PCP - Have others been as lucky as us?
Discussion
My wife has had 2 previous Fiat 500's and is now on her third which actually is an Abarth 595.
She took out a 4 year PCP with all 3 cars and the first 2 cars were renewed before the PCP finished (approx after 3 years).
On both the first 2 cars she had gone over the agreed mileage by about 4,000 on the first one and about 7,000 on the second and the dealer said "don't worry about it".
So for the current Abarth 595 we actually decided to take out the PCP on the minimum mileage (6,000 per year) to keep the monthly costs down. We are now about to take this car back after 3 years and she has done 23,000 miles extra!!!
Obviously, I am rather concerned this time, but they had told us previously not to worry about the mileage. Apparently, the finance companies are not legally able to charge for excess mileage (although they will pursue you) and presumably, the dealers are aware of this.
I'll hopefully remember to post back here and let you know how we get on, but just wondered if others had been told not to worry about the mileage when renewing a PCP or had similar experiences?
She took out a 4 year PCP with all 3 cars and the first 2 cars were renewed before the PCP finished (approx after 3 years).
On both the first 2 cars she had gone over the agreed mileage by about 4,000 on the first one and about 7,000 on the second and the dealer said "don't worry about it".
So for the current Abarth 595 we actually decided to take out the PCP on the minimum mileage (6,000 per year) to keep the monthly costs down. We are now about to take this car back after 3 years and she has done 23,000 miles extra!!!
Obviously, I am rather concerned this time, but they had told us previously not to worry about the mileage. Apparently, the finance companies are not legally able to charge for excess mileage (although they will pursue you) and presumably, the dealers are aware of this.
I'll hopefully remember to post back here and let you know how we get on, but just wondered if others had been told not to worry about the mileage when renewing a PCP or had similar experiences?
This excerpt is taken from the Car Expert Website...
There’s no provision for excess mileage charges in the law, so in theory, you can’t be charged for exceeding your mileage allowance. However, if you exceed the pro-rata mileage allowance, you can expect the finance company to come after you for an excess mileage penalty.
You do not have to pay this charge, but you will need to be prepared to fight it – potentially for months and against threats of legal action. Despite repeated assertions from the legal community that excess mileage is not enforceable, the finance companies keep trying to charge customers for it. Their hope is that by bullying you, you will pay up. In plenty of cases, this works. Customers are often terrified to receive serious-looking letters or threats from legal firms acting on behalf of the finance company, but it’s all a bluff.
Full information is shown in the link below....
https://www.thecarexpert.co.uk/car-finance-volunta...
There’s no provision for excess mileage charges in the law, so in theory, you can’t be charged for exceeding your mileage allowance. However, if you exceed the pro-rata mileage allowance, you can expect the finance company to come after you for an excess mileage penalty.
You do not have to pay this charge, but you will need to be prepared to fight it – potentially for months and against threats of legal action. Despite repeated assertions from the legal community that excess mileage is not enforceable, the finance companies keep trying to charge customers for it. Their hope is that by bullying you, you will pay up. In plenty of cases, this works. Customers are often terrified to receive serious-looking letters or threats from legal firms acting on behalf of the finance company, but it’s all a bluff.
Full information is shown in the link below....
https://www.thecarexpert.co.uk/car-finance-volunta...
Although as stated by others, we would be trading in for another deal, not handing the car back, so I would imagine the dealer will ask for a bigger deposit or higher monthly charges for her next car. It will be interesting to see if it works out the same as paying the extra monthly amounts had she said 13,500 per year instead of 6,000.
I did say somewhere in the mix that she is trading it in for another car. I would not take back a car with that mileage if we were just handing it back.
The link to the info about not having to pay for higher mileage charges was quite interesting I thought although some here obviously disagree.
The link to the info about not having to pay for higher mileage charges was quite interesting I thought although some here obviously disagree.
I guess the whole point of this is to find out whether we would have been better off paying the extra monthly cost for 13,500 miles per year as apposed to paying the lower cost of 6000 miles and seeing what the salesman says this time.
I guess a lot will depend on how eager they are to sell us another car and Fiat has usually been pretty eager.
I guess a lot will depend on how eager they are to sell us another car and Fiat has usually been pretty eager.
Just thought I would update this thread...
Ok, we went back to Fiat today to look at our options and also went to Skoda and Seat to see what they would offer in comparison (all offers below are based on doing 10k miles per year).
Fiat 500 Collezione (£14,610) = £500 deposit from us + £216 a month
Fiat 500 Pop Star (£12,500) = £0 deposit from us + £198 a month
Skoda Citigo LE (£11,270) = £850 deposit from us + £180 a month
Seat Ibiza FR (£17,235) = £500 deposit from us + £265 a month
So Fiat seems like the best deal and also offer a teacher discount which the others didn't.
Fiat valued her car as being in negative equity by about -£1300 and the others by about -£1800
She pays £222 for her current Abarth and we didn't pay any deposit.
However, after having a think and deciding that all the cars were fairly mundane she says she might as well just keep the Abarth and pay the final balloon payment next year with a bank loan (slap head!!).
So in 4 years time, she will completely own her 7-year-old Arbath 595 Tourismo, with about 90k on the clock, hopefully, worth around £4K for a deposit on the next vehicle.
So basically I think we just had got reasonable deals from Fiat in the past and obviously didn't actually beat the system.
Ok, we went back to Fiat today to look at our options and also went to Skoda and Seat to see what they would offer in comparison (all offers below are based on doing 10k miles per year).
Fiat 500 Collezione (£14,610) = £500 deposit from us + £216 a month
Fiat 500 Pop Star (£12,500) = £0 deposit from us + £198 a month
Skoda Citigo LE (£11,270) = £850 deposit from us + £180 a month
Seat Ibiza FR (£17,235) = £500 deposit from us + £265 a month
So Fiat seems like the best deal and also offer a teacher discount which the others didn't.
Fiat valued her car as being in negative equity by about -£1300 and the others by about -£1800
She pays £222 for her current Abarth and we didn't pay any deposit.
However, after having a think and deciding that all the cars were fairly mundane she says she might as well just keep the Abarth and pay the final balloon payment next year with a bank loan (slap head!!).
So in 4 years time, she will completely own her 7-year-old Arbath 595 Tourismo, with about 90k on the clock, hopefully, worth around £4K for a deposit on the next vehicle.
So basically I think we just had got reasonable deals from Fiat in the past and obviously didn't actually beat the system.
Edited by Ubishere on Saturday 10th November 17:47
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