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Mileage on speedo

bigoldboy

Enthusiast
Messages
179
Location
Spain
My 1972 Renault 4 s just has five digits on the speedo so how can I know how many kilometres it has done in its life.
 
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Hello. You can't; at least not just from the speedo.
If you've got some old service records or MOT certificates that show the mileage, then you might be able to work it out.

If the car is registered in the UK, then you can put the car's registration number into this UK Government website and see the MOT history, including the mileage: https://www.gov.uk/check-mot-history
 
It's a 1972 car, so it's 47 years old. If the mileage were as shown the car would have covered about 660 Kms per year, or, put it another way, about 400 miles, which is clearly not the case! If the mileage had gone round once the car would still have done only 1750 miles per year. TWICE round the clock gives a credible mileage of just over 3,000 per year. Of course, any old M.O.T.s (or carte gris, the French equivalent) would be a great help in working this out!
 
Thank you. The car is a Spanish built Renault so I will check it's documents if I can work them out because I don't speak much Spanish.
Regards
 
The earlier pic of my speedo is as the kilometers show 30930 now so I looked in the paperwork and it's last ITV (Spain MOT) showed this figure 19079 in 2016 so how on earth can I know how many million Ks the car has done ?

Regards
 
This mileage thing is interesting. We have bought a car that had 12000 Kms on the CT certificate in 1999 and has 13500 now. The car is 47 years old. It was bought initially by an old couple in 1972. They ran it till ill health stopped them and it sat in the shed. They passed away, and the house remained empty for 14 years when it was sold to a Brit in 2004, and the car was still in the garage and came with the house, and he did nothing with it till he became ill and gave it to a pal before he died in 2014. That pal has had the car 5 years and has now sold it to us. So in 47 years it only worked for a little old guy in a little village for 8 years. Since then it has done1500 kms. So these low mileages are possible.

My other R4 has 150,000kms on it. It was the truffle mans car, and he used it to drive round to farms collecting truffles and selling them on. It is a 1985 car so is 34 years old so 35 into 150k gives 4285kms per year or a little less that 3000 miles pa. Again, a very low mileage, again confirmed by paperwork.

So it could be that the mileage is just what it says. people only used the car to go to church, or the odd trip to somewhere, they did not use it the way we do now.
 
This mileage thing is interesting. We have bought a car that had 12000 Kms on the CT certificate in 1999 and has 13500 now. The car is 47 years old. It was bought initially by an old couple in 1972. They ran it till ill health stopped them and it sat in the shed. They passed away, and the house remained empty for 14 years when it was sold to a Brit in 2004, and the car was still in the garage and came with the house, and he did nothing with it till he became ill and gave it to a pal before he died in 2014. That pal has had the car 5 years and has now sold it to us. So in 47 years it only worked for a little old guy in a little village for 8 years. Since then it has done1500 kms. So these low mileages are possible.

My other R4 has 150,000kms on it. It was the truffle mans car, and he used it to drive round to farms collecting truffles and selling them on. It is a 1985 car so is 34 years old so 35 into 150k gives 4285kms per year or a little less that 3000 miles pa. Again, a very low mileage, again confirmed by paperwork.

So it could be that the mileage is just what it says. people only used the car to go to church, or the odd trip to somewhere, they did not use it the way we do now.


Thanks Edwin and hopefully your right . How did you know one of your R4s had 150,000 ? My car has only 5 digits so does yours have 6 digits ?
Cheers
 
Our 1990 GTL has 6 digits, and was around 192,000 km at its last MOT.
 
Thanks everyone but I still don't know what the mileage of my car is .
Maybe one day the mystery will be solved .
Regards
 
The ITV paper history that came with mine goes back to registration date, green document with the blue newer one with computerised details stapled to it, unsure on how far records go back on system though.
Old paperwork is great, unless its the little bit of folded up paper that pops out when you take the back off the speedo, only to unfold and read “Oh No!, Not Again!” :doh:
 
As said not sure how far back the ITV systems records go, but the Spanish paperwork that came with mine has the ITV stamp on paperwork going back to vehicles 1st ITV, with each odometer reading logged, so when you visit your ITV centre it may be worth an ask to see if they hold any information that will enable you to collate the vehicles true history and milage IF the system holds info. back to registration date, otherwise history and any way of conformation of odometer reading has been lost with the paperwork.

The folded paper ‘joke’ come s out of the back of an Escort van speedo once bought at Enfield auctions.
 
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Thanks for the message but because of the speedo only having 5 digits and the official paperwork being so sketchy I don't know what the mileage is . Oh well .
Regards
 
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