Right car, wrong year - Customers, dealers in manufacture date mix-up

In January this year, Arthur Spencer decided to surprise his wife by changing her 1998 Honda Civic for a newer model car. The 2007 Toyota Corolla Altis he bought and presented in good style was a very welcome surprise, but the real shock was Spencer's.

Four months after an initial valuation, dated March 24, 2011, which showed the car as a 2007 model and, "basically, spot on" with the $1.95 million for which it was advertised, a second valuation (dated August 2) showed that the motor vehicle is a 2004 model, valued at $1.3 million. The year was confirmed by the Island Traffic Authority (ITA) in a letter to the Consumer Affairs Commission, dated September 30.
Spencer has not yet passed on the shock to his wife, who is happy with the car and blissfully unaware that the vehicle she is driving is not only worth over $600,000 less than the purchase price, but also each monthly payment - by Spencer's estimation - is $16,000 to $18,000 more than he would be paying at the lower value.

The loan period is four years for a vehicle that, based on the year of manufacture and current policy restricting importation to vehicles three years old at maximum, should not even be in the country.

"I specifically wanted an Altis. It is a nice car and very economical in terms of gas. I wanted something that she could manage. She drives all about," Spencer said.

Spencer and the dealer from which he bought the Altis, Crichton Automotive Ltd's Kingston outlet, are caught in a manufacture date mix-up that stretches all the way to Singapore and Thailand and, as things stand, are at an impasse. Spencer wants back his money.

On the other hand, Kirk Crichton, managing director of Crichton Automotive, told Automotives "I do not know where to turn now. It is not a matter of the compensation now, but the reputation. If I turn around and compensate anybody, legally it says I did something wrong. And that is not the case".

widespread problem

It would be a lot of compensation from Crichton, who says he has had about 10 cases at his dealership over the past three months. And, as vice-president of the newly installed executive of the Jamaica Used Car Dealers Association (JUCDA), he knows how widespread the problem is. "This is something that is plaguing the industry," he said. "I have dealers calling me from Montego Bay and something has to be done about it."

It is not only the very popular Altis which is affected. Crichton said that there are also issues with the Nissan Sunny and Cicero, Toyota Vios and Camry and Mazda 6. The root of the problem is the 10th digit in the vehicle identification number that is unique to each car manufactured. Normally that number indicates the year of manufacture; in the affected vehicles it is simply '0'. Initially these were domestic models, never intended for export.

A director of the loss adjustment company which did the first valuation on Crichton's lot in Kingston admit that "it is something we should have picked up on" and attribute the slip-up to their reliance on the documents received from the Customs Department. Now that they are aware of the situation affecting vehicles, he said "what we have done, even before it became public, is to say that that this vehicle is registered as a 2007, but it is a 2004 (for example). So we send both values to the bank and so on". He said that they have learnt about a website, www.toyodiy.com, from which information on manufacture year can be obtained.

And he emphasised that "there is absolutely no collusion (with the dealer). It is just in the normal course of business".

MSC McKay (Ja.) Ltd picked up the discrepancy in a valuation done for insurance purposes by their Ocho Rios, St Ann, office, as the insurance coverage Spencer had transferred from another vehicle had expired. After receiving the valuation, he said, "I went to Crichton the following day". That was August 4, the beginning of an interaction that has, so far, proved fruitless.

David McKay of MSC McKay and president of the Loss Adjusters Association, underscored just how widespread the problem of a discrepancy with manufacture date is, saying, "we probably go through 10 of these a day", adding the Nissan Bluebird to the list of affected cars. "With Singapore, it is up to five years out," McKay said.

decoding process

To get it right, MSC McKay has a database for the manufacturer, an electronic parts catalogue. "What you do is enter the chassis number of the car and it decodes the year," McKay said.

Verifying the year of the car is the first step in a valuation, but McKay also pointed out that the problem is longstanding, although it seems to have intensified. "The problem is ongoing. I have been dealing with it for 15 years," he said. Initially, discrepancies were discovered when a vehicle was in an accident and parts had to be sourced overseas, based on, the purported model year - but would not fit when they arrived.

Contact was made with the manufacturers to rectify the situation and McKay said, "in 2003 we set up a meeting with the Island Traffic Authority, Trade Board and so on and we presented them with the information we had". That led to a Ministry paper. McKay said another meeting is in train to deal with the current situation.

Even with his expertise, McKay said "there are still cars I cannot decode, that I have to get to the manufacturers to decode".

Clive McDonald, chief inspector at the ITA, said that in determining the manufacture year of a vehicle, "as a routine, we do not really check the year of manufacture. It is really given to us". That comes through the entry document for the vehicle. "It is when people raise the alarm - and the loss adjusters have been raising the alarm - that is when we check". He has seen the problem affect mostly vehicles which are purportedly made in 2006.

And Crichton points to the multiple checks a vehicle goes through in coming into the country and questions how a vehicle can end up with a fitness certificate from the ITA for a particular manufacture year, then be verified as another year by the same authority. "Is it that they got new information from somewhere? If it is so, can we see it? Is it information I can have access to? Have you presented it to the Trade Board?" he asked. "Why is it we are still getting [certificate of fitness] fitness saying 2007?"

Crichton said there will be a JUCDA meeting tomorrow and this is one of the matters to be addressed.

The man who is stuck with the wrong year vehicle (for which the fitness certificate and current valuation now state different years), the higher loan payments, lower value and a very bitter feeling will not be at that meeting. Spencer wants compensation, even as he says the Altis "drives well. I don't drive it often, but it is a nice car".

* Not his real name

melville.cooke@gleanerjm.com




McKay





The Island Traffic Authority letter confirming the vehicle as being made in 2004.







McDonald