Handing back long term rental car early

sabelt_2

HI Folks

To put you in the picture i was made redundant 2 days before christmas last year and my ex employer used to paid my car expenses of £650 per month.

As they did not supply a car i had to get one. My Employeer prior to them had given me a company one so i didnt have my own. As my then new employeer wanted me to start asap, i had to get a car pronto.

I opted (wish i hadnt) for a long term rental which is £450 per month. Obvioulsy i lost my job so enquired about handing it back but they want a settlement figure of over £2k and for me to buy it over £13k.

I have 3 or 4 mohts of £450 and i just want to say to them look take it back call it quits as £450 to find each month is a lot on top of everythiong else when you have no job

any advice appreciated

Hintza

Well they are hardly going to call it quits as that will be costing them a lot of money.

I presume you mean it is on a lease? You haven't given any indication of what term you have signed up to? What does your agreement with them say about early termination?

To clarify they are willing to accept £2k to take the car off your hands and terminate the agreement? In other words 4 months of payments? To be honest that looks quite a good deal as I imagine (assuming it is a big car) it will cost them a lot more than that.

These companies are going to play hard ball in cases like this as imagine their financial future will be very much in jeopardy over the coming months.

sabelt_2

Its classed as a long term rental (12mths from july 08)

Its through my local Peugeot delearer and Peugeot Finance so its not like they need the money.

Oh and its a 207 gti

They are not offering me any assitance at all. My work collegue had a l3 yr lease with vauxhall and they allowed him to stop his payments for a few months.

Hintza

Sounds like you will be better just running the contract to the end you only have 4 months to run.

The other thing to remember is to stay within any mileage restrictions and make sure the car is immaculate when it is returned otherwise they will be charging you more.

You say they don't need the money but that is rather irrelevant you signed a contract and it really is your problem. The other point to note is that some of these companies might not survive. I'm not sure of the state of Peugot's finances but the chances of Vauxhall being around in 12 months time in it's current form are looking more remote by the day. GM will probably be cutting loose a few if not all of it's marques in the near future, they are in dreadful trouble.

This will sound a bit like nagging which I'm sure you don't need just now. But here goes anyway. Why are you paying £450/month on a £17k car? For that sort of money I would expect the car to have a new value of way over £30k. (sorry)

sabelt_2

Like i said the car is from Peugeot , and £450 a month is what Peugeot Finance charge for that car over 12mths. If it was a longer contract it would be less.

Regardless of their financial position, its a damn sight better than mine

Hintza

http://www.forbes.com/2009/03/30/psa-streiff-ousted-markets-equity-restructure.html

Perhaps not.

sabelt_2

I thought this forum was designed to help people not "big up" corporates

Although a Peugeot fan since i was 8 i dont really care about their bosses losing their jobs or the state of their purse

Hintza

We will have to wait and see what anyone else can suggest. But I don't think you are going to hear what you want to hear. You are not on a PCP or any other deal that will allow you to return the car after half the payments have been made.

LandyAndy

sabelt wrote: »

I thought this forum was designed to help people not "big up" corporates

Although a Peugeot fan since i was 8 i dont really care about their bosses losing their jobs or the state of their purse

It's designed to offer advice.

The advice here appears to be 'You signed a contract and are being held to it'.

Sounds reasonable to me.

goldspanners

why dont you just call the dealer up and ask him nicely,he may take pitty on you,and seen as his company dont need the money anyway im sure they will be happy to take the car back,infact they might even give you some of your money back aswell.:rolleyes:

AdrianHi

This forum is intended to give helpful advice, but people are also going to tell it like it is. After all we would be doing you a dis-service if we said, oh yeah go to court, do this, do that , you'll get your money back no problems, having you waste your time and possibly even more money chasing solutions which are anything but.

However if you get to hear what we consider to be the best (amatuer non-legal) advice, however much it is not what you want to hear, you can at least make a plan quickly based on reality.

The reality is you signed a 12 month contract for this car, if the contract does not allow for any early termination (worth reading it again to check) you will have to pay to the end of the contract period or most likely end up with a bad credit record if you default on the payments. That's the situation you have to manage now, the faster you plan around this the better it is for you.
A 12 month contract for any car is not particularily great as you take the intial depreciation hit and then part company with the car just as it is getting better value to run. On the plus side at least you are able to get out of it in July which is rather fortunate considering your circumstances.

I am very sorry to here you were made redundant, I wish you well looking for a new job.
There is a lot of help to be had on MSE, one way and another I've been inspired to do something about some of my expenses or received direct hints and tips in other areas and I recon I save £500-£600 a month as a result compared to if I had done nothing - as a result of being on MSE. About £450 a month alone by rearaanging my mortgage to a flexible offset 3 weeks before the interest rates went up, something I kept meaning to do, but actually did after reading about others on MSE already on this type of mortgage. If I had left in much later it would have cost me hundreds extra per month by now.
This place is a gold mine:money: