Imperial Pinetown sold me a vehicle that was in an accident!

I feel that I need to give you a bit of background on how I have been struggling to get any after sales service from Imperial Pinetown, since I bought this bakkie in October 2018. On the day we bought the bakkie, after we left the showroom, (being always hot in Durban), we put the aircon on, which started making a funny noise (very loudly), we turned around and took the bakkie back, the mechanics then "fixed" this. Not knowing at that stage that the bracket of the aircon was removed and that this will be an ongoing problem - even when we arrived back in Cape Town two days later. I at that stage asked for the service book of the vehicle, because I could not find this in the bakkie - I was then advised by Ricky and his manager that the service book was "misplaced" and I got given a printed out paper with the bakkie's first service that was done. I found this a bit suspicious because according to the Ricky this bakkie was never sold to anyone and was used by Imperial Select Pinetown themselves and the bakkie "only had about 1200kms on the clock". In my view, I was buying a bakkie that was almost new. Driving back to Cape Town we slept over in Bloemfontein and woke up at 03h00 the morning and took the road through the Karoo - only to realise that in the cold morning the heater of the bakkie was not working! Back in Cape Town we had to take the bakkie in to have this repaired, we had to fight for 2 hours to get Imperial Pinetown to pay the bill to have this fixed before they released the bakkie to us and we could go home.

On the 10 000kms service I had picked up a few issues with the bakkie - 1. There was a lot of play on the steering wheel. 2. The aircon was still screaming at me when used. 3. The clutch of the bakkie was taking lower and lower - which was concerning - seeing that the bakkie had only 10 000kms on the clock.

I attached the repair report in an email to Imperial that was done by the service agents here as well as their quotation for the repairs that needed to be done. I also have the photos for the report that was done.

When taking the bakkie in I reported all my concerns to the servicing agents here in Cape Town. They then advised me that they will have to take everything apart to make up a report and then I will have to pay R5000.00 for this IF my Platinum Warranty does not pay for everything. I should have smelt a fish here already. I then had no choice but to leave my bakkie there so this could be sorted out. My bakkie was there for 30 DAYS. Only to have Liquid Capital phone me and ask me for the record of the very first service that was done on the bakkie in 2017. I was under the impression that I sent this to them whereupon I was advised that it was not the correct copy and there was a previous service in 2017 that was supposed to be done. I phoned Imperial Pinetown and they advised me that there is no record of the first service.

This information was conveyed to Liquid Capital who in turn then, with immediate effect downgraded my Platinum Warranty to a Plan A - which meant that they did not cover the full amount for the repairs that was needed on the bakkie. From the quote they gave me which was R34 095.20 they eventually only offered to pay R897.98. Which they used to fix the leaking slave cylinder. My thoughts at this stage was - how on earth could a bakkie with only 10 000kms on have so many repairs that needed to be done and how could the clutch have gone on this low mileage?

So none of the other faults except the leaking slave cylinder was repaired and I was made to pay the R5 000.00 for taking everything apart. Plus I now was sitting with a Warranty plan that was useless basically.

I then proceeded to send an email to Imperial Pinetown explaining the entire situation and asked them if they were going to refund me the difference of the Platinum Warranty they sold me and me being downgraded to a Plan A. I was also very unhappy with the situation and felt that they sold me a plan KNOWING that the bakkie did not have a full service history.

Needless to say, my requests and emails was ignored. I then asked for the accident report on the bakkie, to which I was also ignored until I complained on Imperial's website about Imperial Pinetown not sending me the accident report. Mokhethi then contacted me and he said he will get me the accident report. The report and email he sent me was that there was no accident reported on the bakkie. I however did not agree with him because of various things that literally did not fit in the bakkie. I then advised Mokhethi that I will take the bakkie to Dekra to have a report done. The report was done by Dekra and they found quite a few things that indicated that this bakkie was in an accident. The various faults that was reported on by the servicing agents in Cape Town, - the play on the steering wheel, etc was explained now.

The reason that 2 of my 4 vehicles that I bought were through Imperial is that Imperial do not sell vehicles that were in accidents. The report from Dekra tells me another story and with the extremely bad after sales service that I received from Imperial Pinetown I am deeply disappointed in Imperial.

In the circumstances it is clear that I was sold a bakkie that was in an accident, with no full service history and at this stage a warranty plan that is useless for the "still to be fixed repairs" that need to be done. This bakkie was sold to me under the misrepresentation that the vehicle was in good state with no accident damage. It has cost me my time, effort and quite a good amount of money and has left a very bad taste in my mouth. At this stage I don't even want to drive the bakkie as I do not know when the clutch will go and this will cost me thousands to repair. This bakkie was bought through financing with Nedbank MFC and I will have to report this to them as well. Under the circumstances and with extreme disappointment I would like to know what will be done to remedy this situation?