'Clocked' imports running at 30pc

WELLINGTON - Thirty per cent of used cars imported from Japan and Singapore have wound-back odometers, says a Customs Department inspector.

The finding follows a directive from Customs Minister Phillida Bunkle to beef up odometer inspections on imported vehicles.

Ms Bunkle said four times more vehicles with dodgy odometers had been confiscated in the past six months than in the preceding six.

About 200 seized vehicles now in an Auckland warehouse will possibly be auctioned for spare parts.

Auckland auto-electrician Darryl Muir, who inspects odometers for the department and car dealers, said tampering in imported cars was widespread.

"It's probably running at about 30 per cent."

Popular tampering candidates included the Subaru Legacy and Nissan Primera.

Mr Muir said it took 10 to 45 minutes to inspect an odometer. Once the dashboard was off, damage to the workings was easily spotted.

Instruments similar to dentists' tools were used to force wheels in the odometer backwards, he said.

Vehicles tended to be ratcheted back to below 100,000 km. In extreme cases, doctored vehicles originally had more than 200,000km on the clock.

Mr Muir said the odometers would have been changed in Japan, as there was not enough time to do it in New Zealand before the cars were inspected.

Winding back, or clocking, odometers gained notoriety in 1997 when 10 car dealers were accused of clocking by a former dealer. The High Court in Auckland threw out the case in 1998.

Anti-clocking crusader Dermot Nottingham last year accused another Auckland car dealer of conspiring to wind back odometers. The Auckland District Court last week acquitted the dealer.

- NZPA