Disappointing trade-in experience bordering on *********

So far, happy with the vehicle and salesperson (Jonty) that assisted was friendly and helpful. This review reflects their finance assistant and senior sales personnel.

What irked me about my experience was while driving off the floor with my new vehicle on Monday 6 Feb (after signing all contracts and documentation), I was stopped and told I had something unsigned with the Sales Manager. I was informed by the SM that they had to reassess my trade in as the 2 front tyres were worn and 2 panels had prior damage? I do understand a trade in is subject to the state of the vehicle, however, I took my car with me for an assessment the Saturday before when I had test driven the new vehicle. Nothing was mentioned then, and the entire finance deal was drawn up and signed based on the agreed trade in value, only for this to be revised and an additional R10 000.00 added to my deal. The entire purchase and budget based decision was determined on the original trade-in value. I received no apology for the situation and feel it was a ploy to squeeze more money out of me as the deal had had basically been concluded. In hindsight, I could have very well walked away from the deal and not signed the amended contract. I know I have a cool off period with my bank and can still explore this option for a little while longer.

Furthermore - and I would probably not have let this influence my review had the dirty trade-in revision not happened; following the test drive on Saturday, I emailed the requested documents to Leon (finance) and indicated that I did not want the smash and grab value added product added to the deal. These are a quick way at racking up the total purchase price and dealers earn a healthy commission on them. When the finance deal had been drafted and the invoice sent on Monday, noted that this had been included after explicitly asking for it to be excluded. He indicated it would be an admin nightmare to have this removed and the entire deal reworked, and I accepted this based on the fairly small change on the installment value. However, with this inclusion, and the additional R10 000.00 added to the price as a result of the ***** trade-in practice employed, the purchase price did increase enough to have a material impact on my installment.

All in all, completely disappointed by their business practices which border on *********, as well as their handling of the situation. The whole experience left a bitter taste in my mouth, and *****ed what should have been an enjoyable experience. An experience not expected from a dealership that looks like it does, and has an impressive fleet of stock.