2021 Black Ford Ranger FX4 Auto — gearbox failure AND engine fault UNDER A MONTH after purchase.

We purchased this vehicle on 8 November 2025. By 21 November 2025, the gearbox had already began failing. Instead of taking responsibility under the Consumer Protection Act, VW Alpine Pinetown advised us to either use our own warranty or return the vehicle so they could dump it back into trade, verbatim from the salesman (MARK):

“Bring it back, we’ll just sell it back to trade.”

This response shows complete negligence, zero accountability and no integrity whatsoever.

On 6 December 2025, the check engine light came on. Diagnostics confirmed an engine fault on the Cylinder 3 injector input circuit.

That is two major mechanical failures in under one month. Despite this, the vehicle was sold as a VW MasterCar, which is supposed to guarantee quality, safety, and a proper inspection. This was NOT a MasterCar, it was a dangerous, defective vehicle falsely passed off as certified.

Staff Conduct:

🚩🚩🚩 Mark (Salesman): Mark was friendly only until the sale was completed. Once the vehicle developed problems, his attitude changed completely. He became extremely sarcastic, rude, dismissive and unhelpful. His conduct was shocking, we have never dealt with a salesperson this unprofessional or disrespectful. While communication did occur, his tone and attitude were consistently disrespectful, making an already stressful situation far worse. And any attempt to resolve the issue was met with indifference.

Grant (DP) Grant was challenging to deal with at the beginning, however toward the end he made a genuine effort to assist. His approach became more open, more constructive and far easier to engage with. He was polite, calm, and professional, took the time to listen and tried to help where possible despite inheriting a difficult situation. This improvement in attitude and willingness to assist was appreciated and stood out positively compared to the earlier stages of this experience.

We cancelled the deal after the engine failure.

VW Alpine Pinetown refused to cover the cost of a rental vehicle unless we purchased another car through them. Although they attempted to source a replacement vehicle, they were unable to find anything within our price range, leaving us with no viable alternative. As a result, we were forced to pay out of pocket for a rental vehicle simply to meet our daily transport needs.

Needless to say, we did not and will never purchase another vehicle through this dealership.

This is one of the worst dealership experiences imaginable.