Dealer sold me a car with non OEM parts

[notinterested]

Hi guys

Really not sure what to do in this situation or what my rights are so hopefully someone with some industry knowledge can help.

I bought a new car from grand central Motors in joburg a year ago. The car was due for its 1 year service this past week which I booked for Thursday. On Monday the engine light came on so I moved the service up to Tuesday. Get there on Tuesday and the car is leaking petrol.

I am in East london so took the car to the dealership here. They found the part that needed to be replaced which arrived today and they started work on the car. They now say that the broken part is a non OEM part and the car was worked on previously. The only people who could have done this are the dealers in joburg as no one has worked on the car since it has been in my possession.

Because the faulty part is non OEM, I have been told that the manufacturer will.not honor the warranty and they have asked me to come in on Monday for a meeting.

I'm really not sure how to approach this. They're probably going to try to shift the blame around between the two dealers. Or they're gonna say that I had the car repaired myself with non OEM parts.

I've heard that the ombudsman are pretty useless so I'm hoping to avoid going to them if possible.

 

[ToxicBunny]

Is it a new car or just new to you?

 

[notinterested]

It's new.

 

[The_Traveller]

Well what did the selling dealer have to say about this? You did contact the dealer principal right?

 

[Pho3nix]

What car is this and how are you sure it's brand new?

 

[Kosmik]

What car is this and how are you sure it's brand new?

If its licensed as new, dealership is in trouble.

 

[The Darkness]

If its licensed as new, dealership is in trouble.

Agreed. The issue OP will have is proving the car hasn’t been worked on privately.
many factors to consider here; what was the mileage at purchase point? What is the manufacture date as per the VIN vs the sale date?
this is what I’d want to know first. It’s impossibly unlikely this part would be non OEM from the plant point, so it can only be dealer shenanigans going on here, which is 100% likely, as they are shady.
my guess is the car had issues early on, was returned, repaired cheaply, they pushed the car over to the next year as new.

 

[Thugscub]

OP kick the stealer in the nuts.
You bought a new car the po3s must honour the guarantee.

 

[6spdmanual]

What car is it?

 

[notinterested]

OP kick the stealer in the nuts.
You bought a new car

Trust me, I'd love to do that.

Well what did the selling dealer have to say about this? You did contact the dealer principal right?

Not yet, this all happened on Friday afternoon just after 4pm. We're having a meeting on Monday morning so that they can show me what they're talking about. I'm going to tell them that they must first sort out between the two dealer principals involved.

Agreed. The issue OP will have is proving the car hasn’t been worked on privately.
many factors to consider here; what was the mileage at purchase point? What is the manufacture date as per the VIN vs the sale date?
this is what I’d want to know first. It’s impossibly unlikely this part would be non OEM from the plant point, so it can only be dealer shenanigans going on here, which is 100% likely, as they are shady.
my guess is the car had issues early on, was returned, repaired cheaply, they pushed the car over to the next year as new.

This is exactly what I suspect as well. I wish there was some sort of database accessible to the public which can just show you a car's repair history. It's crazy that as consumers, we are just at the mercy of whatever the dealers tell us - which is whatever we need to hear in order to buy the car.

What I find really ridiculous is that the car was even repaired with non-OEM parts to begin with. I mean it's at the dealership who sells the cars - if they want to cover up the fact that the car has been repaired then why would you do it with something that makes it very obvious that it has been repaired? It's just plain stupid.

As for the people asking what car it is - it was bought from Grand Central Motors in Midrand from their Alfa Romeo dealership. [insert alfa reliability joke here]

 

[Pho3nix]

Trust me, I'd love to do that.



Not yet, this all happened on Friday afternoon just after 4pm. We're having a meeting on Monday morning so that they can show me what they're talking about. I'm going to tell them that they must first sort out between the two dealer principals involved.



This is exactly what I suspect as well. I wish there was some sort of database accessible to the public which can just show you a car's repair history. It's crazy that as consumers, we are just at the mercy of whatever the dealers tell us - which is whatever we need to hear in order to buy the car.

What I find really ridiculous is that the car was even repaired with non-OEM parts to begin with. I mean it's at the dealership who sells the cars - if they want to cover up the fact that the car has been repaired then why would you do it with something that makes it very obvious that it has been repaired? It's just plain stupid.

As for the people asking what car it is - it was bought from Grand Central Motors in Midrand from their Alfa Romeo dealership. [insert alfa reliability joke here]

You still haven't said how you know it was brand new and what car it is

 

[TheChamp]

What part is it that was broken?

 

[WollieVerstege]

I think the selling dealer screwed the pooch here.

Alfa should have a complete database of everything that was done on the car, assuming that whatever work was done was recorded. If the original dealer is pull8ng a fast one, I doubt they would have recorded it.

The question of whether it is new or not is less relevant for me, the actual question is whether the warranty is still in effect. If so, I see no logical or rational reason why anyone would have a car privately worked on.

 

[notinterested]

You still haven't said how you know it was brand new and what car it is

I did say what car it is. As for how I know it is new - well it was registered as a new car when it came to me. Are you asking if I personally did an investigation to establish whether or not this is true when it was delivered to me? I don't think any reasonable person would do that.

 

[notinterested]

What part is it that was broken?

It's part of the fuel system and the car was leaking petrol from somewhere around the fuel tank - not sure what the part is called exactly, I suppose I will find out on Monday.

 

[TheChamp]

It's part of the fuel system and the car was leaking petrol from somewhere around the fuel tank - not sure what the part is called exactly, I suppose I will find out on Monday.

Filter I suppose, did something else break in the process of this part failing?

It could be that since Alfa cars don't sell in their numbers they stay for a long time on the floor and the dealer in Joburg decided to do a quick service before they sold the car, but why they had to use non OEM parts is a mystery.

I think it will be resolved though, if I were Fiat or whatever Alfa belongs to these days I wouldn't make a big deal out of it, they can hardly afford to annoy the few customers who are still brave enough to buy their cars.

 

[one poster]

What I find really ridiculous is that the car was even repaired with non-OEM parts to begin with. I mean it's at the dealership who sells the cars - if they want to cover up the fact that the car has been repaired then why would you do it with something that makes it very obvious that it has been repaired? It's just plain stupid.

Before contacting the dealer principal etc. contact the original selling dealer's service department on Monday and say you want to check the service history of a vehcile you want to buy. Based on the VIN number they should be able to tell you what was done on the vehicle. BUT based on time frame the purchase was during/around lockdown so there was even more room than normal for shady **** to go down at the dealer.

New vehicles also generally go through a PDI (pre-delivery inpsection) -> ask for a copy of the job card.

If the vehicle is financed -> involve the finance insitution as they are often quite helpful when they have a sub quality vehicle on their books and they have a bit more clout than the average guy in the street.

 

[Corelli]

First of all. Big court ruling. You are allowed to use non-OEM parts in a car. They cannot cancel the warranty because of that. Point it out to them.

Also they need to point out that the OEM part caused the fault, if it didnt. They dont have a real case.

 

[Corelli]

Most modern day cars are parts of other cars all over. Just look at Aston Martin. Most inside is Mercedes and BMW parts

 

[airborne]

Before contacting the dealer principal etc. contact the original selling dealer's service department on Monday and say you want to check the service history of a vehcile you want to buy. Based on the VIN number they should be able to tell you what was done on the vehicle. BUT based on time frame the purchase was during/around lockdown so there was even more room than normal for shady **** to go down at the dealer.

New vehicles also generally go through a PDI (pre-delivery inpsection) -> ask for a copy of the job card.

If the vehicle is financed -> involve the finance insitution as they are often quite helpful when they have a sub quality vehicle on their books and they have a bit more clout than the average guy in the street.

This is what I would also do, get the PDI and full service/work record, preferably on paper/pdf