4 Million Vehicle Mileage Check

Please note: We have since released a larger mileage test in September 2020, where we tested the mileage of 7 million vehicles.

Vehicle mileage issues and clocking have been a problem that has plagued the used car market for many years, In December 2019 we tested the mileage of 2.5 million vehicles. This time we ramped up the test and went for 4 million vehicles.

What counts as a mileage discrepancy?

There are 2 things that count as a mileage discrepancy in this test:

  1. The mileage has been lowered between MOT tests (e.g. 40,000 on 19/08/2018 then 30,000 on 19/08/2019).
  2. The vehicle has a mixture of odometer unit readings (miles and kilometres).

We offer the same mileage check as performed in this test for free on our initial report, you can check any vehicle yourself in seconds below:

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What we found

We started the 4 million mileage check on 22nd Feb 2020 and finished on 10th March 2020. We then started compiling and working through the data and published our findings on the 18th march 2020.

Total vehicles checked: 4,000,000 (4 Million)
Total vehicles failed: 252,834
Total fail percentage: 6.32%

The findings broken down

Failed on lowered mileage: 236,455 out of 4,000,000
Percentage of above: 5.91%

Failed from mixture of odometer readings (miles and kilometres): 28,368 of 4,000,000
Percentage of above: 0.70%

Failed on both mixed readings and lowered mileage: 11,889 out of 4,000,000
Percentage of above: 0.29%

Fails by make & model

We used the data from this test to create a list of which makes and models had the highest fail rate, we only included vehicles that had more than 1000 fails in total.

Make & ModelTotal FailedTotal CheckedFail Rate
CITROEN DISPATCH1363437331.17
RENAULT SCENIC32071075729.81
PEUGEOT EXPERT1313459228.59
RENAULT GRAND SCENIC1667602027.69
FORD TRANSIT87647755411.30
VAUXHALL COMBO13541208011.21
BMW X513421300610.32
CITROEN XSARA12501221210.23
VAUXHALL VECTRA26882635010.20
PEUGEOT 20621462121610.12
FORD TRANSIT CONNECT17731763810.05
FIAT PUNTO2175228389.52
PEUGEOT 3071130124029.11
MERCEDES-BENZ SPRINTER1256140878.92
RENAULT CLIO4029481488.37
TOYOTA AVENSIS1168144248.09
RENAULT MEGANE2111262708.04
VOLKSWAGEN PASSAT4149519277.99
TOYOTA YARIS2784351327.92
NISSAN MICRA1911242937.87
FORD KA2657338797.84
PEUGEOT 2072085267097.81
CITROEN C41533201167.62
CITROEN C31347185437.26
VAUXHALL ZAFIRA3345479006.98
AUDI A61909275726.92
MINI MINI4091614816.65
HONDA CIVIC2534386396.56
BMW 3 SERIES68221046226.52
VAUXHALL MERIVA1126173756.48
VAUXHALL VIVARO1259195836.43
AUDI A44026646516.23
FORD MONDEO3086497316.21
VAUXHALL ASTRA71131210135.88
SKODA OCTAVIA1435253105.67
VOLKSWAGEN GOLF82371470125.60
VOLKSWAGEN TRANSPORTER1294232945.56
BMW 5201082197035.49
FORD FOCUS73701360115.42
VAUXHALL CORSA67501256425.37
MERCEDES-BENZ E1169226295.16
VOLKSWAGEN POLO4223849634.97
MERCEDES-BENZ A1188242324.9
SKODA FABIA1222254194.8
AUDI A33766788344.78
MERCEDES-BENZ C1654367964.50
VAUXHALL INSIGNIA1512349234.33
SEAT IBIZA1582395494.00
SEAT LEON1304329733.95
FORD FIESTA62511630333.83
HONDA JAZZ1019276333.68

Explanation of the above data:

  • Make & Model – Vehicle make and model.
  • Total Failed – How many failed out of the Total Checked for this make + model.
  • Total Checked – The total checked from the 4,000,000 list.
  • Fail Rate – The fail percentage for the make + model (worked out using Total Failed and Total Checked data)

Fails by year, make & model

We used the data from this test to create another list of fails by year, make and model. We only included vehicles that had more than 450 fails in total.

Year, Make & ModelTotal FailedTotal CheckedFail Rate
2004 RENAULT SCENIC1241163475.95
2005 RENAULT SCENIC936130371.83
2005 RENAULT GRAND SCENIC880124370.80
2004 FORD TRANSIT1000338429.55
2005 FORD TRANSIT1094392427.88
2002 FORD KA515190826.99
2002 FORD TRANSIT525208625.17
2003 FORD FOCUS1299518525.05
2003 FORD TRANSIT611250224.42
2006 FORD TRANSIT953511218.64
2002 FORD FOCUS856459318.64
2004 VAUXHALL ZAFIRA484275617.56
2007 FORD TRANSIT973565917.19
2002 VAUXHALL CORSA465275316.89
2002 MINI MINI506304716.61
2003 VAUXHALL CORSA595386915.38
2003 VAUXHALL ASTRA539355115.18
2008 FORD TRANSIT877580415.11
2005 VAUXHALL ZAFIRA466309015.08
2004 VAUXHALL CORSA742503314.74
2001 VOLKSWAGEN GOLF451313114.40
2005 VAUXHALL CORSA874622114.05
2002 VOLKSWAGEN GOLF1130838013.48
2002 VOLKSWAGEN POLO497368713.48
2002 BMW 3 SERIES652498113.09
2006 RENAULT CLIO638495812.87
2003 MINI MINI531423412.54
2005 VOLKSWAGEN PASSAT536436912.27
2009 FORD TRANSIT479391112.25
2003 AUDI A4490403912.13
2006 FIAT PUNTO545451112.08
2003 BMW 3 SERIES767635012.08
2004 FORD FOCUS627525311.94
2004 VOLKSWAGEN GOLF1081907711.91
2007 FIAT PUNTO570479411.89
2004 VAUXHALL ASTRA568482911.76
2003 VOLKSWAGEN GOLF797693911.49
2005 AUDI A3586515411.37
2003 VOLKSWAGEN POLO490440611.12
2007 RENAULT CLIO592553110.70
2004 VOLKSWAGEN POLO500470910.62
2007 PEUGEOT 207729694710.49
2005 AUDI A4608579610.49
2004 BMW 3 SERIES593565810.48
2004 AUDI A4475454710.45
2006 VAUXHALL VECTRA476459910.35
2005 VOLKSWAGEN POLO559552510.12
2004 MINI MINI505499610.11
2006 VOLKSWAGEN PASSAT481477010.08
2005 BMW 3 SERIES69569599.99
2005 VAUXHALL ASTRA83984379.94
2005 VOLKSWAGEN GOLF1004102759.77
2006 VAUXHALL CORSA66969679.60
2006 AUDI A352657729.11
2009 VAUXHALL INSIGNIA45550459.02
2008 PEUGEOT 20747053738.75
2005 MINI MINI55664118.67
2007 VAUXHALL VECTRA50360128.37
2006 BMW 3 SERIES71085358.32
2005 FORD FOCUS78998917.98
2006 AUDI A446858787.96
2006 VOLKSWAGEN GOLF79499737.96
2006 VAUXHALL ASTRA859108007.95
2007 BMW 3 SERIES857111687.67
2006 FORD FIESTA781101827.67
2006 FORD FOCUS792111927.08
2005 FORD FIESTA49170686.95
2007 VAUXHALL CORSA767114826.68
2007 FORD FOCUS780119456.53
2007 VOLKSWAGEN GOLF732112356.52
2008 BMW 3 SERIES52381506.42
2007 VAUXHALL ASTRA884146036.05
2008 VAUXHALL CORSA745125845.92
2007 MINI MINI46779325.89
2007 FORD FIESTA627108955.75
2010 VAUXHALL ASTRA638117995.41
2008 VAUXHALL ASTRA636121595.23
2008 FORD FOCUS528105734.99
2008 FORD FIESTA498104984.74
2009 VAUXHALL ASTRA45095844.70
2009 FORD FIESTA599134754.45
2009 VAUXHALL CORSA465109644.24

Explanation of the above data:

  • Year, Make & Model – Vehicle year, make and model.
  • Total Failed – How many failed out of the Total Checked for this year, make + model.
  • Total Checked – The total checked from the 4,000,000 list.
  • Fail Rate – The fail percentage for the make + model (worked out using Total Failed and Total Checked data)

Average annual mileage of passed VS failed vehicle

We took the average yearly mileage of passed and failed vehicles from this test. This is what we found.

Average Yearly Mileage of Passed Vehicle (‭3,747,166‬ Passed):

9670

Average Yearly Mileage of Failed Vehicle (252,834 Failed):

8942

Estimated vehicles with mileage discrepancies in the UK

Below we worked out the estimated number of vehicles in the UK with mileage issues. According to racfoundation.org there were 38.9 million licensed vehicles in the UK as of September 2019. In this test we found a fail rate of 6.32%.

6.32% of 38,900,000 =

2,458,480

More info about this data

How was this test performed?

We used a huge list of registrations to make this test happen, we started collecting mileage data on 22nd Feb 2020 and finished on 10th March 2020 (17 days).

Where did we get the mileage data from?

We used the .gov.uk MOT API to get the mileage records from MOT tests.

Why did we check so many vehicles?

The more vehicles we check the clearer the picture becomes on mileage discrepancies, for this reason we wanted as much data as possible.

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