Terminating Car Agreement. Am I Unreasonable???
Discussion
Evening guys
I've had my F80 for coming up to 4 months now, and its pretty much confirmed it'll be going back and the agreement cancelled.
Long story short, I noticed after a few days that the car had had paint in its life. Usually, I wouldn't mind (all my other vehicles have been spruced up in their time), but after closer inspection, pretty much the whole car looks to have been painted. I've found overspray under the bonnet, masking tape in various places all round the car, mismatched headlights, amongst other bits. I highlighted these, after around 6 days, and sent an email to formally reject the car after 3 weeks. Unfortunately, the country went into lock down, so nothing could be done regards taking the car back until they could get back to work.
In the meantime, I chased them up every now and again, and mellowed a bit, and would have accepted the car being tidied up and some sort of recompense.
As we were in lockdown, the car wasn't used as often as we normally would (probably 500 miles in the first 10 weeks), and the brakes started rumbling. Fair play to them, they did pay for my local dealer to do them, as they hadn't had enough life in them for a used car. The technician did mention the front tyres wanted replacing very soon, as they'd worn heavily on the inside edges (these haven't been done).
Fast forward to this week, and I put forward a proposal to keep me in the car (see to the issues, and give part of my down payment back), or for them to find me an alternative vehicle. Least favourable was to terminate the contract and give my deposit back.
The manager got in touch today and told me they couldn't spend the money to sort the issues, as it wouldn't have been cost effective, and they can't find an alternative vehicle (doubt they can be bothered), so they want to terminate and pay the finance company off.
To say I'm pissed is an understatement. They're also only paying £2.5k of my £3k deposit back. Is it fair that they do this? Considering I tried to reject the vehicle as early as 3 weeks into the agreement? Of course I paid for it for the time I had it.
Would welcome your opinions on how stubborn I should be regarding getting my full deposit back. What would you do in this scenario?
My neighbours will think I couldn't afford the car, and its been repossessed!!!
I've had my F80 for coming up to 4 months now, and its pretty much confirmed it'll be going back and the agreement cancelled.
Long story short, I noticed after a few days that the car had had paint in its life. Usually, I wouldn't mind (all my other vehicles have been spruced up in their time), but after closer inspection, pretty much the whole car looks to have been painted. I've found overspray under the bonnet, masking tape in various places all round the car, mismatched headlights, amongst other bits. I highlighted these, after around 6 days, and sent an email to formally reject the car after 3 weeks. Unfortunately, the country went into lock down, so nothing could be done regards taking the car back until they could get back to work.
In the meantime, I chased them up every now and again, and mellowed a bit, and would have accepted the car being tidied up and some sort of recompense.
As we were in lockdown, the car wasn't used as often as we normally would (probably 500 miles in the first 10 weeks), and the brakes started rumbling. Fair play to them, they did pay for my local dealer to do them, as they hadn't had enough life in them for a used car. The technician did mention the front tyres wanted replacing very soon, as they'd worn heavily on the inside edges (these haven't been done).
Fast forward to this week, and I put forward a proposal to keep me in the car (see to the issues, and give part of my down payment back), or for them to find me an alternative vehicle. Least favourable was to terminate the contract and give my deposit back.
The manager got in touch today and told me they couldn't spend the money to sort the issues, as it wouldn't have been cost effective, and they can't find an alternative vehicle (doubt they can be bothered), so they want to terminate and pay the finance company off.
To say I'm pissed is an understatement. They're also only paying £2.5k of my £3k deposit back. Is it fair that they do this? Considering I tried to reject the vehicle as early as 3 weeks into the agreement? Of course I paid for it for the time I had it.
Would welcome your opinions on how stubborn I should be regarding getting my full deposit back. What would you do in this scenario?
My neighbours will think I couldn't afford the car, and its been repossessed!!!
Alex Z said:
How much will you have paid out once they refund you, for four months use of the car?
That determines whether you are unreasonable or not?
With the £500 deduction from the deposit, I’d be £1700 down. Plus £800 for the tracker (had to have it to transfer remainder of the insurance policy I had).That determines whether you are unreasonable or not?
I don’t actually think it’s a terrible amount to lose for 14 weeks. But I did want to reject 3 weeks into the agreement
Alucidnation said:
Monkeylegend said:
DeanR32 said:
My neighbours will think I couldn't afford the car, and its been repossessed!!!
Really, is that all you are worried about?
Input/opinions required though, not silly little emoji faces and cheap quips.
What do you think I should do about it?
You’re doomed, that one throwaway comment you made about repossession will trigger the hordes and you’ll now be buried in a sea of comments about finance, white goods, snobbery and probably at some point someone will trot out the story about someone who looked like a tramp buying a new car with a carrier bag full of cash.
Personally, I’d say it’s not your fault that COVID hit and everything went into lockdown, but it’s not the dealer’s fault either. It’s a very unfortunate situation but I’d cut my losses and take the offer at this point.
In the nicest way, IMO you do bear some responsibility for not inspecting the car thoroughly enough before collection. I’d bet a lot of owners wouldn’t even have noticed and would be happily running around in the car years later completely oblivious to it having been painted. As enthusiasts we tend to notice things that other people don’t.
Personally, I’d say it’s not your fault that COVID hit and everything went into lockdown, but it’s not the dealer’s fault either. It’s a very unfortunate situation but I’d cut my losses and take the offer at this point.
In the nicest way, IMO you do bear some responsibility for not inspecting the car thoroughly enough before collection. I’d bet a lot of owners wouldn’t even have noticed and would be happily running around in the car years later completely oblivious to it having been painted. As enthusiasts we tend to notice things that other people don’t.
hutchst said:
It's not just your opinion. Consumer law separates issues that were reasonably apparent on inspection at the time of entering into the contract from those that were not.
I see. So I suppose the fact that I didn’t spot masking tape left on the car, overspray and masking lines everywhere, and didn’t notice the couple of little faults (all of which I documented in emails, and did give them the option to rectify these problems, which they have refused and want the car back), would more likely hold me in good stead if I were to push for my payments back as well as my full deposit?The car is shiny, and I would have been ok with it if they had taken the opportunity to put the problems right, but they didn’t even attempt to. There are cars out there which could have been a decent alternative, but I doubt they even looked for them.
I’m pretty grateful that I’ll be getting rid of the car, but feeling a little bitter toward the dealer for selling me a lemon, and not making any effort to put it right
It is not at all clear with who this contact is made. I am not asking for the name of the supplier but was it a main dealer or someone else? I am pretty sure if I am buying a vehicle or even leasing it I would be all over it like a rash to ensure it was immaculate or if it was not the costs reflected the condition. I sound like you failed to do due diligence at the time of taking delivery? Perhaps those "new motor" goggles distracted you. I think on reflection if you dont want the car and the aggro, suffer the 500 pounds and move on.
DeanR32 said:
Alucidnation said:
Monkeylegend said:
DeanR32 said:
My neighbours will think I couldn't afford the car, and its been repossessed!!!
Really, is that all you are worried about?
Input/opinions required though, not silly little emoji faces and cheap quips.
What do you think I should do about it?
I would then take the refund
I think you're being unrealistic more than unreasonable. There are dozens of punters who would give their firstborn to be rid of a car they no longer wanted through issues that didn't entirely constitute rejection-grade material, so I'd be taking their arm clean off and being a bit more sensible about how much I checked over a car before I committed to it in future...
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