Couple get money back after being sold ‘write-off’
A truck importer who sold a vehicle with 32,335 kilometres on its odometer has been ordered to pay the buyer $54,000 after it was discovered the vehicle’s engine had probably done more than six times the distance claimed.
Evan and Karen Ball paid Napier company Kobe Export NZ Ltd $49,900 for the 2010 Toyota Dyna truck in March 2017. They added a slide-on camper to the truck and were going to use it for family holidays.
They had owned the truck for three months when they noticed it was overheating. The engine was found to have damage to three cylinders, head gasket failure, and combustion gases were entering the cooling system.
Kobe Export refused to fix the engine, claiming the damage had been caused by Evan’s driving.
The Balls went to the Motor Vehicles Disputes Tribunal, claiming Kobe Export had breached the Fair Trading Act by advertising the truck as having an odometer reading of 32,335km when its engine appeared to have travelled significantly further.
Kobe Export managing director Andrew Bean called evidence from a mechanic, who said there had been no fault with the engine when it was tested in June 2017.
Bean said the slide-on camper had been attached poorly, and this had created excessive wind resistance, which in turn caused the engine to overheat. He also claimed Ball’s lack of experience in driving trucks may have contributed to the engine’s failing.
But tribunal assessor Shane Haynes said the engine was in such poor condition there was no way it could have travelled just 32,335km. Cylinder bore measurements suggested it had travelled ‘‘at least 200,000km’’.
Adjudicator Brett Carter said the engine was likely to have been replaced before Kobe Export bought the truck, and ‘‘Kobe Export had no knowledge that the vehicle’s engine had been swapped’’.
He noted that a record of its history showed the truck had suffered water damage in 2014 and had been auctioned three times between 2014 and 2016 as a low-grade vehicle, or ‘‘the equivalent of a writeoff’’.
Carter said Kobe Export had breached the Fair Trading Act by misleading the Balls.
‘‘The vehicle’s odometer reading was accurate, but the implicit representation that the vehicle’s engine had travelled the same distance was not ... The fact that Kobe Export may not have known that the vehicle’s engine had been replaced with an engine in poor condition provides it with no defence,’’ he said.
Bean told Stuff there were inaccuracies in the decision, and it did not record his offer to repair the truck, which the Balls had declined.
‘‘Mr and Mrs Ball were intent on returning the truck for a full refund, even though they had damaged it after purchasing it.’’