UNSCRUPULOUS car dealers will do anything to get your money, even by fraudulent means.

But the latest technology is gradually the limiting fraudulent activities of motor dealers who tamper with the mileage of vehicles or who sell rebuilt vehicles as new.

Were it not for this technology Maipato Monyatsi of Pretoria East in Tshwane would not have known that her car had been rebuilt.

Though she managed to cancel the sale with the dealer, she is still indebted to her financier.

Monyatsi's nightmare started in June last year when her son was required to do research for his final year at a tertiary institution.

Monyatsi said she traded in two of her cars to buy two cars with manageable installments.

She now regrets ever doing business with Kagh Motors, which trades as Dada's Motorland at the Corners of Victoria and Bunyan avenues in Benoni in Gauteng.

Monyatsi discovered she was sold a rebuilt car in September last year when she took her car in for insurance inspection. She could not prove this because the assessor refused to give her a written statement of his findings.

She finally got a comprehensive report from Volkswagen in November when a message prompting her to take her car in for a service kept appearing on the dashboard.

"It had not clocked the kilometers necessitating a service, Monyatsi said.

She later took the car for a service and Volkswagen's report helped her confront her dealership for an explanation, she said.

The salesperson at Dada's Motorland could not explain the discrepancies and she cancelled the contract, Monyatsi said.

"But after taking the car keys they started acting funny and offered to pay a quarter of my loan, which I rejected," Monyatsi said.

They offered to pay R200000 of her R306000 loan, she said.

When checking Dada's invoice sent to Motor Finance Corporation (MFC), now a division of Nedbank, when applying for a loan on her behalf, Monyatsi discovered that they had added items such as a sunroof and DVD, which the car did not have. She said she was charged R27000 for this.

"They also charged me an on the road cost and licence and registration fee, which is one and the same thing," said Monyatsi.

When she asked why she had to pay R120 000, they allegedly told her it was a shortfall payable on the cars she traded in, she said.

"I was never told this until I cancelled the contract," she said.

She said her deal was further complicated by Dada's salesman when he gave her a car that had already been sold to another client.

She was later asked to pick another car , she said.

The Golf VI was the third car she received.

"They gave me a defective BMW, then exchanged it with a Peugeot which they had already sold," Monyatsi said.

Realising that they had messed up, their salesmen offered to cancel the entire contract and start anew, Monyatsi said.

She was then sold the Golf VI, which had zero mileage when she drove off their premises and which later turned out to have ben tampered with, she said.

"This is fraud. I should not have to payand they should not be enriched at my expense," Monyatsi said.

She reported this to MFC, who could only refer her to the dealer, she said.

"They said this matter had nothing to do with them and referred me back to Dada's, adding that they could only refer my letter to the dealer for action, she said.

She said she was hoping for their intervention because MFC has a better title on the car as the financier.

Dada's p rincipal dealer, Mohammed Iqbal-Bota, had not responded to our inquiry at the time of printing.

Also read: Be a clued-up buyer