Why does Ireland allow clocking?

gutteruu

Why do we allow clocking in this country. Reducing miles takes extra money from people which I would class as theft. You hear horror stories of people buying massively clocked cars and them having huge faults. There are ads everywhere for it, every second mechanic seems to do it no problem. People find it hard to trust private sales anymore etc etc.

So why do we allow it?

triple-M

there can be legit reasons for needing to clock a car

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4185896/Companies-cash-in-on-car-mileage-loophole.html

Guy:Incognito

We dont allow clocking and selling to unwitting buyers. Thats illegal. It is however legal to do what you want with your own property.

gutteruu

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

We dont allow clocking and selling to unwitting buyers. Thats illegal. It is however legal to do what you want with your own property.

I'm assuming we all know what's actually going on. By the letter of the law, yes, its illegal. In reality everyone is at it. Every other country manages to clamp down on it as its essentially theft, but Ireland turns a blind eye. Most big auction houses in UK will guarantee the mileage of cars sold. But as I seen in another thread here, if you see a clocked car in reality there's shag all that can be done.

Guy:Incognito

gutteruu wrote: »

I'm assuming we all know what's actually going on. By the letter of the law, yes, its illegal. In reality everyone is at it. Every other country manages to clamp down on it as its essentially theft, but Ireland turns a blind eye. Most big auction houses in UK will guarantee the mileage of cars sold. But as I seen in another thread here, if you see a clocked car in reality there's shag all that can be done.

How is clocking your own car theft? Its nothing more than modding unless you try to sell it on without telling the buyer.


I bought a Landcruiser recently. The speedo wasnt working. Not sure how long it was before I bought it and I only sorted it the othe rday but the end result is its basically clocked. Should I now be fined or something?

gutteruu

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

How is clocking your own car theft? Its nothing more than modding unless you try to sell it on without telling the buyer.

gutteruu wrote: »

I'm assuming we all know what's actually going on. By the letter of the law, yes, its illegal. In reality everyone is at it.

I never said clocking your own car is theft. I'm talking about people clocking cars to sell on. I thought that was a given.

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

Its nothing more than modding

Ah here!

Guy:Incognito

gutteruu wrote: »

Ah here!

What difference does it make to anyone else if someone wants to take a few thousand miles off their own car they are not selling?


BTW, what makes you think other countries have clamped down? Clocking is rife in the UK.

MagicMarker

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

What difference does it make to anyone else if someone wants to take a few thousand miles off their own car they are not selling?

Why would you want to do it if you're not selling it?

Guy:Incognito

MagicMarker wrote: »

Why would you want to do it if you're not selling it?

Why would people do a lot of the tastless crap they do to their cars (Including stuff that actually is illegal) ?


Plus, as has already been said, theres plenty of reasons a cars mileage may need to be altered (either up or down) at times.

gutteruu

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

BTW, what makes you think other countries have clamped down? Clocking is rife in the UK.

From Triple-M's link: Mileage checking firm HPI reckons one in 20 of the seven million used vehicles sold every year in Britain has false mileage.

From Motorchecks survey: The results were staggering - 1 in 5 of the vehicles we reported on were returned with an odometer discrepancy and potentially clocked.

I've a feeling if I rang enough ads for clocking on donedeal, I would get talking to you

djimi

What difference does it makes whether you make the actual act illegal or make not disclosing it to be illegal as fraud? Same end result at the end of the day; its against the law to clock a car and not disclose it when you go to sell it. Making the act itself illegal is not going to stop the guys from doing it; the same risk exists to the buyer at the point of sale.

Guy:Incognito

gutteruu wrote: »

I've a feeling if I rang enough ads for clocking on donedeal, I would get talking to you

Feel away. Dont see why you would. Plumbers generally dont get many calls to do work on cars.

I notice you havent adressed the legitimate reasons mileage may need to be altered. Or the fact that it just as prevelant (if not moreso) in other countries.

john.west

gutteruu wrote: »

In reality everyone is at it.

Don't you just hate these broad sweeping statements that don't have any foundation to them and are factually incorrect.

gutteruu

Just enforce the laws against selling clocked cars. There is almost no enforcement. Fine, clock all they want to their own property. No problem, but when 1 in 5 cars being sold are clocked it is a genuine problem.

bazz26

Currently it is not illegal to alter the mileage on a car, it is however illegal to knowingly sell a car that has had the mileage altered without informing the buyer. While it is obviously open to abuse there are also genuine cases where the mileage has to be altered, ie the digital odometer on some makes of cars tends to die so it has to be replaced with a new one and the mileage needs to be recalibrated.

There is also a responsibility on behalf of any prospective buyer to do appropriate background history checks on any car that they are looking at buying. The amount of people out there that just jump in with both feet, buy on impulse and ignore tell tail signs because the price is right.

If buyers were more prudent, valid service histories were the norm and mileage was recorded on national databases were in place then this sort of thing may not be as big a problem.