Your opinions please

[whatamess]

Hi there

 

I bought a car 6 months ago with 3 months warranty. We took out finance on the car with a finance company, after 4 weeks of having the car something seem to be wrong with it, the showroom were really good took the car in for repair. We got the car back and still there was something wrong with it so took it in again, got the car back and still something wrong so they sent it to fords, fords repaired it and still something wrong with it same problem all the time, its been in 4 times in 6 months.

 

I spoke to them today and they have agreed to swap the car over I have spoken to our finance company and they have informed me that I need to settle the finance and re apply they gave me a settlement figure which i went back to the car show room with, the said ok and ask us to try to get the finance with them as they can get us a better rate, anyway my concern is when i took the finance out in december i had to pay £150 setting up fee and i have paid £1300 over the past 6 months in repayments, if i give our car back reapply for finance who pays me back my £1300? Im really confused and can see this being a really big headach, any opinions or advice would be greatly appriciated.

 

Thanks

[citizenB]

Sounds a bit of a muddle to me. Will try and get some help for you.

[42man]

Just my opinion on this but common sense would say that you don't pay any setting up fee and you get AT LEAST £1800 - £2,000 off the screen price (your £1300 already paid + what you might negotiate off the price of the car if you were a new customer) with a new agreement in place....bear in mind the inconvenience that you have been through and in light of any potential compensation.....they seem to have been quite reasonable in attempting to remedy the problem.

[whatamess]

Hi there

 

Thanks for your reply 42man, I have an update. The finance company have now agreed to let us swap the car without refinancing which is less of a headache for us.

I have spoke to the car company and the person that i have been dealing with just does not seem to care anymore i am constantly chasing them. We have looked on thier website and there are no cars which match exactly what we had, for instance we paid £8000 for our car including in that was finance, part ex and some cash deposit. The car we bought is a 57 plate and had 40,000 miles on the clock the closest we can get to it is a 58 plate up for £8500 has 60,000 miles on the clock. Am i being unresonable to ask for this car (once viewed it) with 1 years tax for the inconvieance or do you think im selling myself short?

 

Thanks

[sailor sam]

My view is that they should swop for a like for like basis at no cost to you. If they don't have a car to do this, then they could provide you with a courtesy car untill they find one. This has happend at a dealership I used to work at but it was a main dealer. It does seem so far that they have been accomodating but at the end of the day the original car was not fit for the pourpose so worse case scenario is that they give you your money back.

[scaniaman]

I am struggling to understand why anyone would buy 57& 58 plate cars with such high milage. Surely at that sort of money you can get a car of average / low milage. I would not entertain a car with more than 1000mls/ month since registration. A 58plate car @ 60000mls has been hammered to hell or worked on double shift = trouble at an early stage.

[heliosuk]

Don't get this one Scania. Sometimes high mileages work better. I'd rather have a 60K mile car with predominantly motorway use than a 30K car with predominantly town use.

 

Starship Saxo is an example in kind!!

[whatamess]

Thanks all for your replies. I called them AGAIN yesterday only to be told to call back tomorrow morning as he needed to speak to the sales manager to see what they had in stock. I called back this morning and went directly to the sales manager. He told me that he briefly spoke to the other guy and could i fill him in. So i told him the situation and told him the finance company as well as the the the guy i had been speaking to had agreed we could swap out the car like for like. He then tells me he was told that we would be doing a part ex with a new deal and new finiance. Im fuming why would i do that, he has gone away to speak to the other guy to find out what is going on.

 

I think this is going to get messy am i in my rights to swap the car like for like and not do a new deal? I still obviously have finance on this car so why would i take out more finance and loose my original deposit plus what i have already paid of the finaince.

 

thanks

[raydetinu]

I would think the best idea is to get all your money back and start again; after all they have accepted the original car was not fit.

[sailor sam]

I would think the best idea is to get all your money back and start again; after all they have accepted the original car was not fit.

 

 

Agreed. Cut the the chase and stop them messing you around by telling them if they don't sort thngs out AT NO COST to you by giving you a courtesy car while they find you a like-for like replacement TODAY, you will formally reject the car and go elsewhere. If they cannot or will not do this, write them a rejection letter and send it both to them and the finance co. However, you must not use the car once you send the letter.

[whatamess]

Hi there

 

Went to see them on Saturday and got absoluty nowhere. I acually had a full blow argument with the sales manager. They told us to have a look around to see if there is anything we could swap for. There were 2 cars but 1 of them had 70,000 miles on the clock so that was out of the question. The other one was 6 months newer then ours and was £500 more in price. The sales manager told us that there is no way we could swap for that car because our car had lost value in the 6 months we had it and the car we looked at was more money. But i dont understand as they offered us a car which was the same price and reg as our one but we dont want it as we dont like the colour. They then said they would go to auction and buy us a car which again i dont want as i want to pick my own car.

 

We have decided to put to them that we will take the car to our own garage and they pay the costs or we get our money back, but to get our money back we are going to have a fight on our hands. They gave us £1750 part ex for our old car which i have all the paper work for signed my me and signed by them. They are now saying that our car was not worth £1750 and they only acually gave us £700 so I think its going to be easier said then done to getting all of our money back from them.

 

Thanks

[sailor sam]

Well they have already exhausted their opportunities to rectify the fault(s) so if I were you, I would formally reject the car and ask fo a refund. At the end of the day, it appears that there will be no easy solution to this and currently they appear to be stalling for time by dragging this out untill you rights are reduced under the SOGA. As it stands, you have owned the car for 6 months and in that time, they have had 4 attempts to rectify the problem which occured within the first month. You can therefore show that the car was not fit for the purpose and as such under SOGA you would have a case to reject as it seems all other options have been exhausted. Obvioulsy the final decission is yours but you would need to act immediately by sending a formal rejection letter but once sent, you must stop using the car.

 

I suggest that you have a word with your local Consumer Direct/Trading Standards to clarify the above.

[whatamess]

Hi thanks for your reply. My husband has just spoken to them and they have said that they want to take the car to someone else to try and fix and if it cant be fix then they will start from scratch. My husband said that we didnt want them taking the car in again (we dont trust them) and we would rather have the refund and go else where. They said not to do that, that he is sure we can come to some sort of arrangement but in the mean time they wont even let us have a car £500 dearer then ours so what are the chances of getting a deal from them.

 

My question is if we back the car what are the chances of us getting our 2k deposit back plus the £1300 we have already paid in repayents to the finance company? as the finance company have given me a settlement figure which the car comapany will pay them direct.

 

Thanks

[SCARS]

"They then said they would go to auction and buy us a car which again i dont want as i want to pick my own car"

 

Fact: Virtually all used car dealers buy from Auctions. If you want like for like replacement, that is the best place they can find one for you.

 

 

"My question is if we back the car what are the chances of us getting our 2k deposit back plus the £1300 we have already paid in repayents to the finance company? as the finance company have given me a settlement figure which the car comapany will pay them direct."

 

Assuming you reject the car you should be looking at a refund of the full purchase price of the car, less any negotiated amount for mileage covered and abnormal wear and tear.

And less the initial amount borrowed on finance.

 

The garage will pay the settlement figure directly to the Finance company. It would be unresonable to also expect the full £1300 in repayments back.

 

It might be possible to argue the difference between the inital amount financed, and the settlement figure, along with the finance setup charges.

 

For instance:

£10,000 purchase price

£2000 part ex - refundable

£1000 deposit - refunable

£7000 finance - non refunable - finance company settled by car dealer.

In this instance a refund of £3000 would be realistic, less any damage - ie the scrape you picked up in the carpark at work.

 

This would cover the SOGA with the dealer, and be reasonable.

 

The finance company is a different entity and you have a different contract with them for the lending of money. The best outcome for you, is getting the car paid off by the dealer, and then a refund on capital repaid and the inital charges.

 

As you have only had the car a few months, the settlement figure will likely be very close to the borrowed amount. The settlement figure would normally include the charges

 

For instance:

Borrowed amount £7000

Early Settlement £6600

 

£400 of the capital having been paid off.

 

Check your HP document regarding charges, usually it will be about £250 in charges, thus the maxium cost to yourself from the finance company using my (made up on the spot) figures is £650. Not the sum of the the repayments.

 

One thing you have never mentioned is, what is the fault that has occured on the car?

Edited June 16, 2011 by SCARS
formating reasons

[citizenB]

SCARS, I just popped some formatting into your post above to make it easier to read

[SCARS]

cheers CB, my forum fu seems to have gone awol today