The battle lines have been drawn in possibly one of the most expensive and protracted legal disputes the New Zealand used car industry has ever seen – and we’re still not even close to the finish line. In part one of this two part investigation we explore the issues and the personalities at the centre of the ‘car-nage’.
When it comes to used cars, there’s only one law as far as John Murphy is concerned – and that’s Murphy’s law. It’s a simple uncomplicated set of guidelines and philosophies that’s at the heart of every deal he’s done in the nearly 40 years he’s been selling used cars.
That’s a fair few miles on the clock for anyone, let alone someone who’s given their life to an industry, which has been battling a serious image problem long before we even heard the name Arthur Daley.
Murphy couldn’t care less about image. He could drive a Bentley or a Rolls but chooses to get round in a rough-and-ready (but reliable, Murphy insists) 1998 Holden Commodore station wagon with more than 200,000 kilometres on the clock.
But reputation is something else altogether. That’s why there’s Murphy’s law. It’s an instruction manual of sorts, a blueprint for good business.
For the past two years the way Murphy does business has been put under intense scrutiny by the courts and the Motor Vehicle Disputes Tribunal. With that sort of attention, you’d think millions were at stake rather than just a $15,000 second hand Mercedes Benz.
But as the case has unfolded and unravelled the focus has moved to issues of interpretation and law some of which by their very nature and definition are fundamental to how we all shop and do business.
Recently, however, other issues have come into play. Issues of character and honesty.
The car at the centre of the controversy was sold in early 2019 to Auckland man Sanhachai Prerssilp with Murphy blissfully unaware at the time he’d not only got the sale but bought a fight that would go the full 15 rounds.
Messy disputes involving used cars aren’t unusual, but never has Murphy witnessed anything quite like this.
Had this been simply a case about a car with a couple of mechanical issues, it’d be mechanics dealing with the problem not lawyers and judges but that time has long passed. Somehow along the way those issues got buried under an avalanche of legislation and legalese and now there’s no end in sight.
This, Murphy says, is not Murphy’s law. His version, at least. It’s the other version where everything than can go wrong usually does go wrong.
From the moment his prized new Benz started leaking coolant, Prerssilp has refused to let up.
Little is known about this Erin Brockovich of the used car game except that he once owned a Benz, a symbol of wealth and success, but in a somewhat obscene irony is not funding this case himself – he’s using your taxpayer dollars.
Which begs the question – why is legal aid being used for a row over a faulty Benz?
Right now the cost to the taxpayer of this legal fight is unknown, but given the size of Murphy’s legal bills it must run into the tens of thousands of dollars – certainly far more than the $15,266 the Thai national paid for the vehicle.
The legal aid issue is one thing. If you put this into context this monumental legal fight has played out at a time when New Zealand has been fighting its deepest recession in decades as a result of COVID-19.
That fact isn’t lost on Murphy.
“It drives me round the Benz,” Murphy says trying painfully to lighten the mood.
Like all car dealers, he’s been hit hard by the pandemic. Sales at his Greenlane used car yard, The Central Car Company, are down – and down dramatically.
Even those like Murphy with a few dollars under the mattress have been forced to tighten their belts and compromise.
Murphy says he didn’t want this fight. Prerssilp started it, the Motor Vehicle Dealers Tribunal continued it and all going to plan he’d finish it.
PART TWO TOMORROW