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Episode 5

Consumer magazine. Rachel Treadaway-Williams, Lucy Owen and Rhodri Owen focus on shopping - what constitutes good value, how to save money and the dangers of buying cheap fakes.

The consumer magazine focuses on shopping - what constitutes value for money, how can you save on your daily spend and the dangers of buying cheap fakes. Rachel Treadaway-Williams visits Splott Market, and finds that many of the goods for sale aren't what they seem. Lucy Owen finds out how students in Aberystwyth are spending their cash, whilst Rhodri Owen sets shoppers a challenge - will they be able to tell the difference between counterfeit goods and the real thing?

Plus, electric cars - they are meant to save money and save the planet at the same time. But as one viewer discovered, getting around in an electric car is not always straightforward, particularly if the charge points are not working properly with your car.

30 minutes

Last on

Mon 3 Nov 2014 22:35

Market seizures

Market seizures

Splott Market is a Cardiff institution. Running for nearly 30 years it's where hundreds of shoppers flock in search of a bargain. But X-Ray has discovered that maybe not everything on sale there is quite as it seems, and we weren鈥檛 the only ones interested in what some of the traders are selling. We joined trading standards and environmental health officers as they launched an investigation at the market.聽

"We're here and our job is to make sure that the food that is displayed is compliant with food safety legislation, but it also doesn鈥檛 result in someone becoming ill", Jason Coward from Cardiff Environmental Health told us.聽

He was particularly concerned about one stall that was selling cooked meat products and how the goods were being stored.聽 The stall holder told him that they聽weren't for sale, but just minutes earlier, we had secretly聽filmed him selling such items.聽

Environmental health were also concerned that they hadn鈥檛 seen the stall holders washing their hands. The owners were later issued with a warning and advised on how to improve their systems.聽

But determined not to leave any stones unturned, trading standards returned a week later for another investigation.聽

鈥淭he purpose of today is to follow up on certain products we鈥檝e picked up on in previous visits鈥, Sarah Smith from Cardiff Trading Standards told us.聽

At the first stall, the owner had disappeared when the officers arrived. Fearing some of the perfume for sale didn鈥檛 comply with cosmetic safety regulations, trading standards seized it.聽

At another stall it聽looked like an innocent car boot sale, but the officers found something interesting in that boot.聽 "Some of the bags and accessories she's selling are not genuine", Sarah Smith told us. "They鈥檙e quite clearly counterfeit and the officers can see that by looking at the quality and the nature of them, so we're taking those items today".聽

Other stalls had items seized, including toys, out of date dairy products, e-cigarette liquids and sweets that weren鈥檛 labelled.聽

"In terms of the safety of unsafe goods we won't tolerate them being sold in places such as the market and if we find them we will take them", assured Sarah Smith.聽

Splott Market's owners told us that they work with trading standards to stamp out any counterfeit goods, and on the days we filmed it was a car boot sale with just a few traders present. They also say that all food stalls are fully monitored by Cardiff Council and have hygiene certificates.聽

All the other traders were given the chance to reply but only the e-cigarette and toy seller responded.聽 He said he handed over any goods of interest聽 to trading standards, and that the e-cigarette liquids on his stall were not for sale.

Electric car charges

Electric car charges

Electric cars are an incredibly effective way to cut down on fuel bills, but one viewer has found he just can鈥檛 make the journeys he鈥檇 wanted to.聽

Stephan Grabner from Abergavenny bought a Volkswagen e-Golf this summer hoping to use it for business trips to London.聽

But while he loved driving the gadget packed 拢25,000 car he found long journeys were all but impossible because of a lack of charging points and the shorter-than-advertised range of the car.聽

Stephan told X-Ray: 鈥淚t is not a cheap car and it is a nice car. But if you spend this much money you want to be able to use it and not just be able to go down to Tesco to buy a pint of milk.鈥澛

When he took the car home from the dealer in Watford he tried three rapid charge points on the M4, only to find none of them worked on his car. He returned home with his new car on the back of a recovery truck.聽

He then discovered the car鈥檚 range was much lower than advertised. While the headlines in the VW brochure claim the car will do 118 miles between charges, Stephan found he could go about 80 miles. VW point out that the small print in the brochure acknowledges that the car will do between 81 and 118 miles in normal driving and as little as 56 miles in cold weather.聽

So what went wrong?聽

Firstly, electric cars are a bit like mobile phones. They all take different chargers.聽

Before you buy an e-car you need to check what type of charger your car takes and where the charge points are. Most charge points are slow charge points which are great if you are staying the night. But rapid charge points are currently mainly in big cities or on motorways.聽

With Stephan鈥檚 e-Golf there is a software problem with many charge points but charging company Ecotricity says that will be fixed by mid-November 2014.聽

The second problem 鈥 the range of the car 鈥 can cause genuine difficulty.聽

Motoring journalist Alex Grant told X-Ray that they work best around town or on country roads where they recharge themselves through the braking system. They are less effective for motorway driving.聽

The advantage of e-cars are the low mileage costs. They average around 2 to 4p per mile. They don鈥檛 need to be taxed and even the London congestion charge is free (if you can get there!).

Read Lucy's latest blog .

Credits

Role Contributor
Presenter Lucy Owen
Presenter Rhodri Owen
Reporter Rachel Treadaway-Williams
Series Producer Susie Phillips

Broadcast