Car clocking costing the Irish consumer up to €60m annually

The practice of winding back the odometer in cars is still ‘widespread'

The practice of clocking a car involves turning back the odometer on the cars dashboard so that it can be sold for a much higher price. Car clocker’s often take thousands of miles off sometimes doubling a cars value.

Now the European Parliament’s Transport Committee is calling for a pan-European database of car mileage in an attempt to stamp out the practice that could be costing up to €9.6bn annually across the EU.

In Ireland car clocking is illegal and can result in a fine of up to €2,500 and/or a maximum jail term of three months. Despite the new law that was brought in this year new research carried out by the car history web site Motorcheck.ie suggests that the practice of ‘clocking’ is still widespread.

Fine Gael MEP for Ireland South Deirdre Clune has called for a pan-European action plan to put a stop to ‘clocking’

Ms Clune said she would be asking the Transport Commissioner Maroš Šefcovic to prioritise the proposals for an EU based statutory mileage database that would share readings collected across the EU from official sources such as NCT centres and Revenue.

The Road Safety Authority has concerns with sharing millage data as there may be data protection concerns with the sharing of personal information to a third party.

Michael Rochford, Managing Director of Motorcheck.ie said “It is my understanding that there are data protection concerns at play but these concerns have been addressed properly with the data protection commissioner and there is no good reason why certain mileage data cannot be shared in order to equip both the industry and consumers with the tools to combat this illegal practice.” he concluded.