Lease Car - URGENT ADVICE NEEDED -

RICK..._2

Hi, i'll try explain this as clear as possible.

Basically my partner has a lease car through a scheme at her work place..

At the weekend we went out shopping, put fuel in, then as we were heading home we heard a loud scraping noise, as it wasn't safe to pull over we travelled about a mile down the road then heard a MASSIVE bang, pulled straight over and noticed the front left wheel arch lining had some how wrapped itself around the wheel. it'd also ripped all the under plastic out and the bottom of the bumper grille is cracked.

Now this is hard to believe i know, i've never heard of anything like this happening so was quite shocked.

We managed to pull the arch lining out and shove it in the boot, then proceeded to head home.. Now it was raining REALLY heavy that day, so got the car back as quickly as possible as most of the electricals etc were on full view in the wheel arch.. Left the car over night and went to have a look the next morning. Popped the bonnet and there was water allover the right side of the engine bay (where the lining had come away) and my first thought was to check the air filter make sure it hadn't sucked in water.. and yep it had, was quite damp and water in the pipes, then took the oil filler cap and yep, covered in white gunk.

Now we took it to ford, they did NOT believe us for a minute, asked what we'd crashed into etc, made us look like idiots tbh.

the woman said the arch lining is classed as trim and is only covered under warranty for 1 year. the car is coming up to 2 years old (57 reg).. but said they'd have a look at it anyway.

still waiting to hear back from them, so just after advice on what to do because i can see her bringing up the 1 year warranty issue and trying to charge us for this...

Now if we'd of caused it i'd expect to pay it obviously, but the damn thing has fallen off and the car is less than 2 years old.

Surely they should sort it out as this shouldnt happen, but if they say they won't where do we stand, are we going to have to result to claiming on the insurance? means we'll lose 2ncb (almost 3) if ford wont sort it i can't see the lease company paying for it to be fixed either.

plus we are without a car now, still paying for it and no courtesy car because neither will give us one.

sorry for the long post.

Hintza

I have the same problem. Although not completely of it has been rubbing on the tyre and I expect I will have to replace it before the lease expires.

I can only assume that at some stage something has caught on it and pulled it off two of the plastic rivets. I have thought long and hard about it and just don't see how I can blame anyone else.

I suspect you will be in the same boat.

RICK..._2

I don't think the lease company or Ford are to blame, but you don't expect something to just fall off a car, especially one thats less than 2 years old and has done about 18 thousand miles.

Would it be out of order for us to push and try get them to repair it for free with the car being so new?

At the end of the day we pay alot of money for it a month, main reason for getting a lease car was so that we had something reliable, we just cannot afford to pay to have it fixed, so would have no choice but to go through insurance. which will bump our insurance payments by about £50 a month.

Hintza

Well the question is apart from a bit of a service/clean up is there any damage to the engine? If not surely all you need is the lining? What are they saying repairs will be?

RICK..._2

Not heard back from them yet as they said it'd be a few days before they look at it. car went in yesterday morning, just want to be prepared for when they do call.

I have a feeling both sides of the lining are all one piece or at least joined/clipped together some how, as the plastic seems to carry on under the bumper and over to the otherside - as all the plastic underneath is missing. but other than that just the bumper splitter which is also cracked as it's joined there aswell.

Saying that splitter/bumper looks once piece, so may need a replacement bumper...

engine will be fine, just needs flushing out and fresh oil putting in.

Hintza

So you are in the same boat as me a new lining. I don't know how much they cost but would expect them not to be too cheap (i'm mentally budgeting £100). I don't see how you can show it was or was not caused by a manufacturing defect.

RICK..._2

Yeah I can't seem them being cheap either, plus you have labour etc.. then i've got the issue with the bumper as i don't think it can be repaired as it is.

I know what you mean, i think it's going to be a case of seeing if they'll do it out of goodwill... probably not though given the current climate etc.

I'll just wait and see what they say, then post up. Going to call them tomorrow i think.

Preparing myself for the worst though!

jeannieblue

It may be worth having a chat with Ford Customer services directly - I've always found them to be extremely pleasant and helpful. And they do not tend to be biased to the dealer etc. (which is good)

I can't hurt anyway!

RICK..._2

Yeah, I already have their number so think I will do once I hear from the garage.

Phoned them earlier and they're meant to be looking at the car today so will find out tomorrow I guess....

RICK..._2

Heard from them this morning, instead of them doing what we asked them to do they've decided to do a FULL healthcheck on the whole car.

Now apparently there's things on there like missing wheel nut caps, which i'm told under NO circumstances fall off... so when we went to kwik fit for two new tyres, driving home and about 4 or 5 fell off, i imagined that did i?

Waiting for the full report to be emailed to me, apparently the list is LONG.

Tempted to get legal advice now, as they're blatently just trying to milk it for all it's worth.

RICK..._2

I need urgent advice regarding this now please, doesn't matter if you're not massively clued up on it, but just what you would do if you were in this position

They are now saying we have crashed it into a kerb or something when we have done nothing of the sort.

Ford won't release the car, apparently the lease company has told them not to let us have it, but they're shut now so can't confirm whether this is true or not.

REALLY peeved off with this, trying to screw us over.