R1.1m car has various defects

Galactica

Galactica

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Some Gauteng BMW dealerships are accused of selling substandard cars and refusing to exchange them when clients find defects.

Malusi, 41, of North Riding in Johannesburg, bought a new white BMW X5 worth R1.1-million from Joburg City Auto two weeks after it was launched in March last year.

He said for a car worth over one million rand, no one expects its axles to have rusted on all four wheels or for it to have different shades of paint and fog lights that are skew.

After driving it for three months, Malusi realised the front headlight washer was broken and, on closer inspection, he noticed that its front bumper had also been resprayed. He immediately suspected that the car was involved in an accident.

"Whoever was commissioned to repaint it did a shoddy job as they used a cream paint instead of white," Malusi said.

He took up the matter with the dealer, who denied it had been involved in an accident or that its front bumper had been resprayed.

For a second opinion on the car's condition Malusi took it to Dekra, a global safety, testing and advisory firm, and they found more defects he had not been aware of.

They found that the front lower grille cover was missing, the front tyres were uneven and the right jack-up point part was missing.

Though BMW later admitted there was a discrepancy on the condition of his car, it only offered to respray it and repair the small scratches. Malusi said BMW told him that his reason for an exchange lacked technical merit. It did not tell him what actually happened to the car to necessitate the fixing or respraying.
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Link.
 
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Shocking...nasty!

"Malusi pays an instalment of R15725 for a car he no longer enjoys."

I'm sure many many people can use that said almost R16k for better; efficient; use
 
If the car was sold as new, as the article suggests, then this guy should get lawyers on his case. It's hard to believe BMW could be this stupid though, and I suspect there are details of the story being left out.
 
crackersa said:
Was it brand spanking new or a demo?
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The fact that the front bumper was resprayed suggests to me that this thing didn't exactly roll out the factory door.

Sounds more like there is one mighty dodgy middleman at work here.
 
Kinda reminds me of that story of that dude that bought his new Porsche 911 at a Nissan dealership; placed a big deposit to secure the car but was supposedly messed around.

All the comments was like why would you buy your new Porsche at Nissan...
 
Galactica said:
New, I for one I'm scared of dealerships located in the Joburg CBD, now it seems even franchise dealerships there are no better.
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a person I know bought a 1 year old Audi from Audi Braamfontein and 2 months after purchase his insurance company phoned and said the engine and vehicle numbers don't match... Turns out they replaced the entire engine and gearbox and didn't tell him this before purchase nor did it show up in the service manual...
 
SAdata said:
a person I know bought a 1 year old Audi from Audi Braamfontein and 2 months after purchase his insurance company phoned and said the engine and vehicle numbers don't match... Turns out they replaced the entire engine and gearbox and didn't tell him this before purchase nor did it show up in the service manual...
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Dodgy as hell! Did he get any resolution?
 
HavocXphere said:
The fact that the front bumper was resprayed suggests to me that this thing didn't exactly roll out the factory door.

Sounds more like there is one mighty dodgy middleman at work here.
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Yes but a lot happens on the way from the factory door to the dealership.
My wifes car had also a resprayed front bumper when we bought it; but the dealer told us about that and gave us a nice discount because of it.
 
You have to wonder if its a he said she said kind of thing. Its impossible for the dealership to know what happened after the BMW left the floor.
Not saying that is the case but anything is possible.
 
Bryn said:
If the car was sold as new, as the article suggests, then this guy should get lawyers on his case. It's hard to believe BMW could be this stupid though, and I suspect there are details of the story being left out.
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Probably just a dodgy dealer. They need to stop throwing the name BMW around cause it could probably just be the dealer. They can check the VIN for when it was first registered and the mileage.

Arthur said:
Shocking. Hope Zanovuyo Malusi gets it sorted quickly.

Idle curiosity: What does Zanovuyo Malusi do to afford this kind of car?
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He is previously disadvantaged but currently advantaged.
 
Arthur said:
Shocking. Hope Zanovuyo Malusi gets it sorted quickly.

Idle curiosity: What does Zanovuyo Malusi do to afford this kind of car?
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If he was a white gentleman would you have asked this question? I'm curious.
 
Arthur said:
I wasn't asking about his race. It's irrelevant. I'm asking about his job.
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Yes but if not for his race would his profession or how he affords the car have mattered to you? Would you have been curious about a Greg Smith's profession by seeing him owning an X5?
 
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Galactica said:
Yes but if not for his race would his profession or how he affords the car have mattered (ftfy) to you? Would you have been curious about a Greg Smith's profession by seeing him owning an X5?
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Yes, I didn't know they cost that much these days, damn, what kind of jobs do people do to earn enough for R16 000pm cars?
 
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