SECOND-HAND DEATHTRAPS EXCLUSIVE Half of old cars a danger By Stephen Hayward Consumer Correspondent /2007
Dealers are selling thousands of second-hand cars with potentially deadly faults. Safety checks found an astonishing FIVE OUT OF TEN used cars were too dangerous to drive away. Faults including defective brakes, dodgy steering, badly-worn tyres and broken headlights were revealed during an undercover trading standards probe into Britain’s 20billion-a-year used car market. Experts bought 10 cars, up to 12 years old and costing between 340 and 1,100, from garages in Hertfordshire.
All had valid MoT certificates. But one - an N-reg 795 Fiat Punto SX - had badly-worn brake pads, broken front headlights, faulty steering, tyres with too little tread and one the wrong size for the car. The brakes of an L-reg Ford Escort 1.4 sold for 340 were so bad that even pressing on them lightly caused the car to pull sharply to the left. Three other cars were also unroadworthy and five had a range of less serious faults including signs of corrosion, oil leaks and suspension defects.
Last night trading standards officers who carried out the probe called the findings “horrifying” and warned that the problem was not limited to Hertfordshire. A spokesman said: “This was a snapshot of the cheaper end of the market. We believe it’s a nationwide problem.” Last week the dealership who sold the 795 Fiat Punto were fined 1,250 and ordered to pay 265 costs.
Calibre Cars boss Stuart Kilbride, 35, of London Colney, near St Albans, Herts, was fined 250 and ordered to pay 264 costs for the same offence. Independent dealer Keith Flint, 52, also of St Albans, was given a 12-month conditional discharge and told to pay 705 costs for selling the Ford Escort.