A CONSUMER body has set up outside Maidstone’s Motor Finance Wizard for the third Saturday running as part of a continuing campaign to expose what it says are dishonest tactics.

Consumer Action Law Centre (CALC) activists have been handing out literature and offering free independent mechanical and roadworthy checks after representing more than 20 clients and advising up to 40 complainants last year.

The centre’s director of policy and campaigns, Gerard Brody, said the trend had remained steady this year. He said the company targeted people on low incomes with the promise of interest-free loans.

“(They) take advantage of consumers with exploitative rates and often the cars break down,” Mr Brody said.

“They don’t seem to have much of a concern for their reputation – the client group that they target are people that can’t get finance anywhere else.”

The distributed CALC literature claims Motor Finance Wizard, a wholly owned subsidiary of PR Finance Group Limited with branches across Australia, makes its profit by selling cars of poor quality at two or three times their value.

Motor Finance Wizard spokesman Peter Llewellyn said the company had a 0.53 per cent monthly national complaint level and worked to maintain a “customer for life” customer care policy.

Mr Llewellyn said all sold vehicles carried an Independent Roadworthy Certificate and had a 32-point pre-delivery check. He also said the company was competitive with its prices.

“We do remind consumers that they do have a choice when purchasing a car,” he said. “If they are not happy with the price of the cars sold at our yards, we suggest they consider purchasing a vehicle from an alternative dealership.

“In the rare event that a customer experiences problems with their car, our policy is to fix vehicle problems expediently and address all customer concerns as part of our commitment to customer care.”

Mr Brody said the company was less than impressed when the group first showed up towards the end of May, and it called in the police on the first weekend.

Mr Brody said the police simply asked the crew not to disrupt traffic on Ballarat Rd.

“It seemed to us that there was lots of people going there who had already purchased a car in the past going back to complain about something, so there was lots of support for what we were doing,” he said.

Mr Brody said the company seemed resigned to the lobby group’s presence and hadn’t approached them in the past fortnight.

Motor Finance Wizard has sold more than 21,000 cars since opening its first dealership in 2001.

The Maidstone dealership opened in January last year and has a holding capacity of more than 100 cars.