Car unusable - still have finance

[Hoots198]

I brought a 2nd hand car last March for £6000 on finance. I paid over £780 to pass it through the mot 10.5 months later. 2 days after that the engine blew up. It will now cost £3600 for a new one. The garage won’t respond to me neither will the finance company. I can’t afford to fix it and would’ve expected it to last more than 10.5 months. I did 17k miles and had oil and filter changed after 9k miles. I also have no car. What shall I do now? Shall I just cancel the direct debit and let them take me to court? The car would only be worth about £4600 if I fixed it by putting a new engine in it. I still owe £5300 in finance if I settled now ( i’m not in a position to do this) and have 4 years left of monthly payment so will be £8k by the time I finish paying for it. I had 6 months warranty on it when I brought it.

[R0b]

Hello

Tricky situation here, especially for second hand cars on finance.

I would not suggest you simply cancel the direct debit as it will put you in a lot more financial trouble in terms of getting other credit. The starting point is that you are responsible for ensuring the car is in a roadworthy condition and the presumption is if something is wrong then it is your job to fix it. However, you are generally not liable for damage occurring such as reasonable wear and tear - whether that extends to a car engine is something I think still needs to be tested in court.

So my first question is, have you been given the reason why the car engine stopped working? A good majority of the time normally comes down to user error either by failing to take remedial action when advised to do so or not doing something reasonably expected of you such as annual services, regular oil top ups etc.