My old car had 240,000km knocked off the clock I was double-crossed As a dealer, I pity the public Our ‘clocking’ scandal: Buyers and sellers tells us of ‘scams’

SOMETIMES it takes a personal story to truly highlight a persistent problem.

That was the case with last week’s story from ‘Brian’ who nearly bought a car that had its odometer put back by 42,000km.

Since it appeared, ‘Motors’ has been swamped by stories from many others who have been duped or who see what is going on with ‘clocking’.

They paint a grim spectacle – while putting a human perspective on startling figures.

But rather than flood you with a tranche of cases, we thought it best if we gave you a handful of edited perspectives.

Here is a small sample:

The car dealer: ‘I pity the public’

“I’m a long-time car dealer. There are rogues out there, enabled by the lightest-touch regulation imaginable compared with the UK and US, despite the huge sums of money that go through our hands, not to mention the safety of the public being in our hands.

I buy a lot of cars in the UK. If there’s even the hint of a clocked car, the dealers (over there) are always terrified of Trading Standards investigating. Money laundering, clocking, hiding mechanical problems and previous damage, previously exposed, or well-known rogues funding, opening or re-opening dealerships under different names are day-to-day features of our business, watched over by a government with no licensing or bonding system in place.

The poor public have no way of differentiating the good from the bad.”

Seller :‘ I saw my old car with 240,000 km knocked off’

“I traded in a 2005 Focus 1.6 TDCi against a new car. I had owned the Focus from new. It had 388,000km on it.

In mid-March of that year, it failed its NCT over a cylinder problem.

In August 2015, I came across my Focus on a car website.

It was being sold “private” but it did not take me long to find a number of other cars photographed outside the same house, albeit under different registered sellers.

Two things struck me about this:

(1) The car then had a valid NCT.

(2) It was showing 147,157km (as opposed to 388,000km).

The NCT were unhelpful, but eventually told me the car was issued with a valid NCT in July 2015, with mileage of 127,000km.

They could tell me the mileage on the car on 09, 11, 13 and 15 tests and acknowledged the lower figure was ‘unusual’ but of no concern to them.

They suggested the new seller had changed the engine. If I had a concern that a crime was committed, I could go to the gardai, they told me.

I was flabbergasted to say the least.

Even if the engine had been changed, the chassis, braking system, suspension, airbags, steering, gearbox are all still at the original mileage.

Then last year I saw my old car on the road one evening, with a young family in it.

I felt sorry for them. They probably thought they were getting a car with plenty of life left in it.

What really gets me is the fact that the State system which is supposed to be there to protect us on the roads (the NCT and the RSA) are not doing a whole lot to combat the problem.”

Buyer: ‘My double-digit fright’

“Last year I bought a VW Passat diesel on a well-known UK online auction site. It had slight damage on the driver’s side front wing. It was clearly photographed and I knew damage was minimal. I bought it for a good price.

I carried out a full history check. The car came in clear. The last recorded mileage was around 115,000 miles.

Three months later a friend told me of his friend in the motor industry could carry out checks for free if I ever needed to.

Out of curiosity I gave my car’s reg number. The report came in with category D registered against it (technically written off but possible to be safely restored; has to be re-registered as ‘damaged repaired’).

It also had a reading of 143,000 miles.

The car-check website, when contacted, could not take any responsibility and said these things occasionally happens if authorities in UK delay registering data.

So even reports are not always accurate and should not be taken for granted by buyers.

Now I am happy with my car but I probably wouldn’t have bought it if I had known it had a Cat D on it as it scares people in future when I decide to sell it on.”

Buyer: ‘I was duped in front of my very own eyes’

“I had a similar experience with a dealer as ‘Brian’ did.

It was a Kia pro-c’eed and was immaculate and well priced. I asked for a full check. A member of staff did it as I watched. All looked good. I selected an email to myself but it never arrived. I put that down to a typo by me.

A few days before I was due to collect the car a family member told me the dealer had a poor reputation. To be safe I had a full Motorcheck on the car. It was a UK writeoff and they had faked the check in their office.

I went to the dealer. He quickly pulled out a wad of cash and handed over the deposit but didn’t seem overly surprised. When I bought from a different dealer I mentioned the incident. He had previous customers complaining about the same dealer sometimes selling cars with 10-12 previous owners.