TOP STORY: Complaints fired at car yard

Allegations of dodgy contracts, threats to customers and over-priced, unsafe vehicles centre on a Hastings car yard, already part of a chain of outlets under investigation by the Commerce Commission.
About 30 people have approached the Hawke's Bay Community Law Centre to complain about Great Wall Motors, which operates from premises on Hastings' King Street. According to Hawke's Bay Community Law Centre solicitor Bevan Heremia, the Hastings branch of Great Wall Motors has been sending out a team of people both door-knocking and onto the streets of Hastings and Napier, to sign people up to car finance deals.
Finance was normally approved overnight and the applicant was told to pick a car from Great Wall Motors' yard.
However, they weren't able to take the car away, instead an identical vehicle was sent down from Auckland, to be picked up from the Hastings car yard.
Mr Heremia said it appeared people from lower socio-economic areas such as Flaxmere and Maraenui were being targeted.
The yard has also distributed pamphlets, claiming it could confirm within 10 minutes whether a prospective customer was eligible for a finance car loan from $8000 to $15,000.
Many had told the law centre for of feeling threatened by the car yard touts and their "hard sell" technique.
Mr Heremia said the cars being sold by the company were over-priced. "If it's an $8000 car, generally they're going to be paying double."
Hawke's Bay Community Law Centre advocate Georgina Waihi has managed to get three people out of their contracts with Great Wall Motors, because of discrepancies, and is working on a further six cases.
Mrs Waihi said many contracts listed additional expenses, such as car alarms which were over-priced by up to four times their retail value. Other extra costs came through a "brokerage fee" and insurance costs.
In one case, a law centre client who bought a car priced at $10,000 ended up owing $23,891.
Mrs Waihi said car buyers were supposed to receive original contracts. But many Great Wall Motors customers were receiving illegible photocopied versions. Mrs Waihi also had concerns over the safety of some of the vehicles. One car later proved to have problems with its wheel alignment, and the seats were incorrectly attached.
Mrs Waihi knows of disgruntled customers being threatened by the yard manager.
"One was picked up by the scruff of the neck, one was sworn at and told to go," she said.
Mrs Waihi said anyone considering buying a vehicle should get the contract checked, and have the vehicle looked over by the AA.
Commerce Commission communications manager Kate Camp confirmed the commission was investigating Great Wall Motors in relation to possible breaches of the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act.
Motor Trade Association (MTA) corporate and public affairs manager Steve Downes criticised Great Wall Motors' techniques to get customers.
"They are targeting beneficiaries, and possibly putting undue duress on them."
He added that Great Wall Motors was not, and would be, a member of the MTA.
Great Wall Motors spokeswoman Brenda Britchard said the technique of using people with clipboards to recruit potential buyers was common in Auckland, where the firm's head office was based.
She denied that the company's cars were over-priced, and said their car alarms were highly-priced, because they were imported from Japan.
She also defended their contracts. "We show the person the full contract and we don't hide anything - if they don't like it, they can leave it."
Miss Pritchard put the incident where a customer was manhandled down to the manager having "a really bad day." He had since apologised. She insisted the company's cars were safe.