Rejecting a nearly new car – “not as described”

[Paul Collinswood]

My first post but I’m in desperate need of some guidance.

We bought an ex-demo SsangYong Rexton 2.2 ELX in December 2016 from a SsangYong dealer in Wales. The car was first registered in March 2016 and we paid £25500 for the vehicle. One of the big selling points of the car from SsangYong GB was the fact that it could tow 3 tonne which was a big bonus as we often tow horseboxes and boat trailers.

In January 2016, we noticed that the VIN plate on the Rexton had the following figures – 5310kg GTW and 2710kg GVW. In effect, if the car was fully laden, we’d only have a towing capacity of 2.6tonne, not 3 tonne as claimed by SsangYong GB. We immediately contacted the supplying dealer who said they’d look into this issue. It then became apparent that late 2016 model Rextons were now displaying two VIN plates. The original, as per ours plus a “stage 2” VIN plate stating a GTW of 6000kg and GVW of 3000kg, so in essence a 3 tonne towing capacity. Suffice to say, we cannot legally tow 3 tonne unless the car is not loaded to its max weight. However, the stage 2 plates on later models enables a 3 tonne capacity.

Our dealer has contacted SsangYong GB on several occasions only to be told that our car has been approved by the VCA to tow 3 tonne and that a new V5C document and an additional stage 2 VIN plate will be supplied. This has gone on for three months and still nothing and SsangYong GB have no idea when this will be addressed. It seems stage that as nothing has changed on the car since its launch, why can models built in late 2016 be different to ours in terms of towing capacity?

We feel we have been misled by SsangYong GB in that we cannot legally tow 3 tonne as all their sales blurb at the time said we could. Indeed, the dealer also confirmed verbally that towing 3 tonne would be ok and in line with what SsangYong said in their marketing/advertising. We have made it clear to the dealer that as the 6 month period of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 is fast running out, we want the issue sorted by the end of April 2017. Ideally, we’d like a replacement car that will indeed tow 3 tonne with no financial implication to us. This however would mean them supplying a 66 plate car and not a 16 plate as is ours.

All we want is a stage 2 VIN plate and a V5C with the correct info on it but as this saga has been going on for three months, we’re no further forward and can’t see it happening this year lol. Indeed, if we were to sell the car privately in the near future to a customer who wanted a 3 tonne towing capacity, we’d be clearly misleading them as the VIN plate is incorrect.

So where do we go from here? Wait and see if SsangYong GB come up trumps or reject the car as “not as described” and push for a replacement with the correct VIN plate/s?

Your thoughts and comments would be greatly appreciated as over the coming weeks we’ll be needing to tow trailers approaching 3 tonne legally.

Many thanks and sorry for the long post/ramblings.

[Stuart Masson]

Hi Paul. It’s entirely possible that the dealer and SsangYong GB are both telling you the truth, and that the government is simply being slow. And once the DVLA gets involved, normal human operations go out the window and a bottomless pit of bureaucracy takes over.

SsangYong has just had the towing capacity for its Musso pick-up upgraded by the VCA from 3.0 tonnes to 3.5 tonnes, which is purely a procedural issue and involved no changes to the vehicle (according to what I was told when I asked SsangYong’s press office about it last week).

[Author]

Posts