Cheap Scan being run by Mercedes Umhlanga

This post serves more to warn others and make potential customers aware of a cheap **** being run at Mercedes NMI - Umhlanga. I took delivery of a brand-new Mercedes GLA in Sept of 2018, from an experienced sales representative at Mercedes-Benz Umhlanga. Exactly a week after having taken delivery, the vehicle was stopped at a roadblock in Johannesburg. JMPD duly advised me that my vehicle was not appropriately licensed, and that the temporary permit displayed on my vehicle was invalid. The national eNatis system indicated that the temporary permit license displayed on my brand-new Mercedes had actually expired more than 12months previously, and was registered to a BMW dealership in Durban. My new vehicle was to be impounded. The police were kind enough to explain how dealerships save cost by not registering new vehicles on temporary licenses, rather waiting for the permanent registration documents to come through. In the interim, unawares to the driver, the vehicle is not licensed. Mercedes-Benz Umhlanga did nothing to assist me while I complained about the obviously invalid permit, which did not have any stamps on it (not the dealership stamp, and no stamp from the licensing department either – both are required on a valid permit). The permit provided on my brand-new vehicle was invalid on several counts, and yet the dealer refused any accountability for the resultant fallout. I am appalled by the shocking level of service – potential buyers BEWARE.

What kind of renown car dealership cannot register a vehicle correctly? A bread and butter function of any car dealership, and thereafter I am expected to trust them to service my vehicle - when they cannot even do paperwork! Further testament to the level of service one can expect: after I advised Mercedes Umhlanga that they had sold me a vehicle that was not legally permitted to be on the road, they made no effort whatsoever to assist me with a rental vehicle or a courtesy car, even after I requested one. I was left with a vehicle that was not road legal until the permanent registration documents for the vehicle came through.

Rather give this dealer a skip, to spend half a mil plus on a car, and have them cut corners on a R200 licence - tells you what kind of people you are dealing with.