Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1469874
NEWS 9 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 5 JUNE 2022 How to find out the real mileage of your used Japanese import receiving the documentation does not bother to verify the documentation with the online JEVIC database and the im- ported vehicle is given the of- ficial stamp with the tampered mileage. The car is then marketed in the showroom with low mile- age and sold to unwitting cus- tomers. 'Something was fishy' Multiple industry sources who spoke to MaltaToday said the culprits would import a batch of vehicles but only tam- per with half of them. "They are intelligent. Out of 50 imported cars, 30 would be legitimate," the sources said. But the practice raised eye- brows after other car dealers noticed a drop in their sales when compared to the large quantity of cars being sold by the two suspect dealers. "They used to sell between 10 and 15 cars a week, while we were barely selling two," car dealers who spoke to MaltaTo- day on condition of anonymity said. "We knew something was fishy." They also noticed the dealer- ships behind the racket were selling cars which were hard to come by during auctions. "Let's look at the Mazda De- mio for example. Grey and white models are easy to find, but blue or maroon ones are not that common, and every- one wants them. But these two dealerships did not appear to have any of these problems to source such popular colours. They were obviously buying them at a cheaper price, be- cause of the high mileage and so there were fewer compet- ing bidders," one of the dealers said. Documents seen by Malta- Today show the repeated tam- pering of mileage, giving the impression the cars are newer than they are. A Mazda Demio was regis- tered in Malta with a mileage of 38,887km, but the original JE- VIC certificate showed a mile- age of 109,785km. A Toyota IQ was registered with a mileage of 36,522km, but its original JE- VIC certificate showed a mile- age of 136,522 kms – 1,000km more. A Suzuki Swift was registered with 36,522km, while original documentation showed a mile- age of 136,522km. Skewing the playing field The racket appears to have stopped just over a month ago when the authorities started investigating. But the practice, which created an unfair play- ing field, has since driven some dealers out of business. "At least I have a bigger show- room, and come from a gen- eration of car dealers, but not all of us were so lucky," one of the sources who spoke to this newspaper said. "I know some- one who was driven to depres- sion. He was so broke that he couldn't afford a car. Imagine that, a car dealer who does not own a car." He described the situation honest dealers were facing. "It was crazy seeing people go on test-drives as soon as they en- ter their showroom. Custom- ers used to come to us and tell us: 'Listen that dealer is selling cars with lower mileage which are cheaper than yours.' We would be baffled." And to top it all, the crooks would be able to save face with consumers if the tampered vehicles developed some mal- function since the cost of re- pair would pail into insignifi- cance when compared to the income they would have made. "Cars, especially with high mileage, do develop problems but if the dealer fixed the faulty vehicle for free, they would still be making a profit, while mak- ing the customer happy," one of the sources said. GET IN TOUCH kazzopardi@mediatoday.com.mt 1. Check your chassis number. The number can be found on your licence disc or log book. 2. Go to: members.jevic.com 3. If you have a popup blocker disable it 4. Enter the chassis number in the required field 5. The JEVIC certificate will be issued 6. Compare your current mileage with the mileage on the certificate 7. If you have less mileage on your instrument cluster than on your JEVIC certificate, contact your car dealer for an explanation Car Date of inspection JEVIC (km) VRT (km) Discrepancy - mileage in kilometeres - Mazda Demio 28/09/2020 109,785 38,887 70,898 Nissan March 11/08/2020 110,034 56,604 53,430 Mazda Demio 25/01/2021 57,065 27,065 30,000 Toyota IQ 05/04/2021 136,522 36,522 100,000 Toyota IQ 16/02/2022 90,241 21,000 69,241 Mazda Demio 29/09/2021 121,491 21,491 100,000 Mazda Demio 08/11/2021 129,353 30,000 99,353 Suzuki Swift 08/11/2021 103,636 43,721 59,915 Mazda Demio 16/02/2021 83,571 23,638 59,933 Smart Brabus 15/01/2020 139,965 27,000 112,965 Mazda Demio 12/07/2021 153,302 23,302 130,000 Mazda Demio 15/10/2022 82,756 38,623 44,133 Toyota Ractis 25/09/2020 90,207 32,905 57,302 Toyota Passo 24/01/2022 134,084 34,084 100,000 Nissan GT-R 2015 89,000 26,000 63,000 Honda FIT Hybrid 29/09/2021 91,447 21,447 70,000 Toyota Vitz 25/08/2020 90,904 39,511 51,393 Mazda Demio 01/12/2020 66,729 6,816 59,913 MaltaToday arrived at the discrepancies by comparing original JEVIC mileages in the publicly accessible online database wit the mileage appearing in the system accessed by our sources THE INVESTIGATION "It was crazy seeing people go on test-drives as soon as they enter their showroom. Customers used to come to us and tell us: 'Listen that dealer is selling cars with lower mileage which are cheaper than yours.' We would be baffled."