Voluntary termination

[Korkyfoss]

Hi,

I have a predicament with VAUXHALL vehicle on a PCP. The vehicle is a 1.2 Grandland turbo, and this August is it's 3rd year in contract. On the last service, I was advised that the wet belt (Cambelt) needed replacing due to wear and tear. The vehicle has reached 43,000 miles, well below the manufacturers claim of 100 000 miles or 6 years, under any driving conditions. Although we have gone over the annual service mileage the vehicle is below it's annual mileage. Bristol Street Motors are telling me that the warranty is void and I have to cover the replacement at a cost of £1200. I have tried explain that I should not have to foot the cost of a component that's has fallen short of it's expected life and that this is known issue with this engine. I have so far called them 5 times and they refuse to return my calls and our vehicle has been stranded on our driveway for the last two months. We are still paying not only for the vehicle, but also tax and insurance. I wrote to the Vauxhall finance department to explain that I wanted the car fixed at no cost to us and in a reasonable time under the consumer rights Act 2015. They have refused any responsibility. I now feel my only option is to submit a voluntary termination of the contract and let them collect the vehicle. I am naturally nervous about submitting this but feel I have no other option. Do you agree that I have the right to walk away from this contract.
Regards, Steve Corcoran

[R0b]

Hi,

You are free to exercise your voluntary termination right but in handing the car over, you have to hand it back in a reasonable condition, otherwise you are responsible for any additional costs to bring it back to that standard. On the face of it and as a general starting point, a non-running or unroadworthy car is unlikely to meet the reasonable condition threshold but every facts are different and it would be up to you to prove that the car was returned back to them in a reasonable condition.

Warranty terms are in addition to your consumer rights, so my first question is, who is giving the warranty, the manufacturer (with Bristol Street Motors acting on behalf of the manufacturer) or Bristol Street Motors own warranty? Again, as a general starting point, if you haven't complied with the warranty terms then you don't have much of a leg to stand on unless you can explain that it was impossible for you to get the car serviced on time and if it wasn't for that impossible situation, you would have got the car serviced.

If the cambelt needs replacing due to wear and tear at such low mileage when the manufacturers claim that it should be good for 100k miles, the key question I would ask is why does it need replacing. I'm assuming there could be a number of factors that could influence the reason why it might need replacing, such as previous owners have thrashed the car around, not serviced the car annually as required or some other reasons. Of course, if the car was purchased from new then it's possible they may argue that you contributed to the wear and tear of the cambelt.

My immediate thoughts would be to get an independent inspection carried out on the causes of the cambelt and why it already needs replacing just under 60k miles than stated by the manufacturer and whether the fact that you failed to get the car serviced on time have any material impact on the cambelt's wear and tear (I would think not if we are talking a few hundred or maybe event a few thousand miles).

You can then use that report to go back to both Vauxhall Finance (in relation to your PCP and consumer rights) and Vauxhall/Bristol Street Motors (as to the warranty terms) and try to leverage them to repair the car on that basis. Failing that you may need to start legal proceedings against them for breach of contract/warranty terms but going to court can be risky as you are never guaranteed to win. Sometimes businesses will concede on the basis that it's not commercially viable to defend the claim whereas others will take a hard line and defend all the way whatever the cost so as to not to set any precedent.

I'm no car expert so I'm tagging des8 for any additional comment.