Ford SA, Ford Credit

I bought a Ford Puma Vignale ST Line from Allen Joss Ford for my wife to use as she was a fan of Ford and had bought a Fiesta and a Focus before. We had to sell the old Ford Focus and I was to get a new one for her.

I bought it brand new and signed for it on the 29th of August 2024 got the car on that day. I was not a Ford fan until I drove this piece of Machinery. I was hooked.

Two weeks later on the 10th of September I saw a "Power train malfunction/reduced power" error message. I spoke to the dealership they said they can look at it on the 13th of September.

I took it to them they reset the error, did a software update but said they couldn't find what the cause of the problem was. I was supposed to drive it and tell them when it happened again. So on the 14th we took it back and told them we can't be having these types of issues on a brand new car as it means it has defects and requested a replacement. I requested for a courtesy car and we got it.

The dealer ignored our first request for replacement and acted like we asked them to fix the car. They continued to look for the problem all of a sudden they said it was a faulty turbo boost solenoid which was replaced.

On the 23rd of September, I was told to bring back the courtesy car in order for other customers to use it. I took back the courtesy car to the dealership full tanked and washed to fetch my car. I found my car dusty with a dead battery. They had to boost my new car's battery as they had killed it while they were "fixing" the car.

I was able to get home from that boost. Then something told me to check if it can start after parking the car. I found that it didn't start. I called the dealership they told me to call AA as the warranty guys had gone home and they couldn't process anything. I had to drive back to the dealership to get a resolution for this issue. The dealer gave me the courtesy car back for the mean time.

On the 25th of September AA came to fetch the car. After all these problems we decided we no longer want to deal with Ford or Allen Joss and I requested to cancel the contract.

The finance guy at the dealership kept telling me it was impossible and I would need to talk to the dealer principal, who we had already expressed our dissatisfaction with their service before. He didn't want to even take my request to terminate the contract. I sent it to the dealer principal and they outright refused to cancel saying they have a right to fix the car(a 2 week old car by the way).

I spoke to Ford Credit(ABSA) to try and cancel they were sending me pillar to post even if the contract signed was to them. After making me wait a couple of weeks thinking we are getting to a resolution they abruptly said I need to speak to the motor ombudsman (MIOSA) that time they are not clarifying what I was waiting for all this time. This "advise" to go to speak to MIOSA came suspiciously close to the payment of my first installment.

I had already communicated to MIOSA about this issue. Then One of ABSA people called and told me that I should now wait for the outcome of MIOSA before they can do anything. This while I am liable to pay for a car I haven't had for more than a month.

If I stop paying I get bad credit. This happens while the dealer principal now tells MIOSA they can't cancel the contract as the contract is with Ford Credit meanwhile Ford Credit (ABSA) says they are waiting for the outcome of MIOSA.

At the end of this instead of getting a new Ford fan . They have definately now lost 2. One new and one old