I refer to the letter "Buying a new car? Take note", ST Jan 22,
contributed by Seah Choon Lim.
It is timely such advise is provided to would-be car buyers in view
of the current reports of overwhelming sales. I am one of those
aggrieved by such changes last year in 2003.
I booked a Toyota Corolla in January 2003 subsequent to which tax
changes were announced and implemented effective April 2003. I took
delivery of my car in May 2003. It was clear that the tax changes
resulted in reduced duties paid for importing the car and
additionally translated in reduction of Open Market Value and scrap
values of the vehicle.
I attempted to seek clarification from the agent, Borneo Motors, as
to why these reductions are not passed on to the customer when the
booking was earlier made on the pretext of prevailing tax
conditions. The response came as follows:
"We wish to inform you that the reduction in OMV helps the
distributor to lower operation costs and this is in turn passed on
to our customers via other means such as the improvement of our
service centres' facilities so that we may serve our customers
better. This uplift from the Government also varies from company to
company."
My initial attempts to highlight this case publicly was
unsuccessful. CASE advised that they can mediate but do no more.
After much consideration, I decided not to pursue it any further
though the entire episode created severe dissatisfaction. My search
of internet exchanges indicated that some car distributors were
more honourable than others in allowing refunds for this excess
windfall which rightly belongs to the consumer in the first
place.
As the writer had pointed out, it would be wise for car buyers to
insist on stipulations allowing for such refunds in the event of
taxation changes favouring the buyers. Intervention by the
authorities or CASE to ensure a fair deal goes through would be
most welcome. I still cannot fathom how corporate irresponsibility
and greed of some agencies can be allowed to exist to extract this
extra windfall at the expense of unsuspecting or ignorant customers
as well as those who do not have the legal muscle to insist on fair
deal.