Way over my mileage, one year into a PCP

[lecanonnier]

Hi,

So, I may have been a little silly. I ended up driving way more miles than I agreed to on my PCP deal (on a very standard Ford Fiesta Zetec). I'm just over one year in and I've done 21,000 miles - my agreement is for 12,000. I'm just wondering what my next move is...

As I've moved house, my commute is about 70 miles each day, plus family commitments, hence the high mileage. I'm better off financially than I was a year ago, when I took out the agreement, and as I'm doing so many miles it might make sense to get a second hand car where I don't need to worry about mileage per annum. But obviously I have this 12k agreement and I can't see a way of getting out of it now.

Does anyone have any experience of this kind of situation? Can I go to a different brand and still get them to buy the finance agreement as they want my business. What would I be looking at paying - something like the excess mileage charge?

I'm thinking of going to speak to another brand first, then Ford. Any advice would be very much appreciated!

[lecanonnier]

Hi,

I think the excess mileage is 8p per mile, but I know that's not necessarily what you end up paying if you renegotiate as they are eager for your business.

Really, just a bit extra each month? I know it adds up over time, but that sounds quite reasonable actually as I'm doing extra miles. I was put off because, when I Googled about increasing my annual mileage, I found a page which asked me to send a letter and wait for a reply, which kind of made me think I'd be shafted by them.

[lecanonnier]

Cheers for the advice. I guess I'll speak to VW or someone and then Ford, see what they can do. Just don't want to get screwed over. I know there's always the option of terminating a PCP agreement once you've paid off half the value of the car, but I don't really want to do that as it sounds like a ballache and also slightly dishonest on my part (I know, not that car dealers wouldn't take advantage of these kind of rules if they could...)

Please keep the advice coming if you know anything about this sort of scenario!

[lecanonnier]

Granfondo said:

If you try to change now you a WILL be "screwed over" because PCPs are designed to go full term.
If it's the fact you don't like the car and just want a change then find out the settlement figure from Ford finance then get a WBAC valuation (sit down when you do this) and take it from there!

Oh really? I thought they would be interested in doing a deal early (maybe not this early!) so that they could secure another 3-year PCP. I know after about 18 months on my last PCP they were ringing me all the time to sign up to a new agreement...

I guess it's hard to know. Weirdly, as my car (well, the finance company's car) is still so new, it doesn't make too much difference to the value if I've done 12k or 21k miles. But I imagine that's just a quirk of the really steep depreciation curve and I doubt I have any equity for a new deal. I suppose I'll just have to go and talk to these salesmen - who'll then talk to their manager, and come back to me saying 'he's not happy, but you've boxed him into a corner on this one blah blah blah' as they offer me a terrible deal.

I do think Kia (or was it Hyundai?) are on to something with their marketing idea of buying a car online, with no negotiation. Obviously that's not going to work right now when the system is geared towards sales from showrooms, but maybe some time soon... Fingers crossed. :-)