The AA has released findings that show 18.5% of second hand cars imported from the UK have had their mileage doctored. The analysis is based on a survey of 3,000 registration numbers and vehicle records for cars imported from the UK in 2008.

UK imports have seen something of a boom with 49,000 being brought into Ireland in 2007. It now emerges that almost 1 in 5 of those cars has a false mileage. Overall estimates in the UK show that as many as 9% of all cars may be clocked. The clocking rates for imports into Ireland, is twice that found in the UK itself.

Clocking a car is not an offence in itself under Irish law. The AA wants to change this and introduce the offence. The AA also wants to introduce the equivalent of a car ‘death certificate’ whereby a car that is written off is correctly disposed of and its registration number is retired.