I only found out after bank called
HE wanted to upgrade his car, moving on to a newer model which had caught his eye at a road show.
By Desmond Ng
05 August 2008
HE wanted to upgrade his car, moving on to a newer model which had caught his eye at a road show.
But Mr Lee ST ended up in a car owner's nightmare, saddled with two loans, one missing car and a dealer who seems to have vanished.
His problems started last November, when Mr Lee, a civil servant, agreed to trade in his three-year-old Hyundai Getz for a 1.3-litre Honda Fit, which cost about $60,000.
The Getz is also a 1.3-litre car and had cost him roughly the same amount.
The parallel importer he went to, Car Kingdom, offered him about $30,000 for the Getz, on which he still had an outstanding loan of $41,000.
CHEQUE TO DEALER
Mr Lee said he handed over the car in March this year, along with a cheque for $11,000 to make up the difference.
He said he made out the cheque to the dealer, who promised to handle all the paperwork.
Mr Lee got his new Fit the same day and never saw his Getz again.
Now, months later, all that is known about the car is that it is still in his name, though it has been shipped to Europe.
Said Mr Lee: 'I took my new car and traded in the old one. I thought everything was settled already.
'There was nothing unusual about the deal until I received a call from my bank in May that I had defaulted on my instalments for the Getz.'
The monthly instalment for his Getz was about $600.
He thought it was probably an administrative oversight and called the dealer, Mr Allan Poh of Car Kingdom.
He said Mr Poh assured him that the issue would be resolved quickly and told him that the car was waiting to be exported.
After a week, Mr Lee said the bank called him again about the payment.
This time, when he tried to call Mr Poh, he could not get through.
And when he went to Car Kingdom's office in Joo Chiat, he was told that the company had ceased operations.
A few weeks later, he received a call from someone who claimed to have exported his Getz.
The man, who wanted to be known only as Jeff, told him that Mr Poh had not de-registered the car.
Mr Lee said he then complained to the Land Transport Authority (LTA) that his car had been exported without being de-registered.
He also made a police report.
The New Paper did a check on LTA's One-Motoring portal, which showed that the Getz was still registered under Mr Lee's name.
Mr Lee said the bank told him that he still has to pay the monthly instalments on the Getz.
Along with the instalment for the Fit, he now has to pay about $1,300 each month, a financial burden to him, he said.
When The New Paper contacted Jeff, he said he had paid Mr Poh a few thousand dollars for the Getz to be exported to Cyprus.
He said: 'He (Mr Poh) promised that he would do the paperwork and I could go ahead and ship the car overseas first. Usually, the paperwork takes just a day or two.
'But I received a call a few weeks later that the car was stuck on the vessel and couldn't be unloaded because the proper documentation wasn't done.'
He said his customer in Cyprus was asking for the car.
'Now, my logistics costs are even more than what I paid for the car,' he said. 'If I pull back the car, there will be a double charge. So, what can I do?
'I am waiting for the LTA to do something.
'But I am prepared to lose this money already.'
Jeff, who had dealt with Mr Poh in the past, said he had failed to contact him after this incident.
A check with the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority showed that one Mr Poh Chee Tiong was listed as the owner of Car Kingdom.
The New Paper visited the company's office in Joo Chiat last week but it had vacated the place.
We also went to Mr Poh's registered home address but were told by neighbours that he had moved out.
He didn't pick up calls made to his handphone.
Car dealers we spoke to suggested that Mr Lee check with LTA if it is possible to de-register his Getz, and get back his paper value of about $25,000.
One of them said Mr Lee should have gone with his dealer to the bank to settle the outstanding loan. If not, he should have written the cheque in favour of the bank.
He said Mr Lee should also have informed the LTA in writing about the sale immediately, giving details.
LTA said a police report has been made by Mr Lee and they are rendering assistance. It declined to comment further.
The police said they're looking into the matter.
Mr Lee said: 'I just want to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.'
Car sales have slowed down. The industry is consolidating. The weaker car distributors are closing down. Car buyers must approach the bigger boys if they want to avoid losing their pants. Parallel importers are generally the weaker ones. There are some parallel importers who have the financial muscle, but would any buyer know who are the better ones.
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dunno how to choose appropriate forum isit
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