Lawsuit after Taliban paranoia blocks car deal

A businessman in the US is suing a Mercedes dealer after it refused to sell him a luxury SUV.

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Paramus, New Jersey - An Indian national living in the US has sued a Mercedes-Benz dealership for more than $1 million (R13.4m), alleging it refused to sell him a vehicle because a manager thought he might ship it to the Taliban.

Surjeet Bassi, of Wallkill, New York, says in a federal lawsuit that he and his business partner went into Prestige Motors in Paramus in June to trade in his Mercedes-Benz ML 350 for a newer model.

Bassi said that after passing a credit check, charging a $1000 (R13 400) down payment and showing Prestige his bank statements, he and the salesman reached a deal, which would see him upgrade to a GL 550. But Bassi said the manager called him into his office and said he couldn't sell him the car.

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The manager told Bassi he came from a “high-risk area” where people buy cars and export them to the Taliban, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit says Bassi, who has lived in the region for 30 years, told the manager he is an East Asian Indian and has nothing to do with the Taliban, which controls parts of Afghanistan. Bassi said a search of his name on a federal database of those banned from exporting turned up nothing.

Bassi said he was willing to sign a waiver promising not to export the car for three years, which he's done before.

“I had a Mercedes already,” Bassi told The Middletown Times Herald-Record. “If I wanted to export it I would sell that one.”

But according to the lawsuit, Prestige still refused, which the lawsuit says is “racial stereotyping, premised on the plaintiff's race and appearance” and wouldn't have happened if he'd been “a white citizen of the United States.”

A request for comment from the dealership's lawyer wasn't immediately returned Monday.

AP