Often car buyers don’t intend to buy an illegal car but are duped by unscrupulous dealers into a purchase.
No matter how long you keep an illegal vehicle in your possession it never becomes legal, says Lee Dutton, executive director, International Vehicle Identification Desk (IVID) Southern Africa.
He urged potential buyers to be careful when buying a car, especially from smaller dealerships “because invariably the problem will be discovered in time and the vehicle seized”.
He said that all illegally imported vehicles seized by the South African revenue service were destroyed.
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Business Unity South Africa has offered these additional tips:
• Never buy a vehicle advertised or displayed with foreign number plates.
• Never buy a vehicle that is registered in a foreign country – even our neighbouring countries. The probability of you being allowed to import the vehicle is very low.
• Never buy a vehicle without a NaTIS registration certificate. If the vehicle is financed, the registration certificate will be at the bank and it will only be released once the vehicle is paid up.
• Check that the information on the registration certificate and/or license disc match with the information on the vehicle. Check that all the VIN/chassis numbers match and have not been tampered with.
• Check for spelling mistakes on the registration certificate and that it is not a photocopy.
• It is strongly recommended that buyers of used motor vehicles should not buy a vehicle if a microdot confirmation certificate was not issued for the vehicle by a reputable accredited microdot fitment centre.
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