Returning PCP car at 6 months - Mazda MX30 excessive oil use

[wainy]

so posting this on behalf of a friend.

She agreed PCP deal in July and picked up in August (Mazda MX30) from Mazda dealer
Paperwork states that it can be handed back upto 6 months in if there are issues (vague I know!)

PCP was based on > 16k miles per annum (lots of mileage travelling to sites across the UK) and it was clear during discussions (I was there) that ability to constantly charge on site and during long journeys would be very limited (construction sites with minimal infrastructure to charge)

Queue 8k miles in and it rotary engine has drunk about 6 litres of oil!!!

Mazda are stating that it should be charged all the time and the engine is only using oil due to the long journeys (we told the salesman a bout lack of charging ability!) and she needs to pay ~£175 for a test on the engine to check for excessive oil consumption.

They have also stated that if it is handed in before end og Jan then there is a "reasonable cost" of £7k to pay tp ohand back - I think this is extortionate as we explained the charging issues and the oil use seems very very exessive!

Does anyone have any thoughts / experience on this?
Even at 45p per mile and 8k miles that is £3.6k for returning early

Apart from the oil use (and thus the MPG) the car is ok but its just not as described in terms of "ease of use" and "cost to use" with excessive fuel use and the repeated low oil warnings (and cost to top up)

[t.boydy]

Rotary engines do use lots of oil… what’s the oil usage got to do with mpg?
Check/top up oil weekly and crack on.
Did someone force your ‘friend’ to agree to purchase the vehicle? Due diligence and research would have been helpful.

What outcome do you, sorry your friend want ultimately?

[wainy]

Oil usage is because it is technically an ev but uses the petrol engine as a generator. This the less charging you do the more “generating it does”
This was explained to the sales person that there would be limited charging on long journeys and limited ability to charge when away from home (hence the large mileage per year on the pcp)

Ideally want to give it back with as little penalty as possible. We get a reasonable charge but 7k seems excessive and don’t think even a rotary engine should go through so much oil for the 8k mileage

[MightyBadger]

I would have expected it to have used 8ltrs of oil with that mileage.

Edit, does the engine sound good?

[Heathwood]

The oil consumption is a red herring surely. Rotary’s use oil. 6ltrs must cost, what, £50? Why would that be an issue if the car is otherwise ok? Just run it as intended and hand it back at the end of the term. Otherwise it sounds more like buyers remorse.

[ADJimbo]

As others have said, I don t think 1,300 miles from a litre top up of oil would be deemed as manifestly excessive on a Rotary engine, where high oil consumption is a characteristic of the vehicle.

In terms of being able to reject the vehicle under CRA(2015) - you seem to intimate that your friend wants to return the vehicle on the basis you advised the sales person that your friend would be short of charging facilities, when using the vehicle for work purposes.

It would be nigh-on impossible to successfully reject the vehicle under the CRA on that basis and foolhardy to even run the argument. It would have been plain to see that your friend should not be buying any type of EV when they knew about the potential issues with charging such a vehicle, before purchasing the vehicle.

Ultimately, this is more a case of buyers remorse opposed to there being an issue with the vehicle.

Edited by ADJimbo on Tuesday 6th January 22:38

[normalbloke]

Heathwood said:

The oil consumption is a red herring surely. Rotary s use oil. 6ltrs must cost, what, £50? Why would that be an issue if the car is otherwise ok? Just run it as intended and hand it back at the end of the term. Otherwise it sounds more like buyers remorse.

A litre bottle of ‘top up Shell’ on the main routes can be around £37.

[Belle427]

Buy the cheapest oil that meets the cars specs in bulk and live with it is probably your only hope really.
I wasn`t aware they still used the rotary engine these days.

[HTP99]

wainy said:

so posting this on behalf of a friend.

She agreed PCP deal in July and picked up in August (Mazda MX30) from Mazda dealer
Paperwork states that it can be handed back upto 6 months in if there are issues (vague I know!)

PCP was based on > 16k miles per annum (lots of mileage travelling to sites across the UK) and it was clear during discussions (I was there) that ability to constantly charge on site and during long journeys would be very limited (construction sites with minimal infrastructure to charge)

Queue 8k miles in and it rotary engine has drunk about 6 litres of oil!!!

Mazda are stating that it should be charged all the time and the engine is only using oil due to the long journeys (we told the salesman a bout lack of charging ability!) and she needs to pay ~£175 for a test on the engine to check for excessive oil consumption.

They have also stated that if it is handed in before end og Jan then there is a "reasonable cost" of £7k to pay tp ohand back - I think this is extortionate as we explained the charging issues and the oil use seems very very exessive!

Does anyone have any thoughts / experience on this?
Even at 45p per mile and 8k miles that is £3.6k for returning early

Apart from the oil use (and thus the MPG) the car is ok but its just not as described in terms of "ease of use" and "cost to use" with excessive fuel use and the repeated low oil warnings (and cost to top up)

Would love to see the wording of that PCP early hand back clause as I've never heard of such a thing.

Anyhow, seems "your friend" has gone ahead and purchased a car that just isn't fit for purpose and is blaming everyone but themselves, why buy a PHEV if you can't charge it?!

[samoht]

You don't state, but I assume the car was brand new?

I recall hearing VW stating that up to 1L of oil per 1,000 miles was considered 'in spec' for their piston engines. I doubt that Mazda will be specifying less than that on a rotary engine. So I expect that the oil usage seen is officially "normal" according to manufacturer spec, thus not a fault or reason to return the car.

Belle427 said:

Buy the cheapest oil that meets the cars specs in bulk and live with it is probably your only hope really.
I wasn`t aware they still used the rotary engine these days.

With the older rotaries it was recommended to use mineral oil (cheaper) on the basis that it burns cleaner. Not sure what the specs are for the MX-30 but yes cheap oil is probably the way to go.


There is some concept now of a car being 'fit for purpose' and a dealer having a responsibility to ensure this. However I'm not confident that having to top up the oil once a month renders a car not fit for purpose, albeit a PHEV is a poor fit for the OP's use case.

[Sheepshanks]

HTP99 said:

Would love to see the wording of that PCP early hand back clause as I've never heard of such a thing.

Anyhow, seems "your friend" has gone ahead and purchased a car that just isn't fit for purpose and is blaming everyone but themselves, why buy a PHEV if you can't charge it?!

Maybe the contract had some wording taken from the CRA? Anyway, it probably didn’t say it could be handed back without any charge.

As for fit for purpose - it’d be dodgy for someone in car sales to admit that. The OP says they described their use case so they should have been told that wasn’t ideal for the car.

[samoht]

This link suggests that it's normal for the MX-30 to use more oil while the engine is running in
https://www.mx30forum.com/threads/mx-30-r-ev-rotar...

Mazda said:

during the engine break-in, like a former standard procedure for new cars, more-than-standard oil is necessary for the RE, which requires oil refills earlier than normal refill timing

and thus the oil consumption might slow down in due course.

https://www.parkers.co.uk/mazda/mx-30/r-ev/review/...

Parkers said:

there aren’t many new cars out there today that require you to top up the oil within the first few thousand miles. I’ve done this twice on my MX-30, because a rotary power unit consumes a fair amount as it beds itself in, and the car presented me with a ‘top-up oil’ warning on the dash.

This is common for the design of engine, and your dealer will brief you accordingly, leaving a litre of oil in the boot,

It does seem like drinking oil when new is normal, and not a fault with the MX-30.

[sneezer212]

They bought the wrong car for the job. 16k miles a year and without access to a charger and they bought an electric car with a small generator. Sell the car and buy a diesel.