A Gauteng dealership has been asked to remove an advert for a Jetour T2 2.0T Odyssey after it was found that the ad was used to generate orders, and the dealership did not have any stock available.
Getty Images/ Vladislav Stepanov
- The Advertising Regulatory Board has asked a Gauteng dealership to remove its advert of a Jetour T2 2.0T Odyssey model from an online automotive marketplace after it was found to be misleading.
- A customer complained to the watchdog after enquiring about the vehicle, only to be told by the dealership that the car did not exist at its lot and the advert was used to generate orders.
- The ARB said any reasonable customer would infer that the car was immediately available for purchase, and that the dealership should have explained its availability on the site.
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A Gauteng car dealership has found itself in deep trouble with the Advertising Regulatory Board (ARB) for advertising a Jetour model that turned out to be unavailable at its lot.
The Golden Era Group – which sells Chinese brands such as Chery, GWM, Haval, Jetour and Lepas – advertised a white Jetour T2 2.0T Odyssey with 15km mileage for R679 900, or R12 043 per month on online marketplace Cars.co.za.
A customer looking to buy the vehicle was told that it was not physically available, and that the dealership had used the advert to collect deposits and create a “waiting list”.
The customer complained to the advertising watchdog, saying the advert was “misleading, bait marketing and a violation of the Consumer Protection Act”, adding that it was used to “lure customers under false pretences”.
The dealership claimed its advert was not misleading, that it was standard practice, and that all Jetour dealerships operate on an allocation basis, with stock availability dependent on production and distribution.
It also said that while the model and its colour were unavailable on site, this detail was “transparently communicated” by a salesperson, who explained the reason for the limited allocation of vehicles and that customers can register their interest on a database to be prioritised when a new model arrives in the country.
The Golden Era Group also said the 15km mileage had been used to show that the vehicle was new and unused, not that it was available for purchase.
“No transaction was concluded between [Golden Era Group] and the complainant, and the latter was under no obligation to proceed. The issue was that the complainant expected the vehicle immediately and was not prepared to wait,” the dealership said.
In its judgment, the ARB said nothing in the advert indicated that the Jetour model was physically unavailable, and that the reasons for its unavailability had only been given after the customer asked the dealership.
The advertising watchdog also said it was reasonable for potential buyers to infer that the car was for sale, as the advertisement was posted on Cars.co.za, a third-party automotive aggregator that usually lists cars readily available for purchase.
The ARB then asked the dealership to remove its advert from the online platforms.
“Any reasonable person would interpret it as mileage of an existing and identifiable vehicle that is being shown in the advertisement […] The inclusion of the advertisement on Cars.co.za, with a specified mileage, creates the expectation that a specific vehicle exists. It would have been helpful to the complainant if availability, subject to allocations and delivery delays, was clearly disclosed to avoid any ambiguity,” the ARB said in the judgment.
