{"id":225457,"date":"2025-12-10T11:39:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T11:39:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/225457\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T11:39:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T11:39:15","slug":"after-dodging-dodgy-car-reader-seeks-to-save-others-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/225457\/","title":{"rendered":"After dodging dodgy car, reader seeks to save others \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI am not sure where to start with this but I am hoping you might have an idea,\u201d starts the mail from Cathal. \u201cIt relates to that traditionally murky world of second-hand car sales<\/a>.\u201d <\/p>\n

Cathal\u2019s daughter recently went to \u201cbuy a 131D car from a dealer,\u201d he continues. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey have a showroom and repair\/body shop [and] before buying I had it checked out for her by my mechanic of many years. The message back after checking it was \u2018run a mile\u2019 as it had severe underbody rusting (some of which was painted over to disguise) and there were visible fractures in the underbody caused by the rust (we have photos).\u201d<\/p>\n

Cathal says that to \u201cmake matters worse, on driving the car back to the garage after our first test drive, the brakes failed!\u201d<\/p>\n

He says this was all despite the fact the car had passed its National Car Test<\/a> (NCT) the previous week. <\/p>\n

\u201cOn returning the car I received some cock and bull story about the car coming in from the North and then using salt on roads up there etc etc,\u201d he continues. <\/p>\n

He says that \u201cout of curiosity, I checked DoneDeal<\/a> earlier and there it is … still for sale two weeks later. My obvious concern is that someone else\u2019s daughter or unsuspecting buyer will be cheated into buying this \u2018death trap\u2019. My other concern is how the NCT passed them (I have a well maintained and serviced car and generally takes two attempts to pass the NCT on a relatively minor issue compared to this case).<\/p>\n

\u201cHave you any suggestions on where we can turn? Are there any mechanisms to air concerns from a consumer perspective? They are not a member of SIMI or any other such organisations. I just don\u2019t want to see anyone else being put at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0NCT faces fresh accusation of passing unfit car as safeOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

It certainly sounds like a very dodgy situation and our reader deserves credit both for dodging a bullet on behalf of his daughter and being sufficiently civic minded to want to do more about it to protect someone else.<\/p>\n

He did not give us the details of the dealership or the car but his first port of call has to be the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year motoring journalist Neil Briscoe highlighted stories of cars<\/a> that were clearly not fit for the roads passing the NCT and at the time the CCPC had a strong view on the matter. <\/p>\n

Patrick Kenny of the commission told The Irish Times that the car industry \u201cis the single biggest driver of calls to our helpline and we prioritise cases that involve unroadworthy vehicles or multiple complaints about the same person.\u201d<\/p>\n

He noted that consumers who buy from a private seller have fewer statutory rights but because our reader nearly bought this car from a dealership which is still trying to sell it, it should be easier to hold it to account.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Best cars to buy in 2026: from family EVs to city runaboutsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The best advice for all readers who are buying cars is to do what Cathal did and get cars checked by a mechanic before buying and get a car history report from an online provider.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI am not sure where to start with this but I am hoping you might have an idea,\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225458,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,7771,2190,18,19,17,8300,68460,6641],"class_list":{"0":"post-225457","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-competition-and-consumer-protection-commission-ccpc","10":"tag-cost-of-living","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-motors","15":"tag-nct","16":"tag-pricewatch"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115695082930678165","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}