Laws Relating To Clocking Should Be Changed
Thursday, 19. May 2011
I reported recently on clocking, it would seem that others are reading my blogs as the Office of Fair Trading has issued a report that reveals there are more than 50 firms in the UK selling mileage correction (clocking) services. As a result they have called on the Government to act and close the loophole that enables these companies to quite legally reset a car’s speedo. The only illegal act comes in when the owner of the car sells it and doesn’t point out that the clock has been altered leaving the new owner believing that the car has covered much less mileage.
Obviously there are times when a speedo has to be changed for either to a new one or a used one, when faulty and it would be right to alter the mileage shown on the new unit to the genuine mileage of the car.
However, these cases are very rare and because of this the law shouldn’t be left as it is allowing the crooks to clock very high mileage cars down to very low mileage leaving the new owner unaware that important maintenance needs to be carried out and thereby making the car dangerous.
I certainly agree that the law needs to be changed. Have you bought a car with a clocked speedo? If so what were the consequences? By Graham Hill
Related articles
- Expert In Warning Over Car Clocking (confused.com)
- Consumer rights: How can I tell if my car’s mileage was turned back before I bought it? (independent.co.uk)
James Says:
Hi, it appears I’ve been scammed. My wife and I were desperate for a bargain only having a couple of grand to spare and our old car needing more and more repairs, and snapped up what looked like an amazing deal, a 2004 Focus C-Max with supposedly only 38000 miles on it. My father-in-law drives the same car and had recommended I buy a Ford (not my normal choice, tend to go for old quality cars, german/swedish), I ignored a lot of warning signs, the guy buying it was dodgy as heck and spinning me all sorts of yarns looking back – said the former owner was disabled etc. The thing that took me in most though was the fact that he had the official MOT mileage history printed off that you can obtain, showing the mileage at each MOT, so I believed it. However the car’s engine warning light was on all the time, so I took it to my normal garage to get it checked out. They told me I’d bought an old taxi, they showed me on the back windscreen where you could just make out where the private hire sticker had been, they also pointed out to evidence of the car having a front ender and a side impact, and pointed out to me the worn seats and gear leaver cover. I think because we had been driving an even older car before (a P reg Audi with 200k miles on the clock!), it genuinely seemed a much nicer newer car – it was half the age for starters – I put the worn seats down to the age, plus they were cheap cloth where my Audi had been leather. My garage said that the taxi firm would have just clocked the car each year before taking it for an MOT to ensure they could sell the car when they were done with it. I made a huge mistake, was in too much of a rush to try and grab a bargain. The garage found a dozen faults being flagged up on the ECU, I thought I just needed a new alternator but the ECU keeps turning on the immobiliser intermittently, giving problems starting and it has once cut out on me while driving. The log book has not come through yet (I bought it two weeks ago), but I have reported to the police and Autotrader (where the ad was) and am going to go to Trading standards.
Says:
Hi, so sorry to hear about your problems and of course it’s a problem when you buy a car privately, I have heard of rental cars and company cars being registered in the name of private individuals in order to sell them for more money and as I’ve said until the equipment used to change the mileage is banned clocking will continue to happen. Whilst it would seem that you have been conned and the car has been misrepresented you will have little help from the police who are stretched anyway, trading standards will only really become involved if a company is involved and Autotrader will distance themselves as simply the advertising medium. So it leaves you to take the seller to court (small claims court) in order to get him to take the car back and return your money as he has fraudulently misrepresented the car to you. However you will need to gather some solid proof if you are to take this route. Sometimes it’s worth going to a solicitor and getting him to send the seller a letter threatening court action unless he takes the car back and refunds the money that you have paid, might be worth a try. Good luck and in future have an independent inspection carried out – but then I probably didn’t need to tell you that!