New london taxi probs

[taxidriver57]

Hi there,

i discovered this forum and just need advice re buying a duff taxi.

 

vehicle is 2 months old,

faulty steering box,

which being a safety issue,

vosa inolved,

vehicle off the road,

and tfl suspended 313 taxi drivers licence plates.

 

My questions are: if a manufacturer goes broke and i have 4yrs of finance left to pay on vehicle,

can i legally back the vehicle, informing the finance company, blackhorse, that the vehicle is not fit for purpose, so cancel aggreement?.

 

this being a last resort!...And can i request a suspension of monthly payments until vehicle is repaired ?.

 

The vehicle is supplied on dealers preferences plan, which means lower payments initially over 4yrs term, with ballon at the end

,trade in for new cab, or walk away.

 

Any advice will be very much appreciated, as i have had to rent replacement cab @ £600 month, to be able to keep working,

 

and this is gonna stretch finances if it carries on,

 

many thanks

[Conniff]

Hi taxi driver.

 

Is this company finance or personal finance?

 

If you are generally happy with the car, your less costliest way forward might be to get a quote from a garage to change the rack and then approach the finance company, it is there vehicle and they are the responsible persons.

[taxidriver57]

Hi Conniff,Personal finance,unable to get a replacement box,because the manufacturer has no replacement available!.they are working on a fix,but unable to give a date for this.Can i legally get finance suspended until vehicle is roadworthy again?

[Conniff]

I'm not certain if this is the best forum, but have moved you here as it's not really about the car, more about the finance.

 

Clicking on your email link will bring you here.

 

Any hope of getting the payments reduced or suspended while the problem is sorted is very slim. This car belongs to the finance company so you should write to them by recorded mail and ask them what there intentions are with regard their not roadworthy car.

The car problem is their problem more than it is yours.

Do you realise that after you have paid at least 50% you can just hand the car back to them (VT). As long as the car is in satisfactory condition, there should be nothing further to pay.

 

They won't be able to use it's present problem as a 'not satisfactory' excuse and ask you for more money as 'they' bought the car in this condition in the first place.

[aldo1975]

Hi Taxidriver,

I work for The London Taxi Company so will need to watch what im saying on this forum but will try to help you as best as I can. With regards to a payment holiday from Blackhorse Finance (BF) until vehicle reworked, I find it extremely unlikely that they would entertain this notion but it cant do any harm to call them and ask for advise on the situation you are now in.

The way I see it is that you have 2 options. The first being that you sit tight, keep paying finance on vehicle, keep renting replacement and once LTC have reworked your vehicle and it is back on the road you can then present them with an expenses claim for re-imbursement. Second option is that you contact BF telling them that the vehicle is not fit for purpose and you wish to hand vehicle back to manufacturer and cancel finance. BF will reject this straight away but it will set the ball rolling as they will then contact LTC to let them know your intentions.

There is a real danger of the company going into administration unless additional finance is secured and since the company has being loss making since 2007 with a diminishing market share, who will put in additional funds?? There are 400+ vehicles now off the road throughout the UK that need reworked as well as several hundred stock vehicles. The rework will not be an easy/quick fix as I think the only way they will be able to fix vehicles is by replacing the steering boxes with a new box from a new supplier.

I think it's fairly obvious that we do not have the money to do this and it looks like a lot of drivers are going to be left with duff cab's that they will have to fork out to repair themselves, lose out on the 3yr/100k mls warranty and have a greatly reduced trade-in value. If you need any more advise then pop a note on forum and will try to get back to you.

Edited October 20, 2012 by Conniff
formatting

[Conniff]

This all about China again. China does have quality problems with a lot of their products and seeking a cheaper alternative to what has already proved to be satisfactory shouldn't necessisarily start with a Chinese supplier. As with all things, the easiest way to cut cost is to reduce quality something the Chinese are famous for.

 

The fingers are quite rightly being pointed at Geeley who has flown in some high level people though they have consequently tried to down play it.

 

 

Are you all being kept fully up to date by Manganese ? And though the Chinese might indicate differently, they won't be too bothered about this and if they are the governing power, they will either want a bigger stake in Manganese or to take a controling share for financial assistance with a problem that they themselves created.

 

If you haven't already, you should seek urgent meetings with others affected and the Black Cab association.

[MARTIN3030]

Manganese Bronze, the maker of London's black cabs, has called in administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers after failing to secure new funding.

The appointment follows the suspension of its shares earlier this month, after a fault with the vehicle's steering box led to over 400 of them being recalled.

Manganese Bronze, which is based in Coventry, had been trying to secure a loan from Chinese shareholder Geely.

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20031436

[Conniff]

And now the Chinese are rubbing hands again, there is another stupid company we have messed up, we buy for £2 and make big profit on sacking all english worker and taking company to china.

 

 

The quality of Chinese goods will always comes back to bight you on the bum.

Edited October 24, 2012 by MARTIN3030

[MARTIN3030]

It was a foregone conclusion.

We see this happening a lot and Geely will now be in a position to cherry pick.

Why would they pump big money in when they know if they wait they will get what they want for a token amount.

[taxidriver57]

Hi Ado1975,managed to talk to finance co.early this morning,and they have agreed to suspend payments until cab repaired and back on the road!! However,with all the bad news today,still in limbo.Spoke to my accountant,and if it all goes pear shaped,apparently,i can state"manufacturer/finace company joint liability,"for vehicle being unroadworthy,wipe the finace off as a loss,and i ask them to take cab back.I hope it does not come to this situation,for both our sakes.Managed,to hire another cab(tx1),@ £165wk,not an ideal situation,but can now go to work:)

[heliosuk]

There will be a cure for the problem, any decent engineer will be able to fit a different steering system in place of the existing one, it's who pays for it that now matters.

 

This is not strictly true Conniff. A black cab has to be able to steer through a 25 foot circle which is not an easy thing to do. In theory though by retrofitting an earlier version should fix the issuethough it is not exactly clear what the issue is. Something must have changed dramaticaly that this is not possible.

 

I think and know your theory is correct though. You only have to look at the Saab debacle to see what is going on.

 

European manufactuers have to cut costs and along come the Chinese Angels with a bite. They lead everyone up the Garden path and then pull the plug at the last minute and consequently buy the company for a song.

 

Fortunately the yanks have woken up to this over Saab.

 

The issue should not be difficult to fix but it's the money/cashflow that restricts it. If involved with a Chinese co then rule of thumb is keep them at arms length. They are more slippry than a thames eel.