Warning - Dolomite 1300 not as it seems

[triumphdolomiteuk]

This car on Gumtree was recently sold by a Club member with documentation stating that the mileage was over 130K. The buyer is now trying to pass off the car as having only 30K miles and is asking over twice what he paid for the car.
https://www.gumtree.com/p/other-cars/tr ... 1292045171

[Galileo]

Good of them to come forward and and ask that you warn people. They rather undervalued the car, which of course is their prerogative but it's a shame that did not correct the mileage recorded on all the previous MOT's.

[Carledo]

Being as a Dolomite only has a 100,000 mile odometer, MOT mileage will show only as what is on the clock and will not take account of the other 100k which is not shown.

The Gumtree ad only says "showing" 30k +, which is true! But the inference is clear and misleading. Nothing said in that ad is an outright lie but taken together........ The ad has been written by a very sharp guy!

Steve

[ham204]

This is what they write about the mileage:

'Showing 32,948 miles on the clock (ie 132k miles in total PROBABLY!)'

So probably an addition/correction to the original ad?

[Carledo]

This is what they write about the mileage:

'Showing 32,948 miles on the clock (ie 132k miles in total PROBABLY!)'

So probably an addition/correction to the original ad?

Yes, that has changed since I last read it!

[captain_70s]

Looks nearly identical to my S-reg example I bought back in 2012 all the way down to the frilly arches/front valance! It had an indicated 24,000 miles (in retrospect almost certainly 100k more!)



Back then I thought it was strong money at £1400, values have gone up shockingly fast!

[triumphdolomiteuk]

I see that we have shamed the vendor into coming clean on the mileage - great! At least a potential buyer is no longer being deliberately mislead. However, the vendor's somewhat indignant comment "Showing 32,948 miles on the clock (ie 132k miles in total PROBABLY!) However, the mileage is somewhat irrelevant on these older cars anyway!!!" is rather baffling. There is a world of difference in a car which has only covered 32K miles versus one which has done 132K even if both have been meticulously maintained. Silly boy.

[grahamwatson]

Storm in a teacup, surely. "Showing 32,948 on the clock" clearly implied that that may not be the correct mileage. There was really no need to spell it out.

And I certainly agree that mileage is at least less relevant on older cars. I would say "there is a world of difference in a car that has covered only 32K miles versus one which has done 132K ONLY if both have been meticulously maintained". For older cars, you've got to consider the car as a whole.

And the pretext for this thread is that somebody is selling a car for more than they paid for it. Reading between the lines, the seller may have bought the car for £1500 in 2014. In 2018 he is asking £3,290 for it. And he appears to have sold it.

The original owners may now regret selling the car for he price they did, but that does not seem to me to justify calling the current seller a silly boy.

[triumphdolomiteuk]

The current vendor only bought the car off its previous owner very recently (three weeks ago actually) for way less than half its current asking price. The vendor tried to mislead buyers by stating that its mileage was only 32k miles which was a clear attempt to increase the car's appeal and justify the much higher asking price than the one recently paid. When rumbled, the vendor suggests that "with these old cars the mileage doesn't matter" . Well I'm sorry, but I'd be pretty hacked off if I went to view a car with a strong asking price such as that and it turned out that its mileage was really 100k more than claimed. Oh, and aren't you supposed to state on your adverts that you are a trader?

[cleverusername]

The current vendor only bought the car off its previous owner very recently (three weeks ago actually) for way less than half its current asking price. The vendor tried to mislead buyers by stating that it's mileage was only 32k miles which was a clear attempt to increase the car's appeal and justify the much higher asking price than the one recently paid. When rumbled, the vendor suggests that "with these old cars the mileage doesn't matter" . Well I'm sorry, but I'd be pretty hacked off if I went to view a car with a strong asking price such as that and it turned out that its mileage was really 100k more than claimed. Oh, and aren't you supposed to state on your adverts that you are a trader?

I suppose I can see your point with buyers with no experience of classics, but I think more experienced buyers would take such a mileage with a pinch of salt. To be honest it might put me off, it could imply a car which has sat doing nothing for years, which doesn't do them much good.

The reality is classic car values are all over the shop. Fords are now going for silly money, so people are looking around for the next big thing. I am in two minds about values going up, if they have. It will help to save cars, but part of the joy of these old cars is they affordable to ordinary people to drive and fiddle with. Bit of a shame if we lose all affordable classics.

Still I suppose there are always 90's cars and new stuff for people to treasure.

[dollyman]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TRIUMPH-DOLO ... SwR65auhuA

Now on "flea bay"

Tony.

[triumphdolomiteuk]

So much for "DEPOSIT NOW TAKEN ~ AWAITING COLLECTION" on his Gumtree ad