Help needed please re: Broken mobility car. no-one accepting liability.

notlongnow_2

Hi, this is being asked for a friend of mine who is in a bit of a predicament at the moment.

11months ago her 90yr old gran got a car via mobility as my friend is her carer and really does do everything for her including taking her to her many doctors appointments and shopping etc.

About a month ago the car just died! turns out there was an 'open case' on the car and Vauxhall agreed to collect the car, fix the fault and return. They fixed the car but this was not the reason for the engine failure and so the car is still a nonrunner.

They got a 3 month warranty when purchasing the car from a Vauxhall dealership.

The car is nearly three years old.

They have been told that the car part needed will cost over £400, only available from Vauxhall( this has been confirmed by an independent garage also) not only that but it will cost £170 just for Vauxhall to look at the car to make sure their suspicions as what the fault are correct, so this £170 will need paying wether or not that is the suspected fault.

My friends dilema is...is it her responsability to be paying all this money for repair of the car? Mobility are saying it is Vauxhalls responsability and Vauxhall are saying its Mobilities responsability., so she doesnt know which way to turn.

Meanwhile, in the middle of all this is a 90 yr old lady who is now housebound and struggling to keep the normality to her life.

My friend doesnt know what to do, she doesnt have the money to get it fixed and doesnt want to pay for it it is not her responsability.

Any help would be appreciated. thankyou.

Peelerfart

The car should be under warranty as it's less then 3 years old.

There is no question of her having to pay for fault to be rectified.

intranicity

Think this would be better on the disability section, but i'll try and help anyhow.

1, from what you say, the car was about 2 years old when purchased, so I presume that she got the car using Motability's HP scheme

2. If that is the case, all motability have done is give your Gran an advance/loan on her DLA and they wouldn't be responsible.

3. The only people you can go back to is Vauxhall/dealer that supplied it, but seeing as you only had a 3 month warranty and that expired 8 months ago, I doubt they'll be any help

Basically, the car needs repairing and your Gran and her helper are responsible for the costs, you might get some goodwill help from the dealer but thats it I think

notlongnow_2

ahhh my mistake, just asked her and the car is nearly four years old, not three.

intranicity

Peelerfart wrote: »

The car should be under warranty as it's less then 3 years old.

There is no question of her having to pay for fault to be rectified.

I highly doubt it to be honest, Vauxhall had a 1 year warranty I believe, this has changed now to lifetime (Same owner, 100000 miles) but wasn't then and wasn't on Second hand cars

notlongnow_2

thanks intranicity...there is no thanks button on your post that i can see otherwise I would 'thank' you.

That does seem like the agreement they had. she says there is a finance agreement that is paid every month via mobility. the car is not paid for outright.

intranicity

notlongnow wrote: »

thanks intranicity...there is no thanks button on your post that i can see otherwise I would 'thank' you.

That does seem like the agreement they had. she says there is a finance agreement that is paid every month via mobility. the car is not paid for outright.

not sure why there's no thanks button, but just here to try and help

Sadly all I think you can do is try and negotiate with the dealer, the fact that your Gran is disabled etc MIGHT tug on their heart strings and help you out with the costs, you can only ask, you can't be worse off by trying. Good luck

notlongnow_2

'thanks' button has appeared :-)

intranicity

Had an idea, not sure if it would apply though, you'd need further guidance though as I'm not sure if the car would have to be servicable or even if this applies, but

You can terminate an HP agreement and return the goods at any time by writing to the lender, as long as you bring your total payments up to half of the total amount payable under the agreement (the exact amount will be stated in a box on the front of your contract). But you will also have to pay off any credit you took out to pay for insurance. If you have already paid half, you only have to pay for any missed payments or damage to the goods. But if you have already paid more than this amount, you will not get a refund of the difference. You should not be charged to return the goods. If under the terms of your contract you must take the goods back, this should only be to premises within a reasonable distance of your home.

Not sure if this is an option, but if she is 1/2 way through her payments it might be an option to consider

PNPSUKNET

email vauxhall direct, although if its wear and tear they wont help.

jonesMUFCforever

IMO Motobility are liable if car was taken from new and DLA is payable to finance company direct.
If OP took out loan (using DLA to repay) then OP is liable as car is out of warranty both from Vauxhall and dealer.