Accident damaged vehicle and no care for the customer

On 26 February 2020, I took delivery of a 2012 Fiat Punto Multiaire 1.4T. I was told by the dealership (Desere Shellwell – FNI) that I had to collect the vehicle myself so as not to waive my cooling off period. I had to take time off work to take collection, and I was then asked to sign an eContract (which I was later informed meant that I do not have a cooling off period)

On the 4th of March 2020, we took the vehicle for wheel alignment as it didn’t seem to be driving quite right. We were informed by HiQ that one of the front tie rod ends and one of the rims was bent. On further inspection we found further evidence that the vehicle had been in an accident. Headlights were glued with superglue, the splash tray was missing from under the vehicle, repairs had been done on the back of the vehicle etc. We also brought to the dealership attention that the wires in the vehicle has been chewed by rats and was not fixed correctly – to this we got the following response: “The vehicle was purchased from a bank auction and resold to you. If there is evidence of rats – this might be due to the vehicle having stood stored prior to auction sale – apologies. We purchased said vehicle exactly as it was sold to you and are not aware of any accident damage to the vehicle. Vehicles can have paint-work done for many reasons – a scratch or dent being one possibility – having been repaired prior to auction sale.” We promptly requested the dealership pay for an AA inspection and hoped that the inspection would shed some light on the extent of the damage. The dealership refused to pay for this, citing that they had put the vehicle through roadworthy. They only agreed to repair the bent tie rod end and rim.

I then informed the dealership that I wished to exercise my cooling off period due to the fact that I no longer trusted the vehicle, and was told that due to the eContract being signed, there was no cooling off period. We then went into lockdown and all businesses were closed.

On 25 July 2020 (not even 6 months after I bought the vehicle,) it started making a pinging noise. I then decided to take the complaint to the ombud, seeing as I had already been brushed off by the dealership when we requested an AA report. The dealership is still only willing to repair the Tie Rod End and the Rim which is the least of our worries now as the vehicle is not running. This seems to have escaped the attention of both the dealership and the Ombud. The dealership is now hounding me to collect the vehicle to ONLY fix the Tie Rod end and rim, and get an assessment done on the repairs cost on the engine – which they are expecting me to pay for myself.

On researching the dealership (under many names on Hello Peter,) I have found other complaints where this same dealership has treated customers the same way over the years. No customer concern is being shown, only what is suiting the dealership to fix. I am not happy with the vehicle and I do feel that the dealership was negligent in that they did not inform me the vehicle had been in an accident, which should have been disclosed prior to me taking delivery. Their lack of care or assistance for their customers is shocking. And to top it all off, I STILL do not have the original licence disc which they said they posted to me, even though I requested it to be couriered. Website: http://supremeautoa1.co.za/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PretoriaSupremeAuto