I purchased a new Ford Ecosport from the Fury Group. date 16th July 2019. I have not taken delivery and the vehicle is still in their possession.  Price paid R347,061.76.   I was totally misrepresented by the saleman at point of sale.

Reason:

1 Told it was a brand new latest model. According to Ford they no longer manufacture Ecosport with the wheel attached to the tailgate.

2. Told it was the best SUV model on the market with lowest depreciation value.  No true

3. The last vehicle instock for the time being.  Not true

4. Sounds stupid. Never told that the rear door opens sideways. 

Fury after two months have agreed to exchange the vehicle for another make, must be purchased withing the dealership  however they will deduct R37,061,76 from. the price paid leaving a balance of R310,000.  According to them once registered to me it is now considered second hand despite still with them.  I did not instruct them to transfer vehicle prior to delivery.

Do I have rights under any consumer laws in South Africa?

The management at Fury are very agressive and it either take it or go to Court.

Do I pay Fury the additional R47,000 to take another vehicle or keep the Ecosport in their possession until matters are resoved?

Hi there and thank you for your question,

I am a practicing attorney based in South Africa and I will assist you with your question. Please feel free to ask as many follow up questions in order to clarify your question. If you have a new question, you must please open a new thread.

In SA law, a misrepresentation made by a sales person must go to the heart of the transaction in order to enable you to cancel the transaction.

A misrepresentation that this was the last vehicle in stock, is not good enough. It doesn't actually even speak to the quality of the vehicle, just that it is the only one in stock. 

A statement that it was the best SUV model on the market with the lowest depreciation is called puffing. Again, it doesn't actually speak to the quality of the vehicle, rather, it is the sales person's opinion as to being the best. Finally, how can he say that about the depreciation, because cars depreciate over 5 years. If he was talking about the re-sale value, again, this is just his opinion. 

The statement about the brand new latest model is a tricky one. In theory, if you could prove that you would NEVER have bought the car if it was not the latest model, and you can prove that the sales person knew this, and he made the statement anyway, then you could cancel the sale. But that is probably going to be very hard to prove, especially if you both take the stand to testify. It will be your word against his. Very hard for a judge to decide, and costly to run a trial about it. 

e.g. "The only reason that I'm buying this Porsche is because you tell me that it is a vintage 1945 model. If it was the 1946 model, I would not buy it because I already have one of those."

The rear door is an easy one, because you say that he never told you one way or the other. There was no representation made by the sales guy then.

Any agreement to exchange the vehicle for another make would then need to be negotiated between you and Fury. The terms of the exchange need to be agreed upon, otherwise Fury is within their rights to make you take the car. 

Technically they are correct. Once the car has been registered in your name it is then a second hand car. A further purchaser would understand that it is "technically" a second hand car but doesn't have any milage. So how it would affect the price is unknown. Basically they are saying that they want to deduct R37,000 to cover them from any risk in a future seller not wanting to pay full price for the car. 

Can they not agree with you to deduct the R37,000, but then if a new purchaser came along and agreed to pay full price, then they must give you the R37,000 back? Similarly, if the new purchaser only wanted to pay R340,000 for the car then would then keep the R7,000 shortfall and give you the R30,000 back?

I do not think that you have a good case at all to cancel the sale. Therefore, the car does belong to you. 

I think that their offer is quite reasonable in the circumstances, if they adjust it as I said above. 

If there is a part of the answer which you need more advice on, or clarity please continue in this same thread instead of opening a new question.

Att. Patrick

Please remember this is a dialog if you have follow up questions please use the REPLY button and ask. If I did not answer the question you thought you were asking, please respond with the specific question you wanted answered. I hope you found my answer helpful, and you have finished asking your questions, please click on the GREEN ACCEPT button in order to mark the question as closed.