Speaker 1: It is time for consumer talk, and consumer journalist Wendy
Speaker 1: Nola is with us in studio today as well as
Speaker 1: another guest we'll.
Speaker 2: Introduce in just a moment.
Speaker 1: We're going to be talking about I think I have
Speaker 1: to say one of the subjects that generates the most
Speaker 1: complaints and queries into our inboxes collectively second hand car
Speaker 1: purchases and all the things that can go wrong. And
Speaker 1: as I said, we have an expert guest joining us
Speaker 1: to offer advice on ways of protecting yourself against some
Speaker 1: of the common pitfalls. So if you want to ask
Speaker 1: a question, or if you want to share your own
Speaker 1: experience as well, you're welcome to send a WhatsApp to
Speaker 1: seven two five six seven one five six seven or
Speaker 1: give us a call on two one four four six
Speaker 1: oh five six seven. Wendy, I'm not joking about the
Speaker 1: traffic of inbox complaints around cars. I mean, obviously, buying
Speaker 1: a car is for many of us, the first big
Speaker 1: purchase that we ever make.
Speaker 2: Price sensitivity is a key thing right now.
Speaker 1: So it's very understandable that a huge percentage of buyers
Speaker 1: opt for secondhand, but our inboxes bear testimony to the
Speaker 1: fact that it can go horribly wrong at great cost
Speaker 1: of a lot of people.
Speaker 3: Very well said, yeah, so used cars offer far more
Speaker 3: value than used ones, do I mean, let the new
Speaker 3: ones do rather, Rather they let the new buy suffer
Speaker 3: the loss in terms of depreciation and the rest, and
Speaker 3: then we can get a bargain. But you really need
Speaker 3: to have your wits about you and be prepared to
Speaker 3: spend time and a little bit of money doing some
Speaker 3: checks to avoid landing up with one with a very
Speaker 3: dodgy past. And you know, so many of them are
Speaker 3: very nicely put back together after a terrible smash. They
Speaker 3: land up looking and sounding lovely in that dealership listing.
Speaker 3: And we're talking about dealerships across the board, not just
Speaker 3: the little independent ones on the corner. We're talking about
Speaker 3: some of the big branded ones as well.
Speaker 4: Well.
Speaker 1: I'm going to say there've been a couple of recent
Speaker 1: rulings by the Consumer Commission issuing very large fines to
Speaker 1: some very established deals.
Speaker 3: Exactly, so it's vital that you don't take the info
Speaker 3: on the dealers listening at face value. You need to
Speaker 3: check and two things in particular, my research tells me
Speaker 3: and my informants whether or not the stated mileage is legitimate,
Speaker 3: and whether it was restored to show them glory after
Speaker 3: being involved in a major accident. And those are two
Speaker 3: very very common scenarios in South Africa. The industry word
Speaker 3: for having the mileage manipulated. They're not going to they're
Speaker 3: going to turn it back, not forward, right, is car
Speaker 3: having a haircut. So if you're in the market for
Speaker 3: a car and you throw in these kinds of words,
Speaker 3: the salesperson might take you a little bit more serious.
Speaker 3: So there are a lot of cars that have had
Speaker 3: some very hairy haircuts out there, so you really need
Speaker 3: to check that number. So look these cars that have
Speaker 3: been as long as they've fixed to roadworthy standards and
Speaker 3: they go through a proper roadworthy not a corrupt one,
Speaker 3: and you could they could be put back on the road.
Speaker 3: But cars with bad accident has and very high mileage
Speaker 3: ought to be sold for you with full disclosure and
Speaker 3: at appropriate prices for that, not patched up chiny and
Speaker 3: you with the past not disclosed and really inappropriately high
Speaker 3: prices for what you're actually getting. But as in many
Speaker 3: cases paperwork might be fudged, it needs to be the
Speaker 3: past trauma is undisclosed, and they get sold as regular used.
Speaker 2: Cars on the show and floor.
Speaker 1: Okay, So obviously the million dollar question is how can
Speaker 1: we check because we don't know looking at a car
Speaker 1: from the outside, whether the mileage has been crooked and
Speaker 1: whether it has been patched up after an accident. Is
Speaker 1: there a way to find out what that car is
Speaker 1: really all about before you signed the offer to purchase?
Speaker 3: Yes, there is. There are a number of ways. But
Speaker 3: what Thassen Studio today is one of the owners of
Speaker 3: Cape based company First Check, which has been doing such
Speaker 3: checks for would be buyers or a modest sum Andrew
Speaker 3: Travers welcome.
Speaker 2: Great, have you weather sundry welcome, Thank you very very much.
Speaker 5: Thanks to SEVENA to Cape Talk and Wendy for everything
Speaker 5: that you do.
Speaker 1: You're here to that okay, So first, just tell us
Speaker 1: a little bit about about First Check, Andrew, before we
Speaker 1: dive into how you go about looking at things. Just
Speaker 1: give us a sense of the company, when it was
Speaker 1: started and what you do.
Speaker 5: Papa, First Check was started, it's over five years in
Speaker 5: the making now and we're extremely proud of what we've
Speaker 5: accomplished so far. First Check is a first in South
Speaker 5: Africa as a vehicle checking system and what this means
Speaker 5: is now all consumers can run the basic and extremely
Speaker 5: necessary checks and any vehicle registered in South Africa before
Speaker 5: they transact. We not only provide vehicle facts, but a
Speaker 5: place of reassurance and comfort and transparency, which is really
Speaker 5: key for any type of transaction regarding a vehicle that's
Speaker 5: on the South African road. With my team and years
Speaker 5: of building this technology and years of collecting data, including
Speaker 5: some assistance from strategic data partners, we now have a
Speaker 5: trusted and verified system that many, many thousands of South
Speaker 5: Africans are using on a daily basis, and many of
Speaker 5: them repeatedly.
Speaker 2: Okay, good to know.
Speaker 3: So what information do you need from a potential buyer
Speaker 3: or someone that has bought a car, used car and
Speaker 3: has begun to suspect that all was not disclosed when
Speaker 3: they bought it. What do they need to what's the process?
Speaker 5: Essentially, a buyer or a seller with intent would typically
Speaker 5: go to first check dot cosar. You take the unique
Speaker 5: seventeen digit VIN number off your vehicle, you put it
Speaker 5: into our website. It's impossible to get it incorrect because
Speaker 5: it's a confusing number in many cases, but there is
Speaker 5: only one way to put it in Whether you own
Speaker 5: a vehicle, you're looking at buying a vehicle, wanted to
Speaker 5: sell your current vehicle. First check would be an excellent
Speaker 5: place to start your journey, as we provide you with
Speaker 5: what we call a venty vehicle match, which is the start.
Speaker 5: It allows you to check that we in fact have
Speaker 5: the correct vehicle all the way down to the actual
Speaker 5: model and vehicle specifications.
Speaker 1: Okay, so sorry to interrupt, but if you're looking at
Speaker 1: buying a blue Honda Jazz and vin number x y
Speaker 1: Z and you put that into your system and it says,
Speaker 1: well that ven number actually belongs to a red Corolla,
Speaker 1: you know straight away something automatic.
Speaker 5: Yeah, okay, be flagged once once we verified the ven number,
Speaker 5: the detailed customer value journey, if you will, begins and
Speaker 5: some of our most valuable touch points being actual live
Speaker 5: market values. We give you six different values actually, which
Speaker 5: is a spread across trade and retail high and low
Speaker 5: perceived market value. Any damage claims that have been recorded,
Speaker 5: in other words, official insurance claims at verified panel shops
Speaker 5: would be recorded obviously the.
Speaker 3: One real tell all that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, it is naturally there are instances where a
Speaker 5: vehicle has been patched up by somebody that the accident
Speaker 5: was too small to claim and they go to a
Speaker 5: non franchised repair shop. Those aren't picked up first. Chick
Speaker 5: would always recommend doing a physical inspection on a vehicle
Speaker 5: if you see issues. There are various centers, roadworthy centers
Speaker 5: and vehicle checking centers that are able to help you
Speaker 5: with us. Very importantly, a police interest, and we see
Speaker 5: this every day, whether the vehicle is actively sought or
Speaker 5: if it's been stolen, if it's recorded as stolen. We
Speaker 5: see this very often, very importantly. Finance interest in the
Speaker 5: vehicle is that, in other words, is the title owner
Speaker 5: the title holder the owner? Or is does the vehicle
Speaker 5: belong is it finance doesn't belong to a bank? That's
Speaker 5: very very important.
Speaker 3: I've had cases where they haven't found out later that
Speaker 3: the bank is still care.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it happens often. Also, the micro dot status the
Speaker 5: vehicle as it's introduced into the South African system. Nowadays,
Speaker 5: new vehicles all come with the micro dot.
Speaker 2: I didn't know that, okay.
Speaker 5: And very importantly the vehicle specifications, even basic things like
Speaker 5: a long wheel base saloon for example, it can't fit
Speaker 5: in your garage. You know, it's important to important to
Speaker 5: know these kind of things.
Speaker 1: Okay, so that's an awful lot of information that you
Speaker 1: can gather just from having.
Speaker 2: The VIN number.
Speaker 1: Rob asking the very important question of where on the
Speaker 1: card do you find.
Speaker 2: The VIN number?
Speaker 1: Do you have to look under the hood license for
Speaker 1: the card, ceter Is it just right there on the
Speaker 1: license disc?
Speaker 2: Is it anywhere else?
Speaker 5: Well, there's actually three ways. Either on the license disc,
Speaker 5: which is a piece of paper that's been printed that
Speaker 5: it is possible to fake it. To fake it, that's
Speaker 5: how people clone vehicles. But being a right hand drive country,
Speaker 5: typically on the left hand side at the base of
Speaker 5: the vehicle is wind screen. This is in the more
Speaker 5: modern vehicles, typically post ninety eight.
Speaker 3: At the bulk of them.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you will find the VEN number stamped on a
Speaker 5: plate which is as I said, at the bottom of
Speaker 5: the left hand side of the front.
Speaker 3: Wind screen, adding plane sight. Yeah.
Speaker 5: And also on more modern vehicles on the on the
Speaker 5: b pillar of the vehicle you will find a sticker
Speaker 5: which would also have the VEN number on. And if
Speaker 5: the vehicle has service books, the VEN numbers should be
Speaker 5: stamped somewhere in the service book.
Speaker 2: So you used to.
Speaker 3: These are the terms that I recommen. People throw around
Speaker 3: and they go looking for cars because it tells the dealership.
Speaker 3: You know what you're talking about. So your A pillar
Speaker 3: would be the edge of the wind screen and then
Speaker 3: you go backwards. So so the pillar between the front
Speaker 3: door frame and the wind screen is the and it
Speaker 3: just goes down the car B, C, D, depending how
Speaker 3: long the car is. So B is.
Speaker 5: Behind your please basically at your at your shoulder.
Speaker 2: Yeah, at that.
Speaker 3: Vertical panel that goes down, that's the B pillar.
Speaker 1: Okay, learned something new today. Okay, So look on the
Speaker 1: license just look at the left hand side base of
Speaker 1: the windscreen. Look on the for the sticker on the
Speaker 1: B pillar, or go to the service history book of
Speaker 1: the car and awful places.
Speaker 2: Rob will help you find the VN the VIN numbers.
Speaker 1: Thank you for asking on behalf of all of us
Speaker 1: who were wondering the same thing.
Speaker 3: And before our listener points it out, as I know
Speaker 3: they will VIN numbers. You're basically saying vehicle identification number number.
Speaker 3: So yeah, in is the but most people call it
Speaker 3: the VIN number.
Speaker 5: Correct.
Speaker 1: Quick question for Andrew from Tabor. How is what first
Speaker 1: check does any different from what DECA or the AA.
Speaker 2: Do on checking second hand vehicles. Is it any different?
Speaker 5: In some ways, it is very different. In some ways,
Speaker 5: it's it's supportive.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 5: They would do a physical inspection and they would say, well,
Speaker 5: your tires are worn, or your shock absorbers are worn,
Speaker 5: or your exhaust hangar is worn, or it appears that
Speaker 5: the vehicle has been in an accident and it would
Speaker 5: need further inspection. What First Check does is we provide
Speaker 5: the facts about the vehicle. We avoid sensationalism and litigation,
Speaker 5: but we point if we establish something which we feel
Speaker 5: is suspect, it would be flagged. And it's essential information
Speaker 5: if you're buying or selling a vehicle.
Speaker 3: I think the clue is in the company named First Check.
Speaker 3: I would say that you're easily online, put them in
Speaker 3: in and you get you see if any red flags
Speaker 3: come up, I would say certainly that you should have
Speaker 3: you know, you must test drive the cou must see
Speaker 3: it in person. The big thing now is to buy
Speaker 3: everything digitally and then if you if I caped out
Speaker 3: Joe Big Dealer, you get it on a carrier and
Speaker 3: get it sent down here. Too many people are doing that,
Speaker 3: my goodness, because they saw a video that the dealership
Speaker 3: sent them, everything looked fine, there's a lot that will hide.
Speaker 3: And even if there's nothing wrong with the car, it
Speaker 3: might not be might not suit you. The clutchmate might
Speaker 3: take too late. You might not be able to get
Speaker 3: a comfortable right drive position. You know, I'd say you
Speaker 3: must drive the car, and you must experience it physically
Speaker 3: at the very least. If you're buying from another province,
Speaker 3: get these professional checkers view for you as a group
Speaker 3: that our country wide, and I deal with them quite
Speaker 3: a lot that will go and give you a very
Speaker 3: full report having driven you know, the car, hoisted it up,
Speaker 3: had a good look for accident damage and the rest.
Speaker 3: But I think certainly something like first check went for
Speaker 3: How much? How does it cost? I think this is
Speaker 3: what we wanted to know.
Speaker 5: The starting price for an verification is only forty nine round.
Speaker 5: If you look for evaluation, it's ninety nine round. If
Speaker 5: you look for a full report, it's one hundred and
Speaker 5: forty nine round. The value behind that is exceptional.
Speaker 2: A entiny amount of is the risk that you take.
Speaker 5: Brain once the once the veinners run through our platform
Speaker 5: and the technology, this exciting AI space that we loosely
Speaker 5: refer to nowadays used correctly by us. By ad we
Speaker 5: can now assist our clients vehicle journey with their vehicle
Speaker 5: journey and health check through different lenses and which is
Speaker 5: one of full transparency, meaning we can immediately understand if
Speaker 5: a vehicle is high risk or a lower risk vehicle
Speaker 5: well while always looking out for our customers and avoiding
Speaker 5: costly mistakes. I mean, a vehicle is the second largest
Speaker 5: expense second home nowadays, sometimes even more than a home.
Speaker 5: And you know, we we we point things out before
Speaker 5: you experience the headaches. You know, when you get your valuation,
Speaker 5: depending on the condition of the vehicle, the kilometers driven,
Speaker 5: the value is adjusted. As I said to verified claim history,
Speaker 5: we we see a lot of people RepU heatedly buying
Speaker 5: reports for the same brand and model of vehicle, and
Speaker 5: when they see an accident damage, they run another report
Speaker 5: for another vehicle until they find one that's clear. And
Speaker 5: we see it all day every day, accident damaged and
Speaker 5: stolen vehicles. And yes, accident damaged vehicles can be repaired
Speaker 5: very well. One of my own vehicles I bought from
Speaker 5: a large retailer and I knew that it had iran
Speaker 5: A report. I knew it had a rare end, but
Speaker 5: I approached the vehicle knowing what I was looking for,
Speaker 5: which is transparency and the.
Speaker 1: Comfort and just for anybody who's coming in only now
Speaker 1: with me in studio, not only our usual consumer specialist
Speaker 1: Wendy Nola, but also Andrew Travers of First Check, which
Speaker 1: is a company that offers, for a very modest fee,
Speaker 1: the service of running the VIN number of the car
Speaker 1: you're thinking of buying through their system and getting you
Speaker 1: all kinds of data points about that car, Confirming that
Speaker 1: the VIN number matches the vehicle that you're buying, Confirming
Speaker 1: the accident record and any previous insurance claims against that
Speaker 1: VENE number, Confirming whether there's police interest in that car
Speaker 1: because it's actually stolen or it was used in a
Speaker 1: robbery last week, as well as letting you know that
Speaker 1: the person selling it to you is actually the owner
Speaker 1: of the car and it's not still technically owned by
Speaker 1: the bank. These are some of the pieces of information
Speaker 1: that First Check can offer to you off the basis
Speaker 1: of that ven number. And Kathleen asking Andrew, how do
Speaker 1: you source that information? What sort of access do you
Speaker 1: have to what sort of databases to allow you to
Speaker 1: farm all that info.
Speaker 5: Thanks for the question. It's taken us years to build
Speaker 5: our data set. Put it that way, the amount of
Speaker 5: data that we've collated. We have access to information from
Speaker 5: a number of data providers, which is obviously proprietary to
Speaker 5: our business. However, they are all validated and the information
Speaker 5: that we provide is actually factual. It's important to mention
Speaker 5: as well, which I forgot earlier, when you're looking at
Speaker 5: the actual valuations that we provide you with. Those are
Speaker 5: very pertinent when you're insuring your vehicle. It's a very
Speaker 5: expensive commodity, which you need to ensure it not for
Speaker 5: too much and not for too little. The minute you
Speaker 5: drive away in your lovely vehicle, whether it be new
Speaker 5: or secondhand, it's costing you money and it's devaluing. So
Speaker 5: one needs to be very careful with that.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 3: I was going to say, there was a few years
Speaker 3: ago where I was in the process of investigating one
Speaker 3: of these used car deals gone horribly wrong, and I
Speaker 3: came across the company called Winddocks, which they provide this
Speaker 3: verification service online, same sort of story, and I put
Speaker 3: in this vehicle that the woman had was having all
Speaker 3: sorts of problems within the dealership was saying, you know,
Speaker 3: everything's fine, and it revealed a very very serious insurance
Speaker 3: claim it was quite new and which wasn't disclosed, and
Speaker 3: it helped me in that case. So I used it
Speaker 3: a few times after that, but there were it just
Speaker 3: came up with so many errors. The one case I remember,
Speaker 3: I wrote to the dealership to say, this is actually
Speaker 3: it was a Toyoto and it was the wrong model,
Speaker 3: and I was thinking, how did this work? Was it?
Speaker 4: You know?
Speaker 3: And fortunately the dealership was very understanding about and saying,
Speaker 3: I don't know where you got that information from, but
Speaker 3: it gave me all the real information. So I stopped
Speaker 3: using it after that, recommending it. So that was going
Speaker 3: to be before our listener asked all of my main
Speaker 3: questions to Andrew is to say, how can we know
Speaker 3: for sure that the information you're going to provide is
Speaker 3: accurate and can.
Speaker 5: Be trusted, Wendy. It starts, as I said, with the VIN.
Speaker 5: You cannot fudge the VIN. There is only one VIN
Speaker 5: that will ever belong to a vehicle, and nine times
Speaker 5: out of ten, if you put a VIN, we find it.
Speaker 5: We will inform you before you proceed that we find
Speaker 5: a match. When we found the match, you will actually
Speaker 5: see an image of the actual vehicle, although the color
Speaker 5: might be different. If we do not find a vin
Speaker 5: which can happen particularly with older vehicles or very scarce
Speaker 5: vehicles sort of in other words, low volume vehicles or
Speaker 5: imported vehicles, the system would automatically offer you the option
Speaker 5: to take a manual search, and again we will warn
Speaker 5: you that there's a possibility that you won't get all
Speaker 5: the information that you require. Does that answer your question?
Speaker 3: Thanks?
Speaker 1: Interesting question in from Louis, who I know has spent
Speaker 1: a lifetime involved in the motor industry, so it makes
Speaker 1: sense to me he might have some classic cars. Aranda says,
Speaker 1: what about older cars with shorter the numbers? I have one,
Speaker 1: for example, that only has a twelve character of that.
Speaker 1: Would your system be able to work on that?
Speaker 5: No? No, the system is designed essentially based on what
Speaker 5: the data providers can provide, and the data providers are
Speaker 5: not able to provide that information. However, the caller can
Speaker 5: contact Enatus and they would be able to give if
Speaker 5: should the vehicle belong to him or her, then the
Speaker 5: traffic department would be able to provide the information that
Speaker 5: he requires.
Speaker 2: Okay, that's good.
Speaker 4: To know.
Speaker 3: I'm interested to know because I've seen a few TikTok
Speaker 3: videos around about this service. Is it mostly women or
Speaker 3: men who are using the service?
Speaker 5: We're seeing Aif you're both smiling at me, we've seen her,
Speaker 5: I better say the right. We're seeing a fifty to
Speaker 5: fifty Yeah, very much. There's there's one particular girl, and
Speaker 5: I noticed it about ten days ago that was looking
Speaker 5: for an extremely popular small hatchback and she did about
Speaker 5: twelve reports until she found one that hadn't been in
Speaker 5: an accident.
Speaker 3: Well, and she's paying one hundred and fifty round each
Speaker 3: time she felt that she's doing.
Speaker 5: For Yeah, you know that? What is that one thousand,
Speaker 5: one thousand and seven hundred in my maths right now?
Speaker 1: Okay, Well, yeah, as you said, it's less than two
Speaker 1: thousand rand. And if she'd gone with option number one
Speaker 1: without knowing the accident three or options nineteen eleven, she
Speaker 1: could have had a very defect outcome.
Speaker 3: And that's probably the next question is what percentage of
Speaker 3: report also are you providing? Are these major problems with
Speaker 3: the car.
Speaker 5: In question, Wendy, We see a lot of them. I
Speaker 5: would say it's about a fifty pleasantly it's about a
Speaker 5: fifty to fifty split. There's a lot of very good
Speaker 5: vehicles out there, and there's some very good vehicles with
Speaker 5: a bad history that have possibly been repaired properly. But
Speaker 5: as I said, initially, one needs to know what you're
Speaker 5: looking for, because once you've bought the vehicle that the
Speaker 5: previous owners basically passed the buck to you, and at
Speaker 5: some point in time you possibly get to want to
Speaker 5: sell it and somebody does a first check report on
Speaker 5: it or a competitors report, you're going to sit with
Speaker 5: the problem. So you need to there needs to be
Speaker 5: transparency and full the disclosure.
Speaker 1: I have to ask, I mean, can you share some
Speaker 1: examples with us Andrew of a couple of the really
Speaker 1: sort of worst case scenario examples you've seen back a lap.
Speaker 5: As I said, I would rather avoid sensationalism or litigation,
Speaker 5: but we have seen some horrendous, horrendously bad vehicles, multiple
Speaker 5: accidents with airbags deployed, et cetera, et cetera, with the
Speaker 5: condition report, with a mileage and mileage that has been manipulated,
Speaker 5: and a stolen status.
Speaker 3: So literally everything that could be wrong is wrong. Did
Speaker 3: you shared one report with me of a twenty fifteen,
Speaker 3: NICEUSU KB Bucky marketed is having one hundred and ninety
Speaker 3: three kilometers on the clock.
Speaker 5: One hundred ninety thousand.
Speaker 3: Sorry, one hundred and ninety three would be brilliant for
Speaker 3: a ten year old Bucky when in July this year
Speaker 3: it's actual mileage was almost four hundred and two thousand
Speaker 3: more than.
Speaker 5: Double yeah Fbsequently, on Friday we actually got an even
Speaker 5: higher record than that. Yes, sure, No, the mileage two
Speaker 5: hundred greater.
Speaker 1: Sure, I mean, okay, So take the word of caution
Speaker 1: that it is happening. The manipulation of mileage is happening.
Speaker 1: The trying to sell off cars that are actually stolen
Speaker 1: or have been implicated in crime, try to sell cars
Speaker 1: as in pristine condition when they've actually been in major
Speaker 1: incidents and accidents with knock on impact. I mean, those
Speaker 1: are the three big ones that you are looking at, Wendy,
Speaker 1: anything you want to add, I.
Speaker 5: Think what's important to say here is a first check.
Speaker 5: Dot COSA exists to assist the consumer in making an
Speaker 5: informed decision. It's almost insane not to do that kind
Speaker 5: of check. And if you identify issues, whether it's a
Speaker 5: high risk or a lower risk, vehicle, you would want
Speaker 5: to go delve deeper into it and approach a testing
Speaker 5: center to say, okay, actually please verify this for us.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I wanted to say that, you know, the case is,
Speaker 3: I get the people go obviously straight to the digit
Speaker 3: where they brought the car, and it's always or we
Speaker 3: didn't know, which I'm not trying, because if you want
Speaker 3: to trade in a car with those problems, they certainly
Speaker 3: know they the checks they needed to do. I wanted
Speaker 3: to know whether you've had any feedback from people who've
Speaker 3: used your service before they buy a car, before they
Speaker 3: sign an offer to purchase, have gone back to the
Speaker 3: dealership in question and said, actually this car you've said,
Speaker 3: with this mileage and this condition is this is its
Speaker 3: actual history? What sort of response they've got? You ever
Speaker 3: get that kind of satisfaction, satisfying feedback.
Speaker 5: We definitely do, and we definitely do get feedback from
Speaker 5: satisfied customers. Usually it's the women that come back to us.
Speaker 5: On Heritage Day, I was at a brier and I
Speaker 5: bumped into a guy that didn't know that I had
Speaker 5: anything to do with first check, and he was saying,
Speaker 5: ran a first check report. I was selling my wife's car,
Speaker 5: and I approached a well known capt on, very good
Speaker 5: upper enfranchise dealer who offered him X for his vehicle,
Speaker 5: and he produced the first check. He declined the offer
Speaker 5: and produced the first check report and in a heart beat,
Speaker 5: without even skipping a beat, he got threity. I was
Speaker 5: and around extra freeze CA and that's factual.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, so you've got to figures in hand to
Speaker 1: say hang on, but this is this is the evaluation.
Speaker 3: I was the other way as well.
Speaker 5: And we're not here to catch anybody out. We're here
Speaker 5: to support people, particularly the consumer. And I'm seeing, we
Speaker 5: are seeing myself and the team, we're seeing an increasing
Speaker 5: number of dealers that are actually using the full, very full,
Speaker 5: the full report. We're seeing loss adjusters on a daily basis,
Speaker 5: many many, many reports, as well as insurance brokers.
Speaker 3: I'd love to see the banks insisting in it before
Speaker 3: they found is a car.
Speaker 5: It's it's a little bit beyond us at this point
Speaker 5: in time that we haven't got there yet. But and
Speaker 5: insurance yea.
Speaker 1: So two people asking similar questions around the ramifications. If
Speaker 1: you if what you find differs from what a dealership
Speaker 1: told you, So for example, Lawrence saying, what recourse does
Speaker 1: a buyer have, you know, if finding out that, for example,
Speaker 1: the vinn doesn't match the car that they have been sold.
Speaker 1: Williams saying, can we run these checks on a car
Speaker 1: I've just bought from a big car dealer. There's nothing
Speaker 1: to stop you doing that, William, But what do you
Speaker 1: do with that information? If after you've made the purchase,
Speaker 1: when do you find out that you that the mileage
Speaker 1: was fudged or that the dealership applied to you when.
Speaker 3: You need to work out what you would consider to
Speaker 3: be reasonable compensation and go negotiate with the dealer. And
Speaker 3: if they're not coming to the party, then there's always
Speaker 3: the motor industry on which is a long process unfortunately
Speaker 3: because of the volumes or complaints that they had to
Speaker 3: deal with. But you know, not without recourse. I would
Speaker 3: say that the best case scenario would be for the
Speaker 3: dealership to say, sorry, we didn't know, we should have known,
Speaker 3: and here's how we're going to let's talking about how
Speaker 3: we can fouce it for you.
Speaker 1: Before we say goodbye. Andrew, anything else you'd like our
Speaker 1: listeners to know about, first check or any point that
Speaker 1: we haven't touched on that you like to raise around
Speaker 1: this process.
Speaker 5: I think we've been quite comprehensive, Papa, and I thank
Speaker 5: you for that. And when the numbers show that what
Speaker 5: we've essentially added a new layer to the industry, which
Speaker 5: the transparency people being able to look at the vehicle
Speaker 5: that's in front of them through different eyes, and it's
Speaker 5: under the skin and exactly under the skin, and it's
Speaker 5: absolutely essential to one hundred and forty nine round. That's
Speaker 5: what you pay for a coffee and a sandwich at
Speaker 5: a gas station. And you're talking about spending two, three, four, five,
Speaker 5: six hundred thousand round. It's a no brainer.
Speaker 2: Yeah, what's it about.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to remember the saying about a penny saved
Speaker 1: as a pound earned or something like that, and it's yeah,
Speaker 1: a short term investment, a small investment upfront that can
Speaker 1: save you a very very large, long term headache. So
Speaker 1: first check dot co. Dot za is the website. And
Speaker 1: I'm just going to echo what Andrews said earlier and
Speaker 1: what Wendy has said on the show dozens of times before.
Speaker 2: Don't stop there.
Speaker 1: There is no replacement for getting into a vehicle and
Speaker 1: driving it and test driving it and looking at it physically.
Speaker 1: Don't think that just doing the online check is necessarily enough.
Speaker 2: Looking it's a very very good start.
Speaker 1: And a very good first step, but Wendy, to your
Speaker 1: point earlier, nothing replaces actually getting into the car that
Speaker 1: you're thinking of buying, and if.
Speaker 3: You're not in a fund of yourself, get someone to
Speaker 3: help you pay a little bit extra for that more
Speaker 3: extensive check.
Speaker 5: Last word to you, Andrew, I just want to add
Speaker 5: that our it our developers are in house, so the
Speaker 5: enhancements and updates we fast track and roll out very quickly,
Speaker 5: and we have control of the timelines what you see.
Speaker 5: If you were to go on to first check or
Speaker 5: cozar right now, you can get a very comprehensive report
Speaker 5: out of pittance. But that's phase two of our phase
Speaker 5: of our phased rollout plans. So there's very very good
Speaker 5: things that are coming. And our aim is ultimately for
Speaker 5: every vehicle that is for sale out there, or being
Speaker 5: financed or being ensured should really come with the first
Speaker 5: check report. You not, and we never will sol motor cars,
Speaker 5: we verify them.
Speaker 1: Okay, thanks for that first check. Dot co dot zda
Speaker 1: is the website to go and check out now. Thanks
Speaker 1: very much to Andrew Travis for joining us in studio today. Right,
Speaker 1: we're back with Wendy no Nan about five minutes in
Speaker 1: hand to tackle a couple of open line questions. Although
Speaker 1: you're still very welcome to comment on the issue of
Speaker 1: second hand cars and protecting yourself. Mark writing in to say,
Speaker 1: I used Decra on my last car purchase, and after
Speaker 1: returning the car, I discovered that the hooter wasn't working,
Speaker 1: and for me, Decra lost credibility your thoughts.
Speaker 2: It's not okay. I'm going to say this.
Speaker 1: We've had the occasional report of things going wrong at
Speaker 1: an individual DECRA center, but it's not a group wide issue, Wendy,
Speaker 1: is it.
Speaker 2: I mean they've still market.
Speaker 3: Yes, they are, but there are certain ones. I've had
Speaker 3: reports of the report not revealing things that they really
Speaker 3: would have wanted to have been revealed.
Speaker 1: Yes, I remember, several years ago than ought to be fair,
Speaker 1: there was an incident of where it appeared that an
Speaker 1: assessment was done sort of in cahoots with the platform
Speaker 1: that was selling the car, et cetera.
Speaker 2: But that was many years ago. I haven't seen anything
Speaker 2: like that since then.
Speaker 1: I believe we've received a voice note from somebody who
Speaker 1: has been through the process of using a first check
Speaker 1: check and wants to give us some feedback, which is great.
Speaker 2: Let's take a listen.
Speaker 4: I I just want to let you guys know, let's
Speaker 4: just last okay, you say, Amada process of buying a
Speaker 4: I'll delivered a vehicle for my company and I got
Speaker 4: a complete report for one hundred and forty nine and
Speaker 4: it even showed me that there was some panel damage
Speaker 4: that they retired. Will be buying the van. I drove
Speaker 4: the van nice and everything and that is what first
Speaker 4: it said. So yeah, good, good thing to use prior
Speaker 4: to buying a drum or any man or anything that
Speaker 4: you any vehicle. Thank you for check Man.
Speaker 1: Appreciate that feedback. It's always nice to get user feedback
Speaker 1: from somebody who's actually gone through the pro So thank
Speaker 1: you so much for that.
Speaker 3: Just an interesting tip put out two weeks ago today.
Speaker 3: This when I wasn't on air, I was at the
Speaker 3: cast Dot Cozer's dealer conference in Santon and there was
Speaker 3: just so much information there. And you know what the
Speaker 3: number one most sought after used car in South Africa
Speaker 3: is the little NP two hundred Bucky. I can totally
Speaker 3: it was discontinued last year. It followed went the way
Speaker 3: of the others, the Ford Bantams and what else was there?
Speaker 3: There was the little Fiat Strata and it hasn't been replaced.
Speaker 3: So there's a huge, huge demand. So if you drive
Speaker 3: one of these things, it would be a good idea
Speaker 3: to get to pull one of these reports to make
Speaker 3: sure that you don't get short changed with a trade in,
Speaker 3: because I can tell you that in twenty twenty one,
Speaker 3: NP two hundred one point five diesel sold for two
Speaker 3: hundred and forty seven thousand rand or thereabouts, and two
Speaker 3: weeks ago when it was at the conference cars dot
Speaker 3: Coser was listing one for sale at two hundred and
Speaker 3: forty thousands. It's seven thousand rands. That's without a manufacturer's
Speaker 3: warranty in place anymore, and with almost eighty four thousand kilometers.
Speaker 3: So if you have one of those little half ton
Speaker 3: no f alls and basic work hourses and you're going
Speaker 3: to sell and make sure you get a good christ
Speaker 3: price because they are gold.
Speaker 1: They are, and our cast segment verifies that Wendy O
Speaker 1: can't every time anybody talks about buckets out here immediately
Speaker 1: get a.
Speaker 2: What's up saying, please, who is bringing in a half time?
Speaker 3: It makes sense that given the demand and the lower cost.
Speaker 3: Because we have affordability problems in this country and so
Speaker 3: many people starting up little businesses, it's only a matter
Speaker 3: of time before it happens. But as far as I
Speaker 3: earn I think absolutely solidly confirmed.
Speaker 2: Yet Okay, thanks, sorry for that.
Speaker 3: I'm treading into waiting into Earnest tread.
Speaker 1: It absolutely backs up what Ernest says to us almost
Speaker 1: every week.
Speaker 2: So appreciate that. Okay.
Speaker 1: Commenting from JD on a completely different story. JD sent
Speaker 1: this and says, could you please put this to Wendy
Speaker 1: in cash She knows I was told by a Woolworth
Speaker 1: cashier today that I can no longer use my existing
Speaker 1: card for the specials and I have to download the
Speaker 1: Wilworth's app on my phone. I would imagine this is
Speaker 1: inconvenient and will surely hold up cues as we look
Speaker 1: for the app to show the virtual my Difference card.
Speaker 1: I mostly just pop the cards into my pocket when
Speaker 1: I nap down to the store. My phone would drop up. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure I drop out of there, I think
Speaker 1: is the concern. Okay, So JD obviously a little bit
Speaker 1: late waking up to the new Woolworth's loyalty program, which
Speaker 1: is entirely app based, And JD, I take your points.
Speaker 1: So if you were used to not using the app
Speaker 1: and just using the loyalty card to physically prove your membership,
Speaker 1: it's going to be a big adjustment. Have you had
Speaker 1: any further feedback when it's had about a month now
Speaker 1: to sort of say it.
Speaker 3: I was just thinking listening to that question that I
Speaker 3: should go back. I've seen lots of negative comments. There's
Speaker 3: always going to be pushed back when there's a radical change,
Speaker 3: and this is not something that is you know, LEGI
Speaker 3: said it to the extent that we have any rights
Speaker 3: to tell them how they should or shouldn't do their
Speaker 3: loyalty program. So it will be interesting to see if
Speaker 3: things settle down and people get used to it, or
Speaker 3: whether there's going to be some ongoing pushback to the
Speaker 3: new mechanics of the.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I'm using the new system, JD. And
Speaker 1: I can tell you the cashiers in my particular branch
Speaker 1: that I go to most regularly are themselves saying it's
Speaker 1: taking time. People forget that they need to have the
Speaker 1: phone art it used to be just whip out your
Speaker 1: watlet and grab the cart.
Speaker 2: Now you've got to wait for them to log into
Speaker 2: the app. It's slow to load. The WiFi is not.
Speaker 1: Always good as a point, so you have a point
Speaker 1: around the delay and the queues, which is certainly being
Speaker 1: borne out by what I'm observing in my particular store
Speaker 1: that I support most of the time.
Speaker 2: But again it might just.
Speaker 1: Be a case of people adjusting and now knowing you know,
Speaker 1: while you're in the queue, get the phone out, load
Speaker 1: the up, et cetera.
Speaker 3: So instead of saying, please make sure you've got your
Speaker 3: whatever card, you got your phone out with the appet okay,
Speaker 3: rust veries quick to respond and say, there's an app
Speaker 3: called Klana k l A r n A, which.
Speaker 2: Is an absolute life change.
Speaker 1: He says, I stare all of my loyalty cards there
Speaker 1: with lots of free space in my wallet.
Speaker 2: K l A r n A maybe for us to
Speaker 2: go and investigate rus.
Speaker 1: I've never heard of it before, so thank you very
Speaker 1: much for that, and then okay, just we we Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: mister first check is no longer with us, Andrew, but
Speaker 1: Ben is asking can you check motorcycles against even numbers
Speaker 1: on that app as well as cars.
Speaker 3: I don't see why not, but we are confuming.
Speaker 1: Well, have to just double check and get back to
Speaker 1: you on that one, Ben simple as probably is just
Speaker 1: one they have on the website and putting them in
Speaker 1: number and see what happens. Yeah, it might be that
Speaker 1: that's in a later phase as well, perhaps, but we'll
Speaker 1: double check and get back to you. We must wrap there, Wendy.
Speaker 1: As always very interesting content. Thanks for finding us and
Speaker 1: tipping us off about that new functionality that is out there.
Speaker 1: Really really appreciated.