The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) has called for the creation of a publicly-accessible database containing details of used cars. Anyone currently buying a used car can only rely on the information contained on an NCT test certificate, based on a limited examination of roadworthiness.
Prospective purchasers seeking more detail of a vehicle’s history, such as whether it was imported from abroad or written off, can pay one of a number of companies to provide a history online.
The latter option is not expensive, with basic checks costing from €15. The providers source their information from a number of official databases maintained by the Department of Transport (DOT) and other bodies as well as independent sources. They do not disclose too much detail about how they procure their information for obvious competitive reasons.
The CCPC believes that the details of cars that are crashed, repaired and put back on the road should be captured by the State and made available via an online portal. They argue that this happens to a greater or lesser extent in most other EU member states, as well as the UK. Last year alone the CCPC received 3,192 calls to its consumer helpline concerning issues with second-hand cars. The inference is that many could have been avoided had histories been publicly available.
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They also make the point that although insurance companies are required to tell the department about cars they deemed write-offs or unsuitable for repair, they do not have to disclose details of those which they deem uneconomic to repair but often end up back on the road.
Given the costs involved in a public database it is important that the CCPC shows how it would provide better value to the taxpayer than the current services. Alternatively, any gap in the information available to private car check companies could be addressed through regulation, while the issue of the price charged to car buyers for online checks could be dealt with through fostering competition.
