Dennis H

Auto Elegance, (Pretoria Wonderboom South) misleading advertised vehicle price tags.

In searching for a nice second hand vehicle for my wife I found the "perfect" ad that fits well into my criteria on both Autotrader and Cars.co.za. (The vehicle I am talking about is a 2009 BMW X5 3.0 Diesel) This ad is published by Auto Elegance situated in 1149 Steve Biko RD Pretoria. The price tag was R209900-00 on both these sites (of which I have pictures of both the ads and I have a picture of the physical price tag chart hanging on the vehicle) and on our arrival one of auto Elegance's sales representatives took us to the vehicle for viewing and the price tag on the vehicle was exactly like advertised on these two major sites except for the "Licencing and On the road" fees of R2200-00 and R2250-00 respectively which I had no problem paying for and I made that very clear to the sales rep. We were quite impressed with the condition of the car and I made an arrangement with the sales rep to reserve the vehicle for a few hours as we had a few other vehicles at other dealers to view on our list. All said and accepted by the sales rep I asked if they will consider discount on a cash sale and he said that is up to the owner to decide which was not there at the time but he will contact him and ask if he will consider. Off we went to view other options on our list. After consideration me and my wife decided that the vehicle at Auto Elegance was the one we want and on our arrival I we told the sales rep that we have decided on this vehicle and we would like to seal the deal. Then came the big wrestle. I asked the sales rep about the outcome for cash discount and he said that the owner said he is not willing to accommodate us on any discount (which I was fine with) but the price has gone up from R209900-00 to R224100-00 which includes the licencing/on the road fee of R4450-00 and an additional R9750-00 mechanical warranty which was not remotely shown on his ads on the internet and also NOT on the physical price tag that was hanging on the car at the Auto Elegance premises.(I had pictures taken of the price tag and licence disc). I immediately told the sales rep that I accept everything but not the R9750-00 for the mechanical warranty. He then told me that the owner said that this warranty is compulsory and he will not sell the car to me without that. They even sent me a Whatsapp which I still have to spell this out in so many words. This is false and misleading advertising and should not be tolerated! If the owner had shown this extra warranty cost in any way on any his ads or price tag it would have been a total different story and most probably I would have accepted the deal all inclusive. I have spent the whole day from work and driven more than 350km to view the vehicle and to get treated like this?? I even offered to sign a waiver to assure them that I will not hold them accountable for any mechanical or electrical failure which the owner just dismissed. Think twice before you believe a price tag on a vehicle from Auto Elegance in Pretoria!