Cars being ‘clocked’ twice before sale in new scam
The AA says that, on the back of a 47% year-on-year increase in the number of vehicles being brought here from Britain, there has been an increase in “mileage discrepancies” among those vehicles.
“In 2015, research from Cartell.ie indicated that 14.5% of UK cars imported into Ireland had had their mileage altered in some way,” an AA spokesman said.
“However, recent reviews of smaller sample groups than the 2015 report indicate this figure has increased to 16.5% in respect to UK cars currently on Irish roads.”
Because of the advent of background check services such as Cartell.ie, unscrupulous sellers have found another way to mask clocking.
They drastically reduce the mileage on the car before taking it in for an NCT here (or MOT in Britain). Then they increase it again back up to a more believable, but still drastically reduced level.
“During one recent inspection, where a customer was interested in buying a three-year-old car with 30,000 miles previously registered in the UK, a background check found that the car’s mileage had been recorded as 18,000 miles during its first MOT 90 days earlier,” Joe Langan of AA Car Inspections said.
“So we were expected to believe that this car had taken nearly three years to do 18,000 miles — and then driven over 130 miles per day for the last three months. This just does not add up — we suspect someone had decided to turn back the mileage on this car — perhaps dropping it from 60,000 miles – but decided to ‘lowball’ it first, down to 18,000 miles, ensure a low base mileage was recorded during the first MOT, from which they could then adjust the mileage to something more realistic when selling it on.”
AA said that, since only a higher mileage in the past produces a mileage alert, traders are then free to do this and give themselves a bit of leeway if they decide to bring it back up to something more realistic.
Conor Faughnan, AA’s director of consumer affairs, said they have found that the level of clocking in Britain of cars which were destined for the Irish market, is greater than the number that are being sold on within Britain.
“While it can be easy to think that you may have snagged a bargain, sometimes a good deal is simply too good to be true,” he said, adding that before buying any car it is important to have it checked out thoroughly by a professional.
“It’s only during this step that doctored mileage or hidden damage to the car is likely to be detected,” he said.
Mr Faughnan said there are a number of tell-tale signs that a mechanic could detect such as the rubber on the clutch pedal being too worn for the amount of mileage supposedly done.
A new pedal could also arouse suspicions as it could mean it had to be replaced when the mileage would indicate that should not have been necessary.
