This week Down to Business started its Motoring Mailbag section on the show, where listeners get a chance to send in their motor related questions. Unsurprisingly a myriad of questions came into Bobby Kerr covering many aspects of cars. The new monthly segment gives coverage to some of the latest motoring news, and it also gave a chance to listeners to send in their motor-related queries.
News - Recalls
This month the news stories we covered included the latest recalls as well as some news on Google’s autonomous car. Below is further information on these stories.
We talked briefly about the Takata Airbag recalls – the most recent Takata recall news involves Toyota, Nissan and Honda. Since 2008, up to 36 million cars have been recalled worldwide due to potential Takata airbag issues. It has affected other manufacturers including BMW, Subaru, Ford, Chrysler, Mitsubishi, General Motors and Mazda.
Last week Toyota in Ireland announced a recall of 27,000 of their vehicles. Nissan Ireland recalled 15,500, and more recently Honda has announced a recall of approximately 9,000 vehicles (according to the Honda Ireland website – which says that they are confirming exact numbers of vehicles affected).
The Honda recall consists of replacing the passenger’s airbag inflator in circa 6,500 vehicles “including selected 03-08 Jazz, 03-06 Civic, 03-09 Accord, 03-05 Stream and 02-07 CR-V.” In approximately 2,500 vehicles Honda will be replacing the driver’s airbag inflator in vehicles including “selected 04-07 Jazz and 04-05 Civic.”
Toyota’s recalls involve 24,000 Corolla, Yaris and Avensis Verso models which were built between April 2004 and November 2007 (passenger airbags), and 3,000 Rav4 and Hi-Lux models built between July 2003 and November 2005 (driver airbags). Nissan is recalling 15,500 Patrols, Tinos, Almeras, X-Trails, Terranos and D22 trucks in Ireland.
To date six deaths have been linked to shrapnel from defective Takata air bags – all of which were in Honda vehicles. According to the Honda Ireland web site “there have been no accidents or injuries associated with this latest recall anywhere in Europe.”
News – Google Car
Also discussed on the Motoring Mailbag was the story about Google’s self-driving cars, which have now covered 1.7million miles over the last six years. During this mammoth journey the cars have only been involved in eleven minor collisions, none of which we are told were Google’s fault.
Queries – Classic cars
Questions received during the show covered the usual to the slightly unusual. One listener asked where they should go to look at buying a classic car - we recommended the website carandclassic.co.uk. Another similar question was from a person who said they had a 1983 Ford Capri in “excellent condition” – they queried what they might get if they sold such a vehicle. My own estimate on one of these in excellent condition would be between €8,000 and €10,000 – but don’t take my word for it, check the aforementioned web site, and ask people on the likes of boards.ie.
Queries – Dog hairs
One of the more unusual questions was about ways of removing dog hairs from the back seat of a car. What I recommended was that you wet your hand with water and rub it over the area with hair – this collects the hairs into balls and should allow you to pick it off. Another method is to use an inflated balloon – the static should lift the hairs.
Queries – Clocking
The most serious query of the morning was regarding clocking. For those of you who don’t know, clocking is when the mileage reading within a car is changed. This can be a very dishonest practice, and it was outlawed in Ireland for the first time last year – Europe is currently working on legislation to outlaw it there too.
So, what are the tell-tale signs of clocking? Firstly, and it’s a cliché by now, but if the mileage seems too good to be true… (I don’t need to finish that sentence). Sure, there are some well-kept gems out there with low mileage, but sometimes it’s better to follow your gut.
Let’s create an example. The car we’ll use will be a 2010 large family saloon, a nice looking car. We’ll pretend that it has been advertised as having done 60,000km on the clock, and it’s a diesel.
Straight away alarm bells are ringing in my head – only 60,000km since 2010, yes it is possible, but it’s a diesel - which generally should only be bought if the owner is intending on doing a lot of miles. The average annual car mileage for a petrol engine car in Ireland is 17,000km (24,000km for a diesel), now multiply that by five (85,000km for a petrol or 120,000km for a diesel) and that figure is far larger than the car on offer in the sample ad above.
As I’ve said, it does occasionally happen that gems like these become available, so what are the other tell-tale signs?
Wear and tear is always a good indicator as to mileage. Check the simple things. If the mileage is really this low, then you should expect that the interior will be in good condition. Check the steering wheel, if it seems overly worn, then suspicions should be raised. Have a look at the gear stick; can you still make out the numbers? Is the stitching ripped around it? What about the upholstery in the seats, are there tears, are they worn looking? All of these simple things can be giveaways as to whether or not somebody has been fiddling with the car’s odometer.
Another simple thing to check is whether or not the car has a log book. If the car is from 2010, I can’t think of any logical reason as to why there wouldn’t be a log book. If there is one, examine it for a service record – remember, things like this can be forged – so if you want to be cautious, ring the mechanic who stamped the book and get them to confirm the mileage, reason for servicing, etc.
I always recommend used-car purchasers should check a car’s history. There are two main sites that deal with this in Ireland - Cartell.ie and Motorcheck.ie. These guys have the history behind your car - in fact Cartell.ie actually aided in getting the clocking legislation through in Ireland. At a small enough cost (especially when you consider how much you are going to spend on buying a car) a report from a site like this can give you wonderful head-peace on the deal that you are considering, it could save you thousands (and a lot of heartache).
Reports like these will tell you whether or not it is an ex-company car - a mileage reading as low as the one in the example above would certainly make me think twice about buying if the history check reported it as being ex-company;
These reports also let you know it the car is an ex-taxi - if a history report shows a car as being ex-taxi, I would certainly expect the mileage to be high.
Among other things, these reports will also tell you whether or not the car has been written-off or if it has been imported to Ireland.
For next month we would like to welcome all of your questions to the Motoring Mailbag, you can email the show directly (downtobusiness@newstalk.com) and we’ll try and cover your query. If you want to listen to the Motoring Mailbag on Down to Business from last Saturday, you can do so here.
