More mileage in disclaimers

Abstract

It is thirteen years since the passing of the Trade Descriptions Act 1968 and case law has now largely determined the effect of the major provisions of the Act. There is little doubt statistically that the Act has had its primary impact upon the motor trade, and that the most prosecuted offence is that of the ‘clocked’ car. There is a lot of additional money to be made if a car is sold with a low mileage rather than with a high one. A high proportion of new cars are supplied to companies who keep these fleet vehicles for about two years and then sell them, often through the large motor auctions, whereby they come into the hands of the motor trade. These fleet cars will invariably have travelled in excess of sixty thousand miles. Too many of these cars are handled by several dealers and then are displayed for sale to the public with a mileage shown in the region of twenty to thirty thousand. All that can be said in such a case is that someone, somewhere along the chain of distributors, has fraudulently turned back the vehicle odometer but it is usually very difficult to prove who did it.