Car history check provider Motorcheck.ie have announced the results of an in-depth study into the number of clocked cars in Ireland.
The study is the first of its kind to publish the top twenty makes and models of cars on the road that are potentially clocked. Given that thirty-eight individual manufacturers were identified as having fallen victim to the fraud, it is clear that the vast majority of cars are susceptible to the practice and no individual brand is immune.
The study examined six thousand individual reports that were produced by Motorcheck.ie this year for private consumers.
Of the selection analysed, 1,224 vehicles (20%) were uncovered as having a discrepancy with the vehicles reported odometer reading.
Commenting on the results Motorcheck.ie Director Shane Teskey said, “It’s clear that car clocking is still a very serious problem in Ireland. The results of this analysis returned a discrepancy for one in every five cars, which is very worrying and shows that despite the advances in vehicle technology, car clocking is still prevalent.”
The study found that cars registered new outside Ireland, only had a slightly greater chance of returning an odometer discrepancy than those registered in Ireland. Of those linked to a UK registration plate, 55% were returned with a warning, whereas vehicles first registered in Ireland returned a mileage problem in 45% of cases.
Motorcheck.ie operates the Irish National Mileage Register (INMR), which currently holds in excess of 3.9 million odometer readings. For UK registered vehicles, the service has access to a database of over 50 million records. Motorcheck.ie claims that the ongoing improvement in its detection rate, is directly linked to the quantity and quality of readings compiled by its research team.
Top 20 Makes & Models The Top 20 Makes & Models listed below were extrapolated from the Motorcheck.ie study, where the affected vehicles are represented as a percentage of the total vehicles active on Irish roads.
| Make | Model | Estimated Clocked Cars
|
Ford
| Focus | 15,238 |
| Toyota | Avensis | 12,566 |
| VW | Passat | 10,820 |
| Toyota | Corolla | 8,588 |
| Ford | Transit | 7,479 |
| VW | Golf | 7,064 |
| Nissan | Almera | 6,666 |
| Audi | A4 | 5,484 |
| Ford | Mondeo | 5,169 |
| Renault | Megane | 4,512 |
| Nissan | Micra | 4,389 |
| BMW | 3 Series
| 3,937 |
| Skoda | Octavia | 3,817 |
| Opel | Astra | 3,370 |
| Renault | Scenic | 2,939 |
| Honda | Civic | 2,925 |
| Toyota | Yaris | 2,805 |
| Nissan | Primera | 2,706 |
| Peugeot | 307 | 2,533 |
| BMW | 5 Series
| 2,527 |
