Mislead nightmare

Good morning,

I hope that you are well.

I was looking for a vehicle and a person, Marie Human, in our town, Bredasdorp, made contact with me and informed me he used to work for dealerships and he is still doing it in his free time after he retired.

He sent me pictures of a few cars, one of those being the Peageot 208 GTI Sport, 2013 model. I liked the car and he put me in contact with Ewald, from Bergsig Motors in Worcester. Ewald got the ball rolling and we app**** (my mom app**** as I did not qualify because of working for a US company remotely).

Ewald called me on the 29th of January, informing me there is a little sensor causing a light in the vehicle to go on. This I was later informed us the engin light. He told me he is taking it so a guy he knows and then he informed me he only saw now, some of the top coat above the paint is coming off and sent me pictures on WhatsApp. I was unhappy about that, so he said he would pay me R6000 (entire loan would be paid to him, he gave me R6000 off of the price).

I agreed as I saw that as fair. The person he saw then said that there was nothing wrong with the car. Ewald informed me they cancelled the code that it was throwing out. The first of Feb, he informed me the car is ready and I can go fetch her. (He said she was at the finance place, Frank Vos finance, for inspection on that day too). Nothing was mentioned of any faults, according to what was told to me, she was now perfect with the sensor being replaced.

We drove the 2 hours to Worcester. When coming g there I saw two very very visible scratches on the door. I asked him about it and he nonchalantly said oh he saw it now too. Everything inside looked beautiful. Except for the scratches and the two spots of paint, she looked in amazing condition. When I climbed in, he told me, also very nonchalantly, that I will see when I start her it will say engin fault and a service fault, but then I must just stop and start again. Then it will go away. He said it is still this sensor. I asked if that is not the one he had told me they replaced, and he said yes but nothing is wrong, it did this with the previous owner too and I can contact him if something goes wrong. I drove off with that. I was unhappy and that's when this nightmare started.

While driving home, I saw my right door doesn't line up correctly, but he said there were no accidents to his knowledge. When I got home. I was unhappy but decided to trust what he said was correct, the diagnostics according to him showed no faults.

Ewald and Marie arranged for the car to be taken to two different places in Bredasdorp, Point S & Bredasdorp auto Elec (he was honest and said I should get my money back). Still, Ewald said it is because they do not know peageot and they said nothing is wrong with the engine. They replaced this sensor AGAIN. I was again told it is just the sensor and the oil was drained because it was said that is the problem, amongst other things. We felt very uneasy at this point and very unhappy, but felt that he was still trying to help so it must be something small. I do have to mention from the beginning he said it's a clients of his car and he doesn't know the history too well. I made sure he knew I don't care, I am buying the car from his dealership, and that is where the money is being paid too, in that, you take responsibility.

A few headaches, anxiety, stress and up and down driving for this car.... I decided to go visit my mom.

So I drove to my mother in MtubaMtuba, Durban, on the 17th of February. We drove for almost 30 hours (stopping in between). We smelled oil and a burning smell the whole way. But it was worse at times and she didn't show any other faults than the engin light that was already on.

In Durban, she went into limp mode and shook, you could smell oil bad. They told me the smoke is normal for a car with a turbo. It didn't feel normal. There, we took it to one of my mother's friends, he ran diagnostics, his exact words were a shopping list full of problems and he is not going to touch the car. He called Ewald and told him that himself.

Ewald found Adrian, in Durban, and arranged for the car to be taken there. I have pictures of everything and the WhatsApp chats between myself and Ewald, myself and Matie and myself and Adrian. I took pictures of the car being loaded etc.

I had to pay for plane tickets back to cape town as my responsibilities are here. The car stayed there. I told Ewald I cannot pay for it to get back to where I bought the car and it isn't my fault it broke. He told me he will arrange with Matie and Matie later let me know he can't drive it back. Adrian informed me the turbo charger was broken. How so many different places Ewald sent me to could not see this, I do not know. But that caused other damage to the car. Chat attached.

We had to pay R7600 for the car to get back in Cape Town. My costs are rising with paying people to drive me around, paying for the car to get back here, paying for plane tickets, anxiety meds. The list goes on.

The car arrived yesterday - according to Adrian it should be in perfect condition. I must mention, he has been fantastic in all of this (if this doesn't end up being a ****). As soon as I got in and drove, I felt she was shaking and saw the engin light is on, and it is still showing the alert that engin needs to be repaired. She went into limp mode. I was so excited and now I just feel I should have contacted you a long time ago. I tried calling, but didn't get through.

I informed both Ewald and Adrian. Adrian has been in contact, I told him to arrange with Ewald. Ewald has not responded to me.

Please help me. I do not want this vehicle as from the beginning I have been **** to, and this has just caused a lot of unwanted stress and dire finance situations.

Sorry, I also have to mention I have been paying insurance on her for two months. Also, when the finance place said we could go do the number plates, the place told me mom the car doesn't have a valid roadworthy. It expired.