An industry body has claimed that car buyers were not misled and that their purchase was good value after a report had revealed that thousands of motorists had unwittingly purchased ex rental cars from official dealerships.

Many car buyers purchased cars well above the going rate after they were told that the vehicle had only one previous owner, when in fact it was rented to many hundreds of drivers, who often treated the car poorly.

Transport spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, Norman Baker, has called for rules and regulations to be tightened.  He said that his was a shady practise in a bid to get higher prices for used vehicles.

He added by saying that ex-rental cars should be clearly labelled and he would like to see trading standards brought in to test whether the activity could be a breach of consumer rights regulations.

The industry body, the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association has hit back by saying that the cars were well maintained and were a good purchase for motorists.

The association added by saying that the car rental sector was a crucial supplier of good-value nearly new vehicles, and without a yearly supply of 300,000 to 400,000 vehicles, buyers would find it hard to find a competitively priced second-hand cars under a year old.

A spokesman for the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association said that the vehicles are usually maintained on the fleet for six to eight months prior to being sold to a dealer or back to the manufacturer.  Those vehicles would still be covered by manufacturer warranty and would have been better looked after than most privately-owned cars.

A report revealed by the Office of Fair trading has showed that UK’s £35 billion used car market had received 68,000 complaints last year to Consumer Direct in 2008.

It is currently being considered if the legislation for consumer protection is strong enough.