Cars with fewer kilometres on the clock are worth more than high-kilometre cars.
This simple commercial reality has motivated some rogue used car dealers over the years to resort to odometer wind-back – a practice in which odometers are tampered with to show lower kilometres.
Modern odometers display the number of kilometres a car has travelled digitally, making them even easier to wind-back. This scam rips off people who rely on the information given to them by dealers when buying their cars.
It could also endanger lives as mechanical issues may be overlooked when owners are misinformed about their car’s age and regular service needs.
The news that at least two used car dealers have allegedly been tampering with the odometers of imported Japanese cars has understandably angered many car owners who have been the victims of these scams. They rightly demand answers after discovering that they purchased vehicles that had tens of thousands of kilometres wiped off the clock.
In a terse statement, Minister Julia Farrugia Portelli, responsible for consumer affairs, said: “The consumers should never be treated this way. We have zero-tolerance for such cases.”
She was more economical in proposing the solutions that cheated car owners seek. She hinted that this is a matter for the police if there is evidence of criminal behaviour by the used car dealers.
The role of Transport Malta, Customs, and the police in this saga needs to be highlighted as this public agency has a responsibility to protect consumers from such scams.
It is still not clear who is responsible to verify that the mileage shown on the imported cars tallies with the mileage shown on the export certificate issued by a Japanese agency. Transport Malta argues that: “Transport Malta does not inspect any vehicles coming from non-EU countries including Japan.”
The board of Transport Malta, like that of any organisation, is ultimately responsible for ensuring that the processes used to serve their clients are robust. Transport Malta charges all car owners in Malta significant amounts of money to register their cars and use the roads.
They, therefore, have a direct responsibility to ensure that car owners are not ripped off because two or three public entities fail to coordinate their work to ensure that the clients are not taken for a ride.
Any criminal action that the police may take against the alleged scammers will ultimately be heard and determined by the law courts. Still, the people of trust appointed by the government to manage public entities like Transport Malta need to be investigated to determine any possible failures on their part to ensure that this public agency was managed in the consumers’ best interest.
One can only hope that the blame is not shifted to some relatively minor official. It is often convenient for public organisations with weak governance systems to find a scapegoat in the operations set up while the big brass gets away with arguing that they could not possibly be aware of any widespread failures of processes.
Unfortunately, consumers will continue to be ripped off by some rogue business people as long as the latter believe that they can get away with their dishonest practices.
Still, the government must ensure that its representatives in public agencies are held accountable when they fail to protect consumers.