Defective vehicle, unhelpful.

I bought a car from Citton Cars in May this year. From the first day of getting the vehicle, it had problems. I got the car, the very next day an engine error light appeared. It warned that my injectors were faulty. I took the car back the following day. They have technicians at their dealership and one took a look at the vehicle. He assured me that the light would go away on its own. It didn't. Fast forward to October.

Since when I got the car, it has been back at the dealership nine times - checked out by their technicians, and has been to their workshop (for a few days at time) twice. Everytime their mechanics said it was nothing major, they would reset the light and it would reappear within a hour or two. Sometimes they just left the error light. Then around August/September my car wouldn't go into reverse, and a new error appeared with the old one. This warning read "check transmission". Now everytime that I took the car back I was told that I need not worry. I was told once that it is a battery issue, and another time that the reason for these errors were that the vehicle was not being driven enough. So we did as the mechanic instructed us.

Since we got the car in May we have put on SEVEN THOUSAND NINE HUNDERD KM on the car. The car is currently at their workshop - where it has been over a month.

For the first time, in all the times that the car has gone back to Citton and their mechanics, they actually did their job for the first time - they checked the injectors, transmission and the engine. Imagine my surprise when the mechanic called me and said that there is a problem with the injectors, the clutch and the turbo. All these items need to be replaced and Citton's management refused to pay a cent. Nevermind that I took the car back within 48 hours of purchase. I had my lawyer write them a letter asking them to fix the car, do a upliftment deal or refund my money.

After stalling until the last second, they responded to my lawyer's letter. They said that they still refuse to pay anything. They say that the injectors, clutch and turbo broke because of wear and tear on the vehicle - because of the SEVEN THOUSAND NINE HUNDERD KM that we put on the clock and this only after their mechanic told us to drive the car more. Gosh, so if you buy a car from Citton Cars, you will NEED TO DO A ENGINE OVERHAUL WITHIN SEVEN THOUSAND NINE HUNDERD KM. That is half the kilometers to a service interval. That sounds fair, right? So, you pay a couple of hundred k for a car that you are going to have to spend another few hunderd k on it - just so it can drive again - in a few months?

I did some research and found out that Citton is actually very expensive. On Autotrader most of their vehicles are rated "high price". I chose to buy a car at Citton because of their excellent sales and financial staff. They are helpful, friendly and always call you back. They are actually quite brilliant. But I pity them. They have to market a product which is just going to break within a few months. I am sure they get the flak from other customers for Citton's management's decisions. I have missed two weeks of work, my wife has to walk to the shops and we have to walk our kids back from school. We have spent thousands on Uber as we cannot always walk in the rain.

So they have a deadline. They refund my money, or this is going to court. This is because of the Consumer protection act. Unfortunately this can take up to a year to sort out. I really cannot afford to be without a car for a year? And all of this because Citton's management CARE MORE ABOUT THE BOTTOM LINE THAN DOING WHAT IS RIGHT. I hope that Citton knows that they are not only playing around with my livelyhood, with my family but with my life in general. The amount of time and effort spent trying to communicate with Citton has been not only frustrating but utterly exhausting.

When they received my lawyer's letter, they did not even consult a lawyer of their own. If they did, he/she would have told them that their interpretation of the law is wrong. This is not a case that they will win. Or maybe they did see a lawyer, know this, and still are going to continue wasting more time and money waiting it out - hoping that I will give up. I think that's actually much worse. Knowing that they are wrong but continuing a charade just for a few bucks?

All I wanted was a realible car from a trusted and honest dealership - who better than a dealership which as been around for three decades?

Unfortunately for me, I chose wrong. I would have better off buying a car from the Facebook marketplace.