WeeklySA_AdminSALES AGREEMENT: Consumers warned not to pay anything before signing sales agreement.
By Thuli Zungu
Buying a car is a milestone for anyone who has never owned a vehicle before. It does not matter whether it’s brand new or a second hand one.
Judging by the number of complaints received, the most problematic purchase is always that of a second-hand vehicle, consumer Eye has observed.
Section 56 of the consumer protection act does offer protection, but some car dealers have no regard for the law and deny consumers their right to demand refund where the car is faulty and not suitable for the purpose for which it was intended.
Instead, they pretend as though they have more rights to choose than the consumer. The worst culprits are those who temper with the mileage and make a consumer sign a contract showing a lower mileage and a disclaimer that they have nothing to do with its inaccuracy.
The case in point is that of Malose Tlokana, a pensioner who bought a car that was advertised for 40 000 kms for the price of R112 000. Tlokana, 63, of Limpopo who is no stranger to buying second-hand cars, accused G.P Combrink car sales of misrepresenting the mileage of the car to induce the sale of the car he bought last month.
Tlokana said he was looking for a car he could buy for his son when he spotted an advert placed by G.P Combrink car sales on the internet. He later visited their dealership and was assisted to apply for car Finance at Wesbank, he said.
Tlokana said he was verbally advised that he qualified for four free services as his car was still under service plan. “The advert, a delivery note I signed and the odometer showed that the car had clocked only 40 000 kilometers which I was happy about,” he said. His shock came last week when his son tried to book the car for 45 000 kilometers when Honda told him it had actually clocked more than 100 000 kilometers, he said.
“After giving Honda the VIN number I was told the car was out of service already and the last time it was serviced was in 2017 when it had clocked 29 940 kms,” said Tlokana son Mahlaste.
Honda further told his son that they only cover for the first 2 services which iaws 15 000 kms and 30 000 kms from the date of purchase and it did not qualify for further free services, Mahlatse said Upon a closer look at the documents, he received from the dealer, one from Bryte insurance company and the warranty issued by Impact Auto Elite Platinum, and a delivery note he noticed that there was a huge discrepancy, he said.
“Both state that the car had clocked 101 501 kilometers except for their delivery note, and the odometer reading while the delivery note and the car had a 40 000 kilometer reading,” he said.
He approached the dealer for clarity and was told that he signed a disclosure form which states that the dealer could not verify the correct mileage and they are exonerated from blame for its inaccuracy.
“I did not read all the documents except for the delivery notice with 40 000 kilometer reading and was shocked when they showed me that these documents with high mileage were among the documents they gave me,” he said.
“Still this written mileage does not correspond with the odometer reading on the car,” Tlokana said. He said the dealer was dishonest and tempered with the car’s mileage from 101 501 kms to 40 000 kms and made me sign the documents without his knowledge regarding the origin kilometers of the car. “I’m a pensioner and some information was verbally communicated and with this discrepancy rearing its ugly head, I had to get assistance from my children to help try and investigate the matter,” he said.
After sending Clive Du Toit the owner of this dealership a SMS notifying him about this discovery, he was told that he could not be helped as he signed a disclosure form. They did not disclose anything, and how can they hold me liable for something they did not bring to my attention, and for them to have had it, they must have known that the mileage was tampered with,” Tlokana said.
Tlokana was later offered R5000 to cover the cost of the service which he found unacceptable as the dealer had been dishonest from the onset, I think they are trying to bribe me,” he said. He said the car still belongs to the bank and they financed a car that had clocked 40 000 and not 101 500 kilometers reading which appears in the other two documents.
To wiggle off this fraudulent transaction they also asked him to produce proof that the car clocked over 100 000, when they were the ones who pointed it out on the documents he signed, he said.
Tlokana wrote to Wesbank asking the bank to cancel this contract, but has since not received any response from them, he said.
Loura Brown, the Wesbank spokesperson, told Consumer Eye they are investigating the alleged misrepresentation and could only comment after getting a response from the dealer.
