Automotive-related companies generally do not involve in unfair practices as it may affect the brand and incur further losses. However, in a recent incident, National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) directed Porsche to pay compensation to one of its customers.
Diving into details, the NCDRC has asked Porsche India Pvt Ltd and its Gurgaon Centre to pay Rs 18 lakh as compensation to Praveen Kumar Mittal for selling a Porsche Cayenne SUV by misrepresenting its manufacturing year.
According to Mittal, the Gurgaon Porsche Centre misrepresented his Cayenne SUV’s production year. He also claimed that the company employees informed him that the Cayenne SUV that he was about to purchase was manufactured in 2014, but in reality, it was manufactured in 2013.
Mittal claims that he was only aware of the original manufacturing year of his Cayenne SUV in 2016, and the company had forged all documents in an unlawful manner with the goal of defrauding.
In fact, to prove his claims, Mittal even obtained copies of several documents including the State Transport Vehicle Particulars, the latter claimed that the Porsche Cayenne SUV sold to Mittal was manufactured in 2014.
Contrary to the claims by Mittal, Porsche Gurgaon Centre claims that its employees informed Mittal about the vehicle’s true manufacturing date and the customer paid Rs 80 lakh, which already includes a discount of Rs 11.90 lakh.
The Porsche Centre at Gurgaon also claims that such a hefty discount on the Cayenne SUV was only given as the manufacturing year was 2013. The company further alleged that Mittal registered his car on his own as he had contacts in the RTO to register the SUV as a 2014 manufactured model.
However, the case soon turned out to be very complicated as both parties had documents proving their respective claims. However, the commission soon acknowledged that the documents submitted by Mittal were authentic as it was obtained through the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
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