Be Wary of Buying a Car from WBC

I bought a 2012 Jeep Cherokee from WBC Dome branch (first mistake) through an auction without test driving the car (second big mistake), as I put faith in the Gold Dekra report that stated that the gearbox and suspension, amongst others, were in "very good condition" (third mistake). The service I received from the Dome branch was quite good, until I paid for the car that is. After the payment was cleared, I could not get hold of the sales agent to arrange for the delivery of the car from Jhb to Cape Town. Long story short, I took possession of the car 55 days after I paid for it.

If the nightmare ended there, I probably would not have gone through the effort of writing this review, but unfortunately, much more disappointment was to follow. After the ridiculously long wait and all the hassle to arrange for delivery, I finally went to pick up the car from the Richmond branch in Cape Town. It took me all of 2 minutes to realise something is seriously wrong with both the gearbox and suspension. I immediately logged a Compliant with WeBuyCars upon arriving home, and then gave them a call. I was told that I need to take the car to an approved workshop to get a quote for fixing the issues with the gearbox and suspension, and that I will have to pay the workshop for the quote myself.

I clearly had no choice in the matter, so I took the car to a workshop to quote me on fixing the issues. They quoted me on the 1) suspension (R30k) and 2) fixing numerous other problems with the car which I was not aware of (R18k). Unfortunately they could not give me a quote for fixing the gearbox as it requires specialist knowledge, but they confirmed that something is wrong with it and a broad estimate was between R30k - R80k. By that point I have heard enough, R48k (excluding the gearbox) to fix issues with a car that I just bought is not worth it, so I requested WBC to cancel the transaction entirely. In the request I stated clearly that I logged the complaint immediately after picking the car up from WBC (i.e. these issues could not have occurred while in my possession) and that the Dekra report clearly stated that both the gearbox and suspension was in good working order. WBC declined to cancel the transaction as they stated that it's a category B vehicle and referred to the contract I signed which does not give me any protection under the Consumer Protection Act. This begs the question: why then did they ask for a quote to fix the car if they never had the intention of doing it!? The result was that I was left with a car that was unsafe to drive, despite a Gold Dekra report from WBC

It is only after buying the car that I noticed all the negative reviews about the company and it's terrible ethics in online blogs by people that had a similar experience. The workshop that I took my car to also told me some ********** stories of similar situations with other clients - buying a car with a glowing Dekra report only to realise after driving it for a few weeks that it's condition is way worse than expected. They said it's a constant theme with WBC cars.

Buying a car from WeBuyCars has been one of the most disastrous financial decisions I have ever made. I absolutely have to take some of the blame as I should have driven the car before buying it, and done proper research online about WBC. Had I done either, I would never have been such a terrible mistake. I implore anyone thinking of buying a car from WBC to seriously reconsider it, and to not place ANY faith in the Dekra reports.