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Hidden Dangers When Buying a Used Car: Clocking, Cloning, Ringing and Cut & Shut Explained

  Thursday, 19 December 2024

What should you be looking out for when buying a used car? There are various practices that unscrupulous sellers can use to make more money or hide criminal activity. Car clocking, cloning, ringing and ‘cut and shuts’ are the main pitfalls to watch out for.

Clocking

Car clocking is when a vehicle’s odometer is tampered with, so that the mileage shown on the dashboard is lower than its actual mileage. The clock has literally been turned back. Sellers can make thousands more from a car with a significantly reduced mileage, and there are companies that openly advertise clocking services. Modern cars have digital odometers, but they can still be hacked into from a computer and adjusted. As well as costing you more than it should have done, buying a clocked car can be dangerous, as parts are more worn on an older car, and you are more likely to have an accident.

What to look out for

If a car’s mileage is too good to be true, it probably is. Most cars do an average of 10,000-12,000 miles per year, so if the age and mileage of a car don’t tally, it is worth doing some investigating. The seller should have the service history of the vehicle, or you can check its MOT history. This will provide the recorded mileage at every MOT the vehicle has ever had. A visual inspection of the vehicle could also reveal clues – if there are chips to the bonnet, this usually means plenty of motorway miles, as well as the driving pedals, gear stick and steering wheel showing signs of wear and tear.

Cloning

Car cloning is the practice of using legitimate number plates on a stolen vehicle. Criminals do this in order for stolen cars to go undetected on the road network. 100,000 registration plates are stolen every year in the UK, but fake plates can also be made to look like the real thing. If you buy a cloned car which is proven to be stolen, you will lose the car and the money you paid.

What to look out for

You should start to be suspicious if the car you’re being sold does not have a V5C registration document. Criminals may not often have this, or they may have produced a fake version. Using services like the AA’s Car Data Check or the HPI Check will confirm if the vehicle’s details are correct. Also check to see what the VIN number of the car is – this is a unique identification number, etched into a number of different parts of the car, such as the interior dashboard or the engine bay. If this number is different to the VIN number printed in the V5C document, the car has been cloned. You can also use a VIN checking service, to make sure that the car has not been reported as stolen.

Ringing

Car ringing is an extension of cloning. When criminals want to go a step further in hiding their tracks after cloning a vehicle, they will forge a new VIN number so it matches the official sources. They may also produce an accompanying fake V5C certificate. Forging a VIN number is very difficult, and is usually the preserve of specialist mechanics employed by criminal gangs. There was a big spike in ringing in the 1990s when written-off vehicles were repaired and put back on the road with new V5Cs. The government launched the Vehicle Identity Check (VIC) Scheme in response. Cars were subject to rigorous inspections, but the scheme was scrapped because of cost.

What to look out for

It can be challenging for an individual to find out if ringing has taken place. There are online tools available which allow you to see if a car has been stolen or written off in the past, or been inspected as part of the VIC scheme. Specialist companies exist that investigate potential cases of ringing.

Cut and shut

By far the most dangerous suspect on this list is the ‘cut and shut’. This is when the remains of two different vehicles are welded together and sold as a standalone car. These are usually the undamaged parts of written off vehicles, put together purely for reasons of profit and targeted at young drivers looking for a cheap car. The consequences for people lured into buying these automotive monsters are terrifying. The slightest impact could see them fall apart.

What to look out for

Legislation has been tightened against ‘cut n shuts’ in recent years, so it’s harder for criminals to create registration documents for these cars that don’t actually exist. Cut and shuts should be fairly easy to spot. You should be able to see discrepancies in upholstery, paintwork or even the actual join. Look out for the VIN in different parts of the car. If they are not the same number you know beyond doubt that it’s a cut and shut.

General tips on what to look out for when buying a used car

We’ve got a guide on some basic tips on buying second hand, but if you’re also looking to beat the used car scammers, here are the golden rules:

• Always check the car’s history, mileage and MOT record
• Look for signs of wear and tear
• Find the VIN number
• Don’t pay in cash (you’ll need an official record of the purchase in case there are problems)
• Check for discrepancies with paintwork, panels and upholstery
• Question any gaps in service history or MOTs

Know what you’re purchasing with ASM

If you’re looking to return a used car to a roadworthy condition, our online salvage auction offers the opportunity to purchase quality salvage vehicles at competitive prices. ASM Auto Recycling also offers up to 20% off the price of used spare parts supplied for the repair of vehicles purchased from ASM.

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