One in five second-hand cars imported from Britain are clocked
The investigation focused on 3,000 imported secondhand vehicles of which 18.5% were found to have had their odometer readings altered.
And modern vehicles have been found to be easier to tamper with than their forerunners.
Vehicles are being clocked locally as well. “If the UK figures for clocking were transposed to the Irish fleet then the number of vehicles on false mileage could be as high as 200,000. To combat this, the AA is one of the main driving forces behind establishing the Irish National Mileage Register. This is critical to protect the consumer,” said AA public affairs manager Conor Faughnan, who has found the clocking problem has worsened in recent years.
“UK imports have seen something of a boom with 49,000 vehicles being brought in last year, although that will be less in 2008 with the slowdown. It now emerges that almost one in five of those cars has a false mileage,” he said.
In 2002, 6,009 secondhand vehicles were imported from Britain and 647 from the north. These figures had rocketed to 39,545 and 10,280 respectively in 2007.
The AA can verify the mileage on British imports with access to the British National Mileage Register (NMR) which contains 125 million odometer readings.
“When a consumer inputs the current mileage of the vehicle onto AA Car Data Check it is compared and cross-referenced with those records. The NMR was established in 1997 and is used as a tool to protect both public and trade in the UK,” said Mr Faughnan.
“There is now clear evidence that unscrupulous dealers and middlemen are using Ireland as a dumping ground. This is likely to be simply because up to now they were sure they could get away with it.”
Clocking a car is not an offence in itself under Irish law. “You may not mislead a customer about any aspect of a car, and you cannot sell a car that is not road worthy, but no law says that you cannot change the odometer dial,” said Mr Faughnan.
The AA wants to change this and introduce the offence. The AA also wants to introduce the equivalent of a car ‘death certificate’ whereby a car that is written off is correctly disposed of and its registration number is retired.
“Car write-offs also find their way back onto the road, often in the hands of an innocent and duped owner,” he said.
Existing laws are weak and the AA has called for tougher legislation to target bad and dangerous practices in the motor trade.
“Clocking is a major safety concern as a vehicle with more mileage than indicated may not have had the correct servicing at manufacturers recommended intervals,” he said.
