Is it worth the risk?
A study carried out by Cartell.ie in co-operation with AA Ireland, has found that more than one in 10 second-hand cars currently listed in Ireland have false mileage displayed on their clocks.
The study also found that the figure for cars imported from the UK is even worse, with nearly 20% of clocks in those cars deemed unreliable.
Over 120,000 vehicles were subject to investigation and the cars were tested using Cartell.ie’s database and history checks.
Both Cartell.ie and AA Ireland randomly sampled half of the vehicles that were under investigation from their database and found that 11% of those needed further testing as they believed that the odometer had been tampered with.
Over 13,000 imported vehicles from the UK were also examined.
John Byrne, Legal and Public Relations Manager, Cartell.ie, said: “We wanted to get a clear picture of the extent of ‘clocking’ in Ireland both with respect to domestic vehicles and imports.
“Based on an overall study of more than 120,000 vehicles these results are very concerning: on the Irish side we are painting a picture worse than the Government did when they conducted their own research in 2013 when they returned a rate of 9.8%.
“More worrying still is the situation with respect to imports – at 18.43% this rate is alarming. We would encourage anyone who is importing a vehicle to conduct a vehicle history check before buying and take your time with respect to the purchase of any new vehicle.”
The act of clocking is now a criminal offence in the Republic of Ireland and if found guilty, the offender could face a fine of up to €5,000 or three months in jail.
