Solo mum owes $35,260 on $9000 car

Nga Tuaineiti bought the Toyota Rav 4 to take her sick 2-year-old daughter, Pandora, to regular medical appointments. Picture / Brett Phibbs

How could you possibly end up driving off a car lot owing $35,259.56 for a vehicle worth about $9000?

Nga Tuaineiti managed to do it - and she doesn't even have a driver's licence, let alone a job.

The Grey Lynn beneficiary bought the Toyota Rav on credit from Great Wall Motors in Otahuhu eight weeks ago.

She now owes the Club Finance finance company $17,999 for the vehicle, thousands in a string of additional charges and, with interest at 19.5 per cent, a further $10,535.96, all to be paid over four years.

The fortnightly payments are $339.05, more than half Ms Tuaineiti's domestic purposes benefit of about $640.

The Weekend Herald has learned that the Commerce Commission has investigated both Great Wall Motors and Club Finance for alleged breaches of consumer finance legislation this year.

Ms Tuaineiti, a mother of two, said she did not have a car but wanted her family to have one to get around, including taking daughter Pandora, 2, to regular medical appointments for a deformed ear.

She said a friend had recommended Great Wall Motors as "cheap and easy even if you have bad credit". She understood the friend received $500 for each successful referral.

She told the saleswoman her income and that she did not have a driver's licence. She also has a bad credit rating.

"They told me to get a licence but I said I didn't have any ID. They gave me the money to get a birth certificate and told me they would pay for the licence once I got it."

Ms Tuaineiti said her sister-in-law, who has a licence and is the registered owner, acted as a guarantor of the loan.

She admitted that the consultant made her write out in her own handwriting exactly what she owed before she signed.

"The lady was pressuring us. There were heaps of people waiting. It wasn't until I got home that I thought, 'Oh my God. It is like it is my whole life I owe, it's way too much'."

She said she had called Club Finance to say she believed she was paying too much, and although she was told she had signed the contract and could not change it, the company did lower her payments for six weeks.

Ms Tuaineiti was unable to explain what some of the extra charges, such as brokerage or insurance, were for.

She said she did not actually want to get out of the contract even if she could, "because what would we do for a car?"

If she was to sell her car now, she would still have to pay back the balance of the $17,999 purchase cost and some of the establishment fees.

The Weekend Herald understands that Great Wall Motors would sell a Toyota Rav similar to Ms Tuaineiti's for about $9000.

Other car dealers said a 1995 Rav 4 cost about $7000 wholesale and would retail for between $9000 and $12,000.

The Commerce Commission said it had issued a formal warning to Great Wall Motors this year for an alleged breach of the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act for "failing to disclose" in relation to one debtor.

There was a related alleged breach of the Fair Trading Act for making representations as to the right to enforce a contract when such enforcement is prohibited under the finance legislation. The commission said its investigation of Club Finance was still in progress and it could not comment.

Great Wall Motors is owned by former Shanghai heart surgeon Gong Zheng.

A director, Peter Bisset, said staff made customers disclose their income and took them through a process where they had a very good understanding of what their obligations were before they signed up.

"We've got no reason to get people to drive in a car they can't afford."

Mr Bisset said repossession was a last option. The company would often give customers two to four months to get their loan repayments up to speed.

He said staff would not do a deal for someone without a driver's licence, although a learner's licence was acceptable. He said he was unaware of people being given money to get a birth certificate.

Club Finance managing director Philip Markwick said his company did not deal directly with the customers it gave finance to, but he had faith in the thorough procedures used by Great Wall Motors.

"I would be most concerned if people were being coerced into deals that they can't afford. That is stupid. I would not condone that sort of arrangement."

He would not comment on the Commerce Commission investigation.

* Debtors with concerns about their finance company should contact the commission on 0800-943-600.