Consumers needs to be wary of used car dealers.

I am alarmed at what is now taking place in the used car market and its time consumers take a serious look at who they decide to spend money with. In recent times we have heard of used car dealers selling vehicles up to four years older than they really are to unsuspecting customer, resulting in major headaches for customer should they have an accident or seeking a valuation done on their car.

There is another very disturbing trend, which has always been there but has gotten worse and that is “clocking”.  What happens in this case is the odometer is adjusted to show lower mileage than the vehicle actually travels, which then increases the value it can fetch for the dealers involved ( importer and exporter).

There have been cases for example where up to 100,000 km have been removed from the odometer reading leaving a car which had a real mileage of 137,000 km, with just 37,000 km.

Recently I went to a used car lot looking at vehicles and came across a 2007 model used car that was already been driven in Jamaica. I checked the mileage which showed just 37,000 km and said to the sales person, that mileage cannot be correct. The person said ” the vehicle was only being driven around kingston, hence the low mileage”.

Let’s therefore explore this.

Given the rules, this vehicle had to have been imported in 2012 which is two year ago and let’s assume it was on the lot for a year, it would have been sold sometime in 2013.

The average vehicle in Japan and most developed countries travel at least 10,000 miles or 16,000 km per year. It would therefore mean that this vehicle before coming to Jamaica in 2012 would have been driven for close 5 years and would have clocked around 90,000  km.

Let’s assume this vehicle was driven for 10,000 km per year in Jamaica, that would add another 20,000 km, which would bring the total mileage to 110,000 km, yet this vehicle only registered 37,000 km.

It is very clear to be that used car dealers here in Jamaica are colluding with those in Japan to cheat the Jamaican consumer and customers may want to reconsider their relationship with used car dealers.

I would at this time recommend that those in the market for cars either go to the local car dealers to get a new car or use these very dealers, who are now moving into “certified used car” business.

A visit to the local car dealers is really not so bad afterall and I see more and more people heading in this direction given the good deals the are offering.

Toyota Jamaica is now offering one year free service on the purchase of a new car and three years warranty. Stewart AutoSales is offering one year free service on its cars with extended warranty as well as in-house financing and will actually trade in your used vehicle for a new one.

I would recommend that people take a serious look at engaging the authorized dealers vs dealing with the crooks posing at used car dealers.

Bless