Top End Auto- dishonest business

I bought a bmw 335i at Top End Auto in July and never had the pleasure of driving it.

After 5 minutes of driving the car the engine warning light came on.

The dealer tried convincing me that it was the catalytic converters (cats) that were faulty and that he would have the cats removed and replaced with "foolers" (a device that allows a car to run without a catalytic converter).

A set of brand new cats would cost 35k from bmw.

He sent the car to ProFit, a silencer workshop in Milnerton to have the cats removed.

After collecting the car from Profit, the car smoked excessively and the engine warning light came back on later that day.

The dealer had it taken to his mechanics that tried patching it up but after a month, I had it taken to a bmw mechanic that I trust. The dealer agreed to it.

My mechanic gave us a quote of 64k to repair the turbos, valve stem seals, vanos gears and some solenoids.

The dealer claimed he couldn't afford it and asked if he could delay the turbo repairs until the 3rd party warranty I purchased on the car kicked in. To which I agreed.

This brought the repair for the vanos gears, solenoids and valve stem seals to 24k. The dealer then paid 12k to the mechanic to start his work on the car. After 2 weeks, the repairs were complete but I couldn't take delivery of the car until the dealer paid the mechanic the balance of 12k. I then had to run after the dealer for another two weeks to pay the mechanic.

While collecting the car from the mechanics (after 2 months since collecting the car), the steering and Alternator belts snapped and it had to be taken back to the mechanic. The engine warning light then came back on due to the cats that were removed.

This is when we discovered that the dealer never had foolers installed in order to save costs. We called him and he said that he would deliver the cats the the mechanic to have him reinstall them, since they were working perfectly fine. After waiting a couple of days for it and hounding him to deliver the part, he claimed that his a driver lost the cats. (keep in mind that second-hand cats can be sold for around 10k a set). He then asked for the mechanic to source a another set of cats and that he would pay for it.

The mechanic then started hounding me to pay the 5k for discounted second hand cats that he ordered and the dealer never paid. I paid the 5k from my own pocket just so that I can finally drive the car that I now paid two installments on.

The dealer promised to pay the 5k back to me by the start of October, to his day I haven't received a cent.

The car was returned to him last week after the final straw - it was taken to a car wash where I discovered the roof was leaking. He claims to be unable to pay me back for the car, the cats and the installments paid so far, but he just opened a second branch.

He is currently trying to sell the car on consignment. On the 20th December, my 5th installment is due and I cannot afford to keep paying for a car that I have no use for. I'm currently driving on old vw of my brother's to get to work and it keeps breaking down.

Two weeks ago he says he has a buyer on the car but needs to take it to Zeemax to be repaired. After a couple of days I call Zeemax and the can't locate the problem on the car. Reza (the owner) refuses to settle the car and give me my deposit back because he wants sell the car first and "recover" money spent on the partial repairs.

Don't ever buy a car here.