Green Flag

Report slams used car dealers

18 March 2010

An official report has found that used car dealers are not only being unhelpful but also resorted to illegal means to sell their products.

Almost 20% of consumers who buy cars from dealers face problems with the vehicle, with 70% of them reporting problems within the first month of purchase, the report by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) said.

However, three out of ten who contacted their dealer could not get the faults fixed, and ended up spending up to £425 each, or around £85 million a year in total rectifying them, the OFT revealed.

Around 27% of consumers said used car dealers were very unhelpful and 11% found them fairly unhelpful.

The report also found that illegal "clocking" - adjusting the car to show a false mileage - could be leading to a loss of £580 million annually for consumers.

Other illegal activities dealers engage in include pretending to be private sellers so as to evade their obligations to consumers and to unload unsafe or clocked cars.

According to the OFT, more than £40 million of second-hand car sales could be a victim of this practice every year.

Copyright © Press Association 2010