Ford Trade in Policy appauling

I purchased a New Ford Wildtrack in October 2018 from Ford Hill Street in Randburg.

I traded my Isuzu bakkie in and Idid this so that i did not have to go through the pain of selling the vehicle privately and having come backs. The garage did not offer me a great price but I accepted it to eliminate the after sales issues.

I received a call from the sales person at Ford asking me about the service records? I have given them the service book, the vehicle was in good condition but it was 19 years old. I said your second hand dealer had inspected the vehicle and taken it for a drive ? I could not believe this and i said to them that they have to be joking, they could not find the service book?

I started to get E Toll accounts for the vehicle I had traded in and i called Ford and they said they would sort it out, Ihad to send them a copy of the account. I chased this up for weeks afterwards to get them to pay as i received more accounts and this now included more fees from E Toll. I had to spend time going to Ford on Hill street to ask what was going on. They promised to sort it out. I went back again after getting the 3rd Account and the amount due was R 722- I again went to the garage and insisted they pay the account while I was there and that they take the vehicle off my name. They paid it and again promised to take it off my name. Someone was still driving my old vehicle in March 2019 on my name and Ford had not changed the vehicle registration.

I thought that trading it in for R 10,000 less than i could have sold it privately for was going to make it easier for me, well that was not the case.

I eventually got them to remove it off my name in late March 2019

I sent the dealer principal an e mail saying that the issue was not acceptable and for all my efforts i wanted a new set of mats for my Ford or something after all my iussues. They simply just ignored my e mails. Basically could not care that i was an unhappy client.

I called Ford head office on the 19th August and they said they would investigate and come back to me and gave me a reference, well as you can guess i am still waiting for anything from Ford in response. They said that the dealerships are all independant and they have no say over them.

So where does that leave when it comes to consumer protection? we are again out on a limb.

So always make sure that you notify The Traffic department if you trade a car in at Ford, they like to just drive the vehicles and rack up e toll accounts for which you have to fight to get paid.