Handing PCP Car Back Early

Soldato
Joined
21 Jul 2008
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reading it, it seems far from sure that in a subsequent court cases Mercedes, and others, would just need to provide evidence of poorer condition resulting from the addtional miles ? engineer report on suspension components, or drive train ? ... so, I don't think I'd bet on a similar outcome .... do cars really wear additional miles invisibly .. that's what the charge was for, after all



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Potentially you are correct. Although I am not sure how qualified anyone would be to determine any such poorer condition is the result purely of excess mileage. Such components could arguably be in a worse state though the state of roads it was driven on, for example. Moreover, that judgement suggests that there was no link between mileage and condition of vehicle in the original agreement. As such, surely such a correlation should be made in the initial agreement, which in this case, is unlikely to be present. It may well be present in future contracts.

Regardless, what you suggest would require the finance company to do such engineer reporting on the car at the time it was returned. I suspect that the additional cost of this, which would need to be done to every vehicle returned, versus the likelihood of court action 12+ months down the line, would probably not be in the finance companies best interest. It's not like a report could asked for when it looks likely that court action is incoming, as that will likely be long after that vehicle was been sold on.

Regardless, personally I wouldn't use VT to get out of excess mileage unless you are happy to take the finance company to court, and you don't mind the potential negative effect on your credit rating until that court case is all sewn up.
 
Joined
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What the finance companies need is a really clear case.
They need someone who took out a 5k pa PCP for 3 years, and returned it with something like 120k. At that point lots of items would be significantly different to expectations on a 3 year old 15k car.
Seats, especially drivers likely to show heavy wear, lots of things will be noticeably worn, assuming they havent been replaced, suspension, brakes, steering etc

If they can prove the principle then it stands in future, they just need the perfect case to come in.

To me it just goes to ethics personally. The sort of person who would do this, well I wouldn't trust them personally. Its borderline fraud
 
Soldato
Joined
22 Oct 2002
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Near Cheltenham
I mean, you sign the paperwork with an agreed mileage limit.. 45k in 3 years on a 9k PA agreement is just silly.

As long as the 50% value applies to the car as handed back (including wear/tear/mileage) then I think it's OK to expect them to not be able to enforce that, however if thats not the case, then of course you'd expect a finance company to protect their own interests.

But having seen how terrible most PCP agreements are, I don't have too much sympathy for finance companies..
 
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