A woman has said she's been left £2,000 out of pocket after being sold a car with a massive 17,000 mileage discrepancy. Saima Tabassum, 26, bought her second-hand Citroen DS3 in May 2019 and was told it had 19,632 miles on the clock.
But when she went to sell the car to We Buy Any Car this month she said they told her there was a mileage discrepancy on its history. Saima, from Merthyr Tydfil, said the car - which she was selling as she is moving abroad with her fiancé next month - had a history which showed 33,785 miles in its 2017 MOT but in 2018 that had gone down to 16,749. Documents provided by the garage Saima bought the car from confirm these figures but she said she was told not of any discrepancy at the time.
Speaking to WalesOnline, Saima said her car was originally valued at £4,300 online by We Buy Any Car but that after meeting them in person to complete the sale, the company told her it would only be worth £2,300 due to the mileage discrepancy. "I went to the garage and they straight away pointed out the discrepancy on the system," she explained.
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Saima said she had no choice but to sell the car anyway as she and her partner Matthew are moving abroad in January and need the money. But she says the ordeal has left her devastated and £2,000 out of pocket just weeks ahead of their move. "I was in tears when they told me," she said, adding that the We Buy Any Car sales rep removed the admin fees for the sale because of how upset she was.
"There was nothing else I could do. There's no other way I could sell that car and I am moving in two weeks. This is the last thing I needed. That whole year [when she bought the car] I saved every penny and paid it off in a year. I didn't do anything, didn't go out and worked overtime as a sales rep to pay it off."
Saima said she contacted the garage in south Wales where she bought the car, who she claims told her the mileage was an "error" and that there was nothing they could do to help as she has already sold the car. The garage has been contacted for comment.
"When I rang the manager he said things like this happens all the time, people can put in the wrong numbers. I asked them how is it possible for the discrepancy to be that big?," she said. Saima said she has also contacted the DVSA to ask whether they were alerted to any discrepancy in a car's mileage. "The DVSA now have a system to flag mileage discrepancies but they didn't have that at the time," she said, adding that she hopes others don't fall foul of buying second-hand cars with unusual mileage numbers in the future.
"I worked hard so I could pay it off. That's what hurts the most. Me and my partner are going to go to Australia which is a lot more expensive and we were relying on this money. I'm now £2,000 out of pocket, but I also paid £8,500 on a car with a mileage that was 19,000 which I now know was 33,000 at one point. So I don't know if I overpaid at the time as well."
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