The Advertising Standard Authority has banned a TV ad by Trusted Car Buyers, which, it said, misled viewers into thinking they could gain a valuation within 60 seconds by providing their registration number.

The ad featured a voice-over which stated “. . . you could get your online valuation in just 60 seconds. Just enter your reg number now at trustedcarbuyers.com to see if you could get a great price”.

Scenes showed a couple and a man entering their registration numbers into the website, followed by scenes in which the website displayed quotes for their card.

One complainant challenged whether  the ad was misleading, as they felt it exaggerated the speed and ease of the process of obtaining a valuation.

Trusted Car Buyers said the process of obtaining an online valuation could be completed in around 30 to 35 seconds but recognised that some people were “not as technically-minded as others”.

The process leads to the DVLA database of car makes and models, and then users were then asked to respond to questions about the history of the vehicle. Users then had to fill in contact details and state when they were hoping to sell the vehicle.

The ASA upheld the complaint saying that viewers would interpret the claimas only having to enter a registration number on the advertiser’s website for a valuation, which would take around 60 seconds.

“While we acknowledges the ad did not show people entering their registration numbers and immediately receiving a valuation, we considered that because the visuals did not show any other part of the process, they reinforced the impression created by the voice-over that the only information that website users needed to provide was the vehicle registration number,” said the ASA in its verdict.

The ad must no longer appear in its current form.