(Possible Accidental) Mileage Discrepancy Query Met with Complete Denial
I was scheduled to travel down to Spartan to buy / deposit on a car for £15,990 today.
I did a "Total Car Check" report on the car last night (as I often do when committing to buy a car).
The report revealed that the RMI (Retail Motor Industry) applied a mileage correction to the cars mileage history/data (NOT the car's odometer - although that cannot apparently be ruled out, according to subsequent research I did), reducing it by some 3,174 miles.
The resulting conversation with Spartan (were I hoped they'd investigate & potentially resolve), was instead to deny the TCC reports' data & to state & I quote "this is not the car for you" (a statement which many buyers may feel has connotations of an insult I'll just say). So, Spartan dismissed & denied the data from the report & more or less slammed the preverbal door so to speak.
My concerns, for example; subsequent check's post purchase should the discrepancy recur when I came to sell later - were off the table for discussion as I was simply met with denial rather than help.
Spartan even went as far as to heavily criticise the reports credibility, as they've "never heard of them". I would say; in the approximate words of Neil deGrasse Tyson; If you don't know what something is, then how can you know what it is? - i.e. if you've never heard of TCR, then how can you know they're not credible? They may not be - see below.
The industry & its traders should not be exasperated by used car data checks & instead, ought to embrace them, at least in my opinion and be prepared to help. It saves lots of time & cost, especially if issues are noticed post-sale.
Had I discovered this post-purchase, I now doubt Spartan would have taken it seriously - given they deny it pre-purchase.
I suspect that the data in the report is accurate (but I don't know that yet for sure - I am responding to Spartans claim so am looking into it - again see below) but if it is accurate; Spartans checks ought to have highlighted the same data & that should have been acted on or possibly disclosed.
I would suggest that Spartan *might* have a gap in their processes i.e. if it's possible for a genuine discrepancy like this to get through the net & be unaware of it - hence, I say, embrace & investigate - it'll save time & money moving forward - even if not on this sale.
As they didn't investigate further with me, I cannot know if their data really showed it or not (except that they did say that their apparently superior checks - did NOT show it).
There should be one source of the truth of used-car mileage data - it wouldn't be good for the trader or the customer if such data in this industry was inaccurate, thus I'm investigating with TCC even if Spartan aren't.
My point is not that the vehicle's mileage data has a discrepancy, it's how the issue was handled by the dealer. There were other +'s & -'s but this was the main point I wanted to articulate.
I wish Spartan well and hope that we've both learned from the experience.
July 23, 2025
Unprompted review