"I was sold a car that had been written off" - customer

THE more the price of brand-new cars goes up, the more consumers are exposed to unscrupulous second-hand car dealers who have no regard for the law.

Mikateko Mathebula, 32, a first-time car buyer, has accused two Mpumalanga second-hand car dealers of violating the Consumer Protection Act and the motor insurance laws when they sold her a car that was written off in May last year.

Mathebula said they also did not disclose this information to Motor Finance Corporation, a division of Nedbank, that the car was rebuilt.

She said the car was not suitable for the purpose for which she had bought it.

"Its parts are falling apart and it has to busk in the sun after every wash because the roof leaks," Mathebula said.

She said it took her three months to discover that she was sold a car that had been written off when she met previous owner.

Mathebula said she could not believe it until the previous owner showed her pictures when she still owned it. Its number plates had not changed.

She later confirmed this at the traffic department where she was given information corresponding to that of the previous owner.

"At this stage, I had taken the car back (to the dealership) umpteen times for different repairs," she said.

Mathebula said its rear and front bumpers came off as she was driving and felt lucky because she did not injure anyone.

She said her problem started when she and her fiancé needed a car desperately to get to work.

They saw the Toyota Corolla which a salesman at GreenAchers dealership, agreed to sell to them.

Although she got the car from Greenacres dealership in White River, she signed the contract at Auto Select in Nelspruit, a dealership introduced to Mathebula as a partner who kept all the car documents.

Mathebula said she was assisted by her fiancé, who pointed out that there was a fault with the airbags as its light on the dashboard was constantly on when they were driving to Nelspruit.

Though she still had a chance to return the car to the dealer, as she had not signed the contract, she nevertheless proceeded to Nelspruit thinking she had clinched the best deal ever.

She bought her car for R150000 and makes the repayments and insurance cover every month without fail.

Mathebula said her other worry was that her insurance company did not know that the car had been written off.

"Not that I withheld this information, but I did not know, and if I knew I wouldn't have bought this car," Mathebula said.

She said the "seller", Andre August Franken of Auto Select, later agreed to replace the defective car with another, but later reneged.

"He referred me to Anton - the owner of Greenacres, but I could not get help as I had signed the contract with Andre," Mathebula said.

Instead of exchanging the defective car they only gave her its service book, which had no record of previous services, Mathebula said.

She said the state of the vehicle was so bad that she did not think she would still be driving it by year-end, even though she would have to continue paying for it.

"I want the world to know about what these people (second-hand car dealers) are doing, especially what they did to me and who is doing it," said Mathebula.

Consumer Line spoke to a man who only introduced himself as Chris of Greenacres dealership.

Chris confirmed that he sold a car to Mathebula.

He said Mathebula may have been involved in an accident and now wanted to paint him and his partner as bad dealers.

He also said it was not true that they had sold her a car that had been written off.

"This client only complained after driving more than 35 kilometres," said Chris, before referring all enquiries to Auto Select.

Consumer Line's attempts to get comment from Auto Select's Andre Franken were fruitless.

His receptionist, Gerda, said Franken was too busy to respond to our inquiry.

"He is doing everything by himself and will ensure he reads and responds to your inquiry," said Gerda.