A Philippi woman is furious at a Plumstead dealership that is charging her R42 000 for repairs to her car, which has been in their workshop for 18 MONTHS.
Sandra Kenny says she bought her “dream car”, a maroon 2008 Chevrolet Captiva SUV in 2017 and was very happy, until problems started.
She says after she was in a bus accident, she developed a fear for public transport and bought a car for the sake of her own mental health.
“I bought the vehicle because 11 years ago I was in a bus accident that left me helpless. I couldn’t do anything for myself or even walk,” Sandra explains.
“With time I started walking again, but some of the accident’s effects remained and the main reason I bought the car was for convenience.”
The mom of four says a few months after buying her car, it suddenly stopped working, and her insurance referred the towing company to Thorp Plumstead.
“The car went in and stood there for exactly a year,” she says.
“I got the car back in December 2018. I paid Thorp R28 000 but a day and a half later, just before Christmas, the car died again.
“The car was taken back, the gears were out, black smoke kept coming from the bonnet and the car would not go forward but only reverse.
“Now Thorp has my car for six months. What frustrates me is that they now want R16 000 to only remove the engine, not even to fix it,” Sandra says angrily.
“What did I pay the R28 000 for then? They cannot give me answers.”
Sandra says she needs the vehicle to get medication for both her and her ill mother.
Sandra's car is at Thorp in Plumstead
“Uber is expensive. I have to pay someone to drive me around. If my car was fixed, there would not be so many problems,” Sandra adds.
Moosa Toffar, Thorp Group’s Aftersales Manager, says the car’s warranty expired in 2013.
“The vehicle was initially booked into the workshop with a concern of non-start,” he explains.
“We carried out repairs to the vehicle and managed to get it up and running.”
Asked why it took a year for these repairs to be done, he said: “The vehicle was sent off to JEG diesel (diesel specialist) testing the injector pump, injectors, etc. all work done prior to my employment at Thorp.
“The vehicle returned to the workshop (the second time) with a concern of smoking, we carried out a diagnosis and found sump compression evident.
“This clearly indicates that there is now a mechanical function issue on the
vehicle which causes the engine to smoke.
“We quoted the customer to strip the engine and diagnose the concern and the customer is refusing to authorise this and she refuses to sit down so that we can explain and discuss with her that it is a completely different repair to be done on her vehicle as her previous concern was a non-start,” he says.