1/7/24 – 91,242
10/2/25 – 85,472
3/12/25 – 121,323
Most likely a human error but how did the service history mess up that badly? I
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30 thoughts on “I was about to buy this car but then I spotted this in the service history book”
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Everyone is thinking that the mistake is in the ordering of the services…. Which is fine, genuine mistake.
But there’s a massive mileage discrepancy between the service in July 2024 (91k) and Feb 25 (85k)
THATS the problem, not that it’s been completed out of order in the book.
Is it a Delorean?
I’d check the MOT history and see if the mileages roughly line up year to year.
Perhaps someone forgot to get it stamped, so they filled it out afterwards themselves?
Looks like a fake history to me. Zero effort
That’s a walk away to me! Plenty of other cars with decent service history!
That service book looks exactly like the generic one I bought off Amazon for my own purposes of tracking servicing/maintenance etc. To me it looks like those entries have been filled in at the same time (pen colour, the same wear areas on the stamps).
It would be useful if there were invoices to go with each service entry, I certainly wouldn’t take the entries at face value.
I find this unusual to be honest going against most comments, when I get my car serviced and MOT’d, I always check the paperwork, whilst standing around paying for it and then carefully when sitting in the car
If you’d paid, decent money, getting a car serviced surely you’d ask for the paperwork to be corrected there and then and be able to tell the future purchaser
The last bit earlier service isn’t stamped either
What car is this?
Why lie about mileage in the modern day??
How much is the car? If it’s a banger I’d expect to put it in for a full service anyway so this wouldn’t worry me too much if the condition is good and the price is right
Looks like they just missed the space and the next person has just filled the gap. If it was anything dodgy they would’ve tried to cover it rather than fill it like that
Bearing in mind books read from left to right, how is the 85k service 3 spaces ahead of the 91k service? with a 121k service somehow in the middle? Kinda seems like someone went bk n filled in some gaps after receiving an envelope to bulk out the book ready for car to be sold n somehow fucked it up
Easily done when in a busy environment. Its not a red flag, arguably it makes the history even more genuine. That and a dirty fingerprint shows something was actually done. Obviously missed there was space on the previous page when doing that service. I’ve done it before.
Is this discrepancy only in the service book or also in the MOT history? Cause if it’s only in the book it could just be a mistake.
Buy a car check. I had the same on a car I’m buying but the mileage actually lined up perfectly with kilometers, so whoever recorded it read km instead of miles.
When a car is serviced it’s mileage is usually recorded too, along with MOT records and any insurance event.
How it is on mot check website?
Eh if it’s clean enough it’s not a HUGE rollback.
There was me focusing on “swirl flap”, but I guess I just learnt a new part.
Theres a small chance the car was setup to show kilometers and then they changed it to miles. The math is kinda mathing if thats the case. But who knows
Looking at the hand writing id say its one place thats tried to disguise their handwriting from one to the next entry. Few subtle bits of certain characters are the same but changes how the 2 is written on one entry but similar style other characters. And also, good old swap of pen colours to throw u off the scent.
Id be seriously suspicious
Download KnowYourCar,
Great app, and you can check all the MOT mileage history. Like you’ve said its probably human error.
I had the same on my old car, the guy put in the mileage of a different car he was servicing at the same time
This is fake.
The handwriting between years has not aged.
The pen, colour and handwriting changed between mileage, dates, and descriptions. The person who wrote 3rd Dec 2025 also wrote 10th Feb 2025 and description, but a different person wrote Dec 2025 description.
What does the VOSA MOT history say on the vehicle
If it’s human error in the service book the MOT history will be different
Don’t get hung up on that. Someone could just fill out the book themselves and pow, FSH.
If you have not bought the car, I would not proceed.
It smells like it could be badly made up service history and that is not worth the risk.
FYI – The services recorded in the iDrive could also be made up and that would only be found out if the car went for a service at a BMW dealer or an approved independent who has subscribed to access the BMW systems and use approved diagnostic computers. At that point the correct service history in the BMW Servers would be written into iDrive.
If there are invoices potentially the history could be checked by phoning the garages.
Is it an import car that might have the clock mileage in KM? I’ve got a Japanese import MX-5 which has the clock in KM, and the mileage history on it’s past MOT’s is an absolute mess. Some years it’s the number on the clock but put down as miles, sometimes it’s actually in KM, and sometimes it’s in miles but correctly converted from the KM reading
Back in the early 1990s I once worked for a company where the Sales Director had a company Mercedes and had done 138k in 2 years. It went in as part exchange for his new car. 2 weeks later he received a call from a prospective buyer of his old car asking why he had sold it. He said it was a company car and was due a change because of the mileage. The car had been clocked by 100k. Needless to say the bloke walked away.
If in doubt… Get the fuck out
Clocked