Vehicle clocking costing UK drivers £762m a year
Vehicle clocking scams are costing UK drivers £762m a year, new figures released by the vehicle history checking service carVertical reveal.
Car clocking involves altering a car’s displayed mileage to hide how many miles the vehicle has accurately travelled.
Falsely lowering a used vehicle’s mileage can inflate its sale price by up to 29%, adding an extra £4,758 to the average car buyer’s bill.
It is estimated that 2.1% of second-hand cars in the UK have been clocked, meaning about 160,000 drivers could be victims of mileage fraud. Nearly new cars are most at risk, although carVertical analysis suggest that 1.89% of second-hand vehicles less than five years old may have been clocked.
KIAs are the most commonly clocked nearly-new vehicles (nine per cent), ahead of Nissans (6.84%), Dacias (6.16%), Subarus (5.04%) and Citreons (4.72%)
Vehicle clocking
Matas Buzelis, car expert at carVertical, said:
“Drivers in the UK are overpaying for clocked cars to the tune of more than three quarters of billion pounds a year. This fraudulent practice is not only cheating them out of their hard-earned money, it’s tricking them into buying a car that has travelled many more miles than they’re aware.
“Although car dealers who manipulate a vehicle’s mileage for financial gain can be prosecuted under the Consumer Regulation Act, little effort is being made to catch scammers.
“Fixing the problem of odometer fraud in the UK and Europe therefore isn’t easy. Even for savvy buyers, it can be hard to detect, but criminals can’t hide a vehicle’s whole history. Harnessing data about mileage, damage, ownership and registration is helping to protect consumers from clocking scams.”
