LOW mileage, good body, one previous owner. Oh, and dangerously radioactive.

Used-car dealers in Japan are sitting on hundreds of vehicles contaminated by high levels of radiation from the nuclear meltdown at Fukushima earlier this year.

And some unscrupulous salesmen are disguising this fact by re-registering and selling them to unsuspecting customers.

One vehicle in particular is "so radioactive that sitting inside it for two hours a day will expose the occupant to more than the Government’s recommended maximum dose over the course of a year", The Times reports (behind a paywall).

However, the auction house that sold it won't disclose the buyer's name.

One car dealer told Asahi newspaper: “It is just the tip of the iceberg. If high radiation is detected, decontamination is too difficult. This is why such vehicles are auctioned within Japan.”

Another who bought a contaminated vehicle told the paper: "I decontaminated repeatedly after the test, and retested the filter of the air conditioner, the wipers and tyres, replacing them thoroughly, but the radiation level dropped only to 30 microsieverts per hour. I decided to sell the vehicle in Japan because I couldn’t afford to lose the money."

Vehicles that emit radiation higher than 0.3 microsieverts an hour are banned from export.

Harbour authorities barred 660 cars last month because they exceeded the limit.

Originally published as Hey buddy, wanna buy a radioactive car?