MY EXPERIENCE WITH SG VEHICLES ASIA...BE AWARE...

Sometime in mid July 2015, I checked the car price from www.sgcarmart.com, and I found this Parallel Importer, SG Vehicles Asia Pte Ltd (located near to Bukit Merah Library). Its advertisement stated clearly that the pricing scheme is either 6 bid non guarantee COE or without COE.

My wife and I went down to their showroom and signed a purchase agreement of a new Toyota Estima from this sales rep, Mr Gary Soon on 25 July.

He offered me the COE at $50,000 but without telling me that once I had agreed and signed, I have to top up if the COE is secured at above $50,000, and the "6 bid non-guaranteed COE" is not valid despite what the company had advertised on Sgcarmart website.

I agreed with the understanding that if the car is not secured after 6 bids at above $50,000 and below, I would get my deposit back. So I trusted him and his company and placed a deposit of $25,000 with his company.

However after the 6th COE bid, Mr Gary Soon and his company still could not secure the COE for me, so I went down to ask for a refund of my deposit on 25 Oct 2015.

I was shocked when he refused. He claimed that he and his company had ordered the car for me. He told me that I had to either wait for the COE to drop till $50,000 and below or to top up the difference.

This was not what was represented to me when I placed my $25,000 deposit 3 months ago.

I seek help from CASE. They helped me to write a letter to seek for settlement and ask me to hand it to them personally. I did as instructed but SG Vehicles Asia Pte Ltd insisted that everything must follow the contractual term and condition. The company even said that the information at Sgcarmart which I had relied on was outdated and that I should not refer to the advertisement. And claimed that it was the problem of Sgcarmart for not updating the pricing information.

I have lodged a police case but the officer in-charge informed me that as this is not a criminal case, the police will not intervene. I am very disappointed and confused. I thought that with the arrest of the rogue sales people from Mobile Air (Sim Lim Square), the police would also be able to intervene in such unfair, unethical business practice. I’m not making anything up.

I don’t want any trouble. All I’m asking is for my $25,000 deposit back which I have taken a long time to save up for. The money has been stuck with SG Vehicles Asia Pte Ltd for 3 months.

Vincent Goh