A Midrand businessman lost his heart on a new Porsche 911 Turbo convertible with a price tag of R2.6 million.
But when the dealership failed to deliver the car, he turned his attention to another car – a R2.8m Ferrari California.
But Tando Sonqishe, of the Valley Golf and Country Estate, has now turned to the high court in Pretoria after his efforts to be refunded the R1.1m deposit he had paid for the Porsche to buy the Ferrari failed.
He explained in papers before court that he had wanted the Porsche, but the first dealership he went to said there was a seven-month waiting list for the car.
He then went to Delmas Nissan, where a sales lady promised he could get the Porsche within a month, he said. He was so excited he issued several cheques to the dealership as a deposit, which totalled R1.1m. He made the first payment in April last year and was told the vehicle would be delivered about a month later. The sales lady, he said, said she was just waiting for the Porsche dealership in Cape Town to confirm delivery from the factory in Germany.
Sonqishe told her he wanted the vehicle delivered in time for him to drive it to Durban for the July Handicap horserace.
However, the date came and went and still he did not have his car. He was told it would be delivered “any day now”. Sonqishe paid a further R350 000 to the dealership.
In about August last year he became increasingly distressed that he still did not have his car. Sonqishe said each time he phoned the saleslady, she said the vehicle would be delivered “tomorrow”.
“I told her that I had waited well beyond the time we had agreed on and that I was going to look elsewhere for a suitable supercar.”
A few days later he saw his “dream car” at a Ferrari dealership.
PROMISES KEPT COMING
He called Delmas Nissan to say he was no longer taking the Porsche and was now buying a Ferrari and he wanted his R1.1m back.
He said the saleslady seemed sympathetic and promised to cancel the Porsche deal and pay the money directly to the new dealership.
She even undertook to arrange his financing for him.
He paid the Ferrari dealership a “holding deposit' of R300 000 and a few weeks later saw the saleslady at the Ferrari dealership.
He, however, never received his R1.1m. The dealership told him it had never received any money from him and said he had, in fact, paid the money to the saleslady.
The dealership said the cheques were later handed back to Sonqishe.
But Sonqishe was able to show that the cheques had been paid into the bank account of the dealership and debited against his account.
Judge Hans Fabricius, who heard the application to have the money paid back, rejected the version of the dealership and said this defence was “absurd, to put it mildly”. He ordered Sonqishe get his R1.1m back– plus interest. There was no indication what Sonqishe is driving now.
Pretoria News