Automark CFAO - Not Accident Free

My wife and I purchased a Ford EcoSport on 26 May 2023 for the amount of R229,995.00 from Automark Market Toyota Culemborg (now located at the V&A Waterfront) in Cape Town. This dealership presents itself as a “Certified” dealership, publicly advertising that all vehicles undergo thorough inspection and are approved as certified vehicles. In February 2025, we tried to trade in our vehicle with another car dealers and after an inspection by Dekra, we were informed that the vehicle had previously been involved in an accident, and due to this,the dealership declined to proceed with the trade-in. The manager at the dealership, pointed out visible signs of the accident damage. Furthermore, we were able to contact the previous owner, who confirmed that the vehicle had indeed been in an accident. We raised this matter with Automark, Mr. Paul Browne (salesman) and Mr. Fabian Walker (branch manager), who both claimed they had no prior knowledge of the accident and reiterated that all vehicles are inspected and certified at the time of sale. They offered to replace our current vehicle with another to the value of R190,000.00, the estimated current trade-in value. However, after 6 months of searching for a suitable vehicle, the dealership was unable to find one. We then escalate this issue to the principle of the dealership, André Breytenbach , who agreed on replacing the to the same “value” of our car of R190 000.00 After 12months , Automark have still not found a suitable replacement.Although we agreed on on R190 000.00 we are losing more money as the longer they take to find a vehicle, the more the value drops. They have since made no effort in trying to contact us to resolve the issue.