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Help Me Please!


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Hi Guys,

Need your advise here, didn't know where else to go as the DVLA & all are shut.

Basically, today I bought an Alfa 156 on an 02 plate, did some negotiations on the price and gave the owner £50 deposit.

Did a HPI check and it's coming up saying there's a mileage discrepancy. Basically this is what I've seen:-

Date Recorded - 9/3/7 - 367,000 miles (yes that is right).

The car has 40,400 on the clock. It's 5 years old. The MOT form that I took a copy of has the mileage as 36,784 dates 6/9/6.

Is it a coincidence or has something been typed in wrong? The MOT mileage figure almost matches the discrepancy but one zero less!

All advise is appreciated, I haven't bought the car yet. It certainly doesn't look like it's done 367,000 miles anyway!

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Sounds very iffy! Maybe worth informing the Police. Might be worth speaking to the garage that carried out the MOTs to. Not sure what else to suggest. Things like this would well put me off buying a car though......

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Yeah, worries me too.

It's had 2 owners from new, I think if it had 367000 miles then that would be a record for an Alfa (would imagine a Lexus was capable of it though!)

Cheers for replying.

lol....yeah,....was thinking the same. An Alfa do that sorta milelage.......as if! Nice looking car though. Is your deposit refundable?

Maybe you could get an independant inspection from say The AA or RAC? Sure they might be able to shed some light on it.

Id also contact DVLA come Monday....

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looks like the data inputted on hpi is wrong by one digit. If you was a dodgy car sales guy, you wouldn't put a 300k motor to 30k, you go to 80 or 90k, also italian cars don't do that sort of mileage without major problems, you'd see the high mileage evident in excessively worn drivers seat bolsters, worn smooth steering wheel, and either a resprayed bonnet, or loads of stonechips, also look at the headlight glass, as this gets chipped too, and takes on a opaque-ish look when hundreds of microscopic chips are there. and besides, to do 60k a year it'd have to have been a minicab. You must bear in mind where HPI actually collect their data from for mileage, it is DVLA on V5's sent in by change of ownership, also electronic MOT's also record it, it can also be collected from computerised service schedules. The most accurate way to check is to look at old MOT's to give yourself some idea of yearly mileage.

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sounds like an admin error... 367,000 in 5 years??? less miles to the moon :lol:

Only problem you might have is that this could creep up again when you come to sell it, and that could give you problems getting it explained etc.

I'd seriously get it checked out, you don't wanna buy a dud, but It does sound like there must e an error.

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Even excluding this, id avoid it. Alfas are so unreliable.....

But if you like it mate, go for it! It might be a simple mistake but as the otehrs say, come re-sale it could be hard to shift :blush:

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The HPI check on my last car did something similar, the milage at one point jumped 5k and then went down again, and I know that definitely never happened because I owned it all that time when the discrepancy occurred - they really need to do something to sort their systems out if it's so simple to increase the milage by a factor of ten without anything picking it up!!

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I had a 156 1.8 twin spark before getting the lex, and it turned out to be a moneypit!!

dunno whether that's a common factor with alfas, but it certainly put me off owning another one. They also don't tend to hold their money very well, and considering they're in the same price range as lexus when new, they nowhere near get as much second hand.

I wouldn't worry too much about the mileage thing. As long as the price is right and the car seems straight.

Personally though I wouldn't go alfa, but then i'm biased from a past experience.

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It does sound a lot like they've just put an extra zero in on hpi - especially when you've seen a report that has 36,700 miles on it, and the number on hpi is the same with an extra zero on it.

However, I'm a little confused how it had 36,784 in Sep'06, and then had 36,700 recorded in Mar'07 - has it been off the road for a while?

If so, I wouldn't worry about it too much - just get hpi to check where they got their information from and to double check that it's correct. As long as they clear it up, I doubt there's a problem.

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It's my budget that's the problem, I've just taken vol redundancy and going contracting (IT), my budget is £4k as I need to pay off some plastic as well.

Wish I didn't sell the IS200 in July 06 now!!!

If you got a budget and are contracting, u want something reliable go for an Astra diesal or vectra or something not Alfa youll be catching the train and bus cos yr car will be in the garege 90% of the time!!!

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367,000 miles over 5 years would mean the car has done almost exactly 200 miles every day (including weekends, Bank Holidays etc.) :blink: I agree with everyone else, unless the car has been sat on a rolling road in an air conditioned, moisture free environment, the HPI figures have gained an extra zero.

I agree with everyone else though. I picked up my LPG converted GS for £3,500 (including a head rebuild). It may not be the fastest thing on the road or the best looking, but it's bullet proof and miles better than anything else of it's age (apart from another Lexus of course :P ).

However, I'm a little confused how it had 36,784 in Sep'06, and then had 36,700 recorded in Mar'07 - has it been off the road for a while?

If it's an Alfa, it was probably in the garage or not running :D

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It's my budget that's the problem, I've just taken vol redundancy and going contracting (IT), my budget is £4k as I need to pay off some plastic as well.

Wish I didn't sell the IS200 in July 06 now!!!

If you got a budget and are contracting, u want something reliable go for an Astra diesal or vectra or something not Alfa youll be catching the train and bus cos yr car will be in the garege 90% of the time!!!

how is a vauxhall any better. go for a 320d BMW or A4 as stated above. If you like the Lex then you can easaly get a pree 2000 IS for £4k. I had a Fiat and I had no problems with it, loved it, service was cheap and dealer was nice. It's just what people have had experiance with. If you wan't the car, get the descrepency changed and buy it, I hope you enjoy it or any other as much as the Lex. :D

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sounds like an admin error... 367,000 in 5 years??? less miles to the moon :lol:

Only problem you might have is that this could creep up again when you come to sell it, and that could give you problems getting it explained etc.

I'd seriously get it checked out, you don't wanna buy a dud, but It does sound like there must e an error.

Something you gotta consider, even if you are happy and convince yourself/appreciate that it was an input error.

Maybe the DVLA will correct their records?

Out of interest, does the milleage ODO reading in the car have the right-most digit in red? i.e. possible that on change of hands when someone reported to DVLA the milleage, they read it wrong (with it being a tenth of a mile...)

D.

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I wouldn't get an Alfa especially if your on a tight budget they are terrible on reliability.

Audi's and BMW are normally pretty good only problem is the mileage will be above 100000 for less than £4k but they are built to last like lexus's.

At the end of the day though mate it's your decision and entirely your choice unless you've got a missus then it's out of your hands anyway :P

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There is an LS400 (M Reg) in white that I pass every other day on my way to Morrisons to fill up with LPG. It's actually in a 2nd hand car stealership, but it has been in there for ages. It started off at £3295 and it's now at £2395. If you add on £1500 for an LPG conversion it's still under £4000. You can spend the (potential) change on an inspection.

:tomato: Mind you I've got no idea where Chester is, and this car is in Strood so it could be a trek!! :tomato:

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