up with the service history from around that time, also i believe that the car was traded into a Mazda dealer at this time, before being sold on by mazda to a Skoda dealer. This 'trade' between garages would explain the low 1000 miles difference between May & September 07 as the car would of been on the forecourts during in this time, and maybe driven about if any tax was remaining.

Anyway, i've written a strong letter to the garage highlighting the 2 issues i have with the car, that will be mailed off today. I've given them a deadline of just over a week to respond with a resolution to the issues.

Hopefully it will make them take things a bit more seriously.......

I'll report back when i get the problems sorted.

Cheers all

Steve