Used Car Quality Certification System To Be Introduced

The quality certification system for the used car will be introduced next month.

According to the car industry circles yesterday, the government plans to revise the detailed enforcement regulations of the consumer protection law in order to establish the ground for the obligation of quality certification and the compensation of damages, and it will execute the revised regulations from July 1.

The business circles anticipated that if this new system is settled down, it can contribute to establish the culture of used car transaction, and to dispel the distrust in the used car business.

Last year, the number of the used car traded in the market reached 1.7 million units, which exceeded that of the new car (1.4 million units).

In proportion to the scale of the transaction, 194 cases of damages from the used car transactions were reported to the Korea Consumer Protection Board (KCPB), increased 74.8 percent from the last year (111 cases). The fraudulent trades, which deceive the quality of the car, reached over 60 percent of the total reports.

After the quality certification system for the used car is introduced, the claim can be raised by the consumers who are damaged from the concealment of the accident record and the falsification of the odometer. And the claimers can request to the used car company for repair, exchange or refund.

And `the performance inspection record book` is given to the consumer, and the consumer have to keep it for a year, which will be used as a documentary evidence when the dispute between the used car company and the consumer occurs.

daviskim@donga.com