Problems with Car purchased from Fast Motor Finance Ltd - and Advantage Finance

[just_jue 64]

Hi I am helping my son in law that has purchased a 13 plate Ford Kuga Diesel Automatic in September.

 

The automatic gearbox has now making a bad noise whilst driving,

the garage gave a 3 month guarantee

 

the warranty company have had a independent mechanic check the car over and have put it down to wear and tear and not covered by the warranty.

He has asked for a copy of the full report of his findings.

 

After doing some investigating it seems that these gearboxes must be serviced every 35,000 miles.

It was done at 35 & 70 k but not for 105k and the car has now done over 110k

, if they are not serviced they nearly always fail needing a new gearbox

 

 

The garage, warranty and the finance company don't want to help,

so he is still paying for a car that he can't use and both he and my daughter are key workers and need a reliable car to get to work.

 

Thanks

 

JJ

[dx100uk 9,543]

it belongs to the finance company

 

stuff any stupid warranties or guarantees they are worthless and never worth the paper they are written upon

 

under the consumer rights act he is entitled to it being repaired by the finance co.

who is?

 

[BankFodder 2,039]

... and also who's the garage?

As indicated by my site in colleague above, you have very solid rights here and you are being taken for a ride by the garage and also by the finance company. Let us have all the details and we will help you. It won't be a problem although it will take a little effort

[just_jue 64]

Thanks for getting back to me.

 

As I am relaying it from my son in law I will get everything he has done so far and post it up.

 

JJ

[BankFodder 2,039]

Thank you. It might be helpful if he started going on to here directly and it would take the load off you

[just_jue 64]

It me will be me that will be writing the letter and helping them so will be helping me as well.

 

JJ

[just_jue 64]

The car was purchased on the 8th September this year.

 

The finance company is Advantage Finance LTD

 

Present mileage is 111,103, they have done less than 2,000 since picking it up

 

The gearbox started to have trouble changing gear and making noises at the start of the month.

 

Reported the problem to Advantage Finance and they advised taking to VAT registered garage and get them to do a report which was done on the 9th November.

The garage reported that the gearbox would need a full service but could not guarantee this would resolve the problem due to the mileage.

The warranty company got their own mechanic do their own report last week and they have put it down as normal wear and tear.

 

Spoke to the garage on numerous times and they wont help saying it is over 30 days and wont be covered by the warranty.

 

The finance company have been a complete nightmare trying to get anyone to help or take responsibility.

 

The car is now sitting at a garage, the finance company have advised him not to drive it until the work has been done, but the gearbox service will be around £500 with no guarantee that this will work.

 

 

I have advised them to keep on paying the finance company.

 

But just don't know the best way to go from here.

 

Thanks again

 

JJ 

[BankFodder 2,039]

You haven't told us to the garage is. Any special reason for that?

[just_jue 64]

Sorry it's Fast Motor Finance LTD in Crawley West Sussex

[honeybee13 4,495]

Hi.

 

Is it these people?

 

https://www.fastmotorfinance.co.uk/used-cars

 

HB

[just_jue 64]

Yes it is

[dx100uk 9,543]

advantage finance should be paying for it all

 

they have one chance to repair, if it doesn't work you advise them you will exercise your right to reject the goods under CRA unfit for purpose as the fault is within 6mts.

[BankFodder 2,039]

I forgot to ask you how much did you pay for it?

You don't need to worry about the warranties. They are simply a red herring to divert you from your true rights.

The garage probably knows this and the finance company certainly knows this and they are trying to rip you off.

Under the consumer rights act, if a material defect manifests itself within the first 30 days then you have an automatic right to reject the vehicle. If a defect manifests itself within the first six months then you have the right to insist on a repair and if the repair fails then you are entitled to a refund.

Although all vehicles are subject to fair wear and tear – if the service history shows that an important service was missed out and this was not disclosed to you at the time of purchase, then the vehicle is defective.

You are protected under the finance agreement by section 75 of the consumer credit act so that makes the finance company responsible. The garage is also responsible to you under the consumer rights act.

I think you should start to be very assertive. You clearly need this vehicle quite urgently – although let me warn you that if they don't comply, then I'm afraid it will probably take two or three months at least before you get your money back.

Could you just clarify that the missing service history wasn't brought your attention at the time you bought the vehicle

[BankFodder 2,039]

I should also say that as you are going to have to take some rapid and assertive action, I'm troubled by the fact that you seem to be doing this on behalf of your son-in-law but if you threaten court proceedings – which you will probably have to – and if you then have to go on to issue the claim – as you may well have to do, it will be your son-in-law's name on the letter of claim, on the court papers and it will be your son-in-law who will then have to put his case before a mediator and possibly in court.

I really don't see any risk of you losing the case here but on the other hand it will have to be driven with a certain amount of ambition in order to push back at a garage and a finance company that clearly doesn't want to step up to its obligations to you under the consumer credit act.

Is this going to cause any problems?

[just_jue 64]

Hi Bank Fodder, forgot to say that the car had full service history with all bills etc apart from one.

We have all paper work with gearbox service etc, but in the book there was a service stamp on 100,000 miles from the same garage that all the work was done before.

 

We emailed them and they were not able to send us a full break down of all the work that was done due to data protection, but they did say the service that was done was the complete basic just oil change, funnily enough this paperwork is missing as it would of needed a gearbox service, this wasn't disclosed at the time.

 

They paid £7300 for the car.

 

DX thanks for clarifying what I thought about the one repair. 

 

I really appreciate your help with this and other matters.

 

JJ

 

I will get a letter drafted later, would it be best to send one to the garage and one to the finance company?

[BankFodder 2,039]

I'm terribly sorry but you haven't addressed the question that I put to you in my earlier post. It really would be helpful if you could do this.

[just_jue 64]

Hi Bank Fodder,

 

With regard to court etc, no that wont be a problem, at the moment they are borrowing another car to get to and from work.

 

JJ

[dx100uk 9,543]

launch a section 75 claim to advantage ASAP IMHO

cut out the garage.

 

as usual advantage are utterly useless .....just like moneybarn 

 

 

 

 

[BankFodder 2,039]

Well at £7300, I think that any car should be able to run without any serious defect manifesting itself at least a couple of years.

This car clearly is not in satisfactory condition when it was bought.

Also, can we clarify that the finance was made by way of a loan and not hire purchase. It doesn't make a huge amount of difference but it is something that we should know.

You have two targets. You can either sue the garage or you can sue the finance company. Somebody else on this forum in the past 2 or 3 months decided to sue the finance company. I rather thought it was an error because it was taking on the more powerful of the two – and it turned out that the finance company then when instructed a proper firm of solicitors who have simply been obstructive. It doesn't mean that the claimant was more likely to lose – but it became a little bit more nerve wracking and difficult.

I would suggest that the best thing to do is to sue the garage who are going to be the weaker party and secure a judgement against them. Then if there is any difficulty enforcing the judgement, you can turn against the finance company but with a judgement already in your hand, any resistance should fall away quite quickly. At that point you can also threaten the finance company with an action under FCA regulations for unfair treatment – because what they are doing is clearly unfair.

It seems to me that you need to get a move on. On the basis of what you say, your rights are completely clear and I would suggest that you begin by sending a letter of claim to the garage and writing separately to the finance company and telling them that you are going to be seeing the garage and that once you get a judgement you will be coming after them not only under their obligations under the consumer credit act but also under the FCA Handbook rules – COBS - which requires them as a matter of statutory duty to treat you fairly. The finance company will be quite anxious to avoid a judgement for breach of statutory duty.

It may be that the finance company will then feel motivated to put pressure on the garage – but nothing is sure.

If this seems to be a satisfactory way forward then it will be a matter of sending a letter of claim – probably in tomorrow's post – recorded delivery and an email as well if you want.

You have to be sure that you want to do this and you need to search this forum for information on bringing a small claim in the County Court. It's fairly straightforward and because you are suing for less than the small claims limit of £10,000 it is pretty well risk-free. However it is worth knowing your way around because you will feel more confident about it.

Please let us know if this is the way you want to go forward. I have to say that if you rather not do this then your only other alternative would be to go to the ombudsman which will be a very slow process and could last easily up to 12 months or more with an uncertain outcome. I would not recommend it

 

To add, if as a result of the breach of contract on the part of the garage you have incurred additional expenses, then we may probably be able to think about claiming for those as well.

[BankFodder 2,039]

12 minutes ago, dx100uk said:

launch a section 75 claim to advantage ASAP IMHO

cut out the garage.

 

as usual advantage are utterly useless .....just like moneybarn 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes is definitely an option – but I am rather concerned about the way that the other one went when they brought in Evershed's. It's still going on but I think it made it more worrying for the claimant.

The finance company will have the wherewithal to be able to make strategic delays

[just_jue 64]

Hi Dx & Bank Fodder,

 

I now have all the details here.

 

When they collected the car it had 109,520 miles on the clock and at the moment it has 111,103. So they have only done 1,500 miles 

The warranty is for 6 months from Autoprotect.

 

The finance company have sent an email saying they have sent all their findings and the report via post and closed his complaint and included a dead lock letter to take the matter up with the FOS.

 

I do think taking on the finance company is going to be hard, but I really don't think we will get much joy with the garage themselves.

 

JJ 

 

Hi Bank Fodder,

 

Sorry the finance was via HP and not a loan

[BankFodder 2,039]

Was there a deposit paid?  possibly with a credit card?

[just_jue 64]

No deposit or part exchange were made

 

It was Cash Price: £7194.00

Finance: £5741.00

Comprising of:

Interest: £5216.00

Acceptance Fee: £325,00

Option to Purchase £200.00

Total Amount Payable: £12935,00

[dx100uk 9,543]

well advantage can't wash their hands of it, it's their car.

and it's NOT wear and tear either

he's only done 1500mls in it!!

cheeky buggers

 

it looks like lots has already gone on before you've come here with this issue .....so scan up all the letters you've advised them to send already and the replies to them.

 

should of come here 1st before tackling this one...JJ

 

[BankFodder 2,039]

If you scan up letters here by the way, please make sure that they are included in a single file multipage PDF. Please make sure they are all in the correct order, the right way round, and not simply minuscule photographs.

You can't imagine the kind of stuff that people put up here when they realise that they're not paying for the advice!