Lungile Makhanya and Zenzo Sibanda were happy partners on Friday when 4 Ton Truck Centre finally refunded their money.

The two friends met six years ago and discovered that they had a common business interest.

They started saving money towards buying a truck they would use to distribute soft drinks around the country, Sibanda said.

In March this year they secured a contract with Shoreline, a beverage company dedicated to building brands in the non-alcoholic beverage market.

They then started looking for a truck, which they eventually found at 4 Ton Truck Centre in Boksburg on the East Rand.

On May 7, they paid a deposit of R200000 and asked the second-hand vehicle dealer to paint the truck and carry out all the necessary repairs for it to be roadworthy, Makhanya said.

"The car failed the roadworthy test because of the worn-out tyres that needed to be replaced."

There were also a few repairs that had to be made and they also wanted the dealership to put a plastic around it for cover.

And before taking delivery of the truck after all these snags were attended to, they approached Hollard to have it insured. But on inspection, Hollard discovered that the truck was overpriced and questioned the mileage on the vehicle, which is 10 years old, Sibanda said.

"The insurance refused to insure the truck ... as they valued it at about R200000 when it was sold to us for R362259."

Based on this they decided to cancel the contract and demanded their refund, Makhanya said.

However, Natalie van Oudtshoorn of 4 Ton Truck denied the mileage had been tampered with, although she failed to produce the truck's service book.

"Due to them cancelling the deal we must charge them a cancellation fee for the spray painting, tyres and roadworthy service of the truck and admin fees," Oudtshoorn said.

"I don't appreciate it if there are false accusations made towards my company. This may lead us to take this matter further with our lawyers," she said.

When sent the evaluation report from Hollard, which stated that the truck's value was R192500, Oudtshoorn then agreed to refund Makhanya and Sibanda last Friday.

Sibanda said he would advise anyone buying a used vehicle to take it for a roadworthy test and get an insurance company to asses it before taking delivery.

"We are now going to buy a used one from Isuzu, and they have shown us all the books and warranties we want," said the happy pair.