Ford Kuga owners are being turned away when trying to trade in their cars for other Ford models,according to a report in the Sunday Times.

Ford South Africa has come under enormous pressure after more than 50 of its 1.6 Kuga model have caught alight over the past 14 months. The company recalled the model earlier this week.

Only 1.6-litre models built between December 2012 and February 2014 are covered by the recall, said Ford. This totals 4,556 vehicles locally.

The Sunday paper reported that dealers are reluctant to give the car’s owners trade-in values.

Ford Eagle in Johannesburg told the paper on Friday that while the company would accept a Kuga trade-in, it advised owners to wait until the media noise died down.

AutoBid valued a 2014 1.6-litre EcoBoost Kuga Titanium all-wheel-drive automatic at R129,000 – R167,000 less than the car’s actually worth.

The bottom-of-the-range 1.6-litre EcoBoost was valued at R70,000.

The Dispatch recently reported that Kuga owner Doris Tshabalala was ‘laughed out the door’ when making inquiries at local motor dealerships.

One dealer eventually offered R120,000 for the vehicle, approximately 40% less than the car’s worth of R199,335 with 57,000 km traveled, according to the TransUnion Vehicle Trade Value Book .

Another Kuga owner, Fiona Pelman, said she faced similar issues trying to sell the vehicle with R160,000 the most being offered for her. Meanwhile, Maureen Naude of Centurion said the best price she was offered from a Ford dealership was R115,000.

Read the full article in the 22 January 2017 edition of the Sunday Times.

Read: This is how much you would get if you sold your Ford Kuga now