The European Parliament has announced that it will ban firm which offer to wind back the mileage on cars and other road vehicles. It is commonly known as clocking. It was pushed through by a Czech motoring organisation which is equivalent to UK’s A and will go into force from mid-May 2018.
EU Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc said: “The directive explicitly stipulates that if the odometer is found to have been manipulated with the aim of reducing or misrepresenting the distance record of a vehicle the Member State shall ensure that appropriate penalties are in place. Consequently, the Commission considers that offering services linked to the manipulation of the tachometer cannot be considered as a legal activity.”
In UK, penalties already exist in the UK to ensure that dealers do not sell clocked cars and that if a private seller knowingly sells on a clocked car, they must disclose this to any potential buyer.
According to used car checking firm HPI, There was a three percent rise in the number of cars being clocked in 2013 in the UK when compared with figures from the previous year
After an investigation last year it was revealed that out just how easy it was to have a cars mileage altered. David Bruce, director of AA Cars said: “This will close a massive loophole that some dodgy car firms and owners were using legally to knock miles off the clock and push up the value of a vehicle.
“I don’t expect that this will call time on clocking for good, but it will remove the veneer of legitimacy that mileage adjustment firms were able to hide behind.”
