ACCC lets down motorists again | comment

For the second time this year, Australia's peak consumer protection authority has let down the motorist.

Earlier this year, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) embarked on a probe into capped price servicing because it took exception to prices creeping up with CPI over the life of a car.

The net result of that was many car makers, such as Kia, have now hidden their prices because you need a vehicle identifying number to access the figures. This means buyers can't compare before they buy.

And guess what? Prices have crept up more, because they're not openly available until after you bought a car.

This week News Corp Australia exclusively revealed the ACCC has known for six weeks about counterfeit airbag parts -- that can fail to deploy in a crash -- which fit up to 2 million Toyotas.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but lives are at stake here

Despite the potentially deadly consequences and a briefing by Toyota warning of the dangers, the ACCC apparently did nothing.

When we enquired, the ACCC initially directed us to the department that handles recalls. But the bogus parts can't be recalled because they're distributed illegally, and so that department sent us back to the ACCC.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but lives are at stake here — and motorists have fallen between the cracks in the bureaucracy.

Here's hoping action is taken before a serious injury or fatality occurs as a result. 

Meanwhile, consider this. If the Federal Government can't protect us from counterfeit airbag parts, how on earth can it filter the dodgy examples of privately imported cars, which it plans to deregulate soon?