Odometers, mileages and Maltese logic – Arthur Muscat

About a fortnight ago, I came across a short MaltaToday report on a meeting with a mechanic. The report informs that this mechanic unknowingly participated in a scam allegedly pulled off by two second-hand car dealers.

The scam consisted of reducing, by thousands, the kilometres recorded on the odometers of imported Japanese second-hand cars. Allegedly, this allowed an upward effect on the price to be charged for each vehicle. It appears there are now hundreds of angry car buyers who feel cheated as they were allegedly sold deceptively described cars at inflated prices.

These buyers are offended that the authorities manifestly failed in their administrative duties, allowing these citizens to be taken for a ride.

In itself, this episode appears as a relatively mundane incident; however, on closer examination, interesting features start to emerge.  Some declarations, attributed to the mechanic, as well as the reactions to the incident of the authorities (the police, customs and Transport Malta), reveal a pattern of abnormal behaviour that does not surprise anymore and passes as normal.

In defence of his reputation, the mechanic declares that he was led to believe that the mileage...