end of 3yr purchase agreement, advice needed

katiekaty84

Hope you can help. I took a car with santander finance 3 yrs ago and agreed on mileage of 6 thousand miles a year. I was keen to keep my monthly costs low and was unrealistic as to how much I would use the car.
At the end of the three years i am 5000 miles over, at 14p a mile, which would be £700 to pay.
I wrote to Santander to say I was handing the car back.
A company based in Portadown rang 2 weeks ago asking if they could come the next day to collect the vehicle? I said no, as I have paid for the entire month. They said they were busy at the end of the month and needed to make arrangements now. We have left it that they will ring me next week.
They also said on the phone they will inspect for damage and I can pay them by debit/credit card at my address for any excess mileage / damage to the vehicle.
Obviously I need to pay the money, I don't argue that, but then I have spoken to colleagues who have said with certain cars/companies no mention was made of the excess. Others advise that I therefore owe the money to Santander and not to whoever this is picking up the car.
The vehicle has a scratch on the offside wingmirror, with the paint scratched off in approx 4 scrapes, less than a cm wide and 3 cms in length. Does this come under normal wear and tear or not?
Any assistance would be much appreciated as Santander have been unable to answer my questions on the phone and are telling me to sort it out on the day this company comes to collect the vehicle. I'm trying to prepare in advance so it isn't a stressful and expensive day! Any help would be great. Thanks:o

CKhalvashi

What is the car make/model/engine/spec?

What is the fee to purchase the car?

I've always found it cheaper, to 'buy' the car, then immediately part exchange. I'm on 18 months/100000 miles on my current car, but I know what I've just mentioned generally works for lower-mileage, too.

CK

GermanShepherdLover

I had a lease car several years ago and when the car was picked up they went over it with a fine tooth comb so I expect they may try and charge you for repair to the mirror because at the end of the day they are only interested in making sure that they can sell the car on as quickly and as easily as possible. On the other hand, depending upon how bad the scratches are you may be able to TCut them out.

It is possible that the repair cost may not be too bad. Some scrote had keyed 3 panels on one side of my car a week before the car was returned so I didn't have a chnace to get it fixed, but I was pleasantly surprised when i was only charged £150 for the repair by the lease company.

katiekaty84

thanks ckhalvashi... i think you're right. Its a Kia Picanto. The buy out price would have been £2,750 but webuyanycar.com would have given me £2,650 for the car so i would have been at a loss of £100 as opposed to a massive loss for my extra mileage costs. BUT I think Santander has passed the vehicle on already to this other company so i may be well too late to work backwords here. I'm gonna ring and check in the morning and see.
I was getting worried about it until I thought, well I did the mileage. It's not like it magically appeared on my wee car so I may as well suck it up. Thanks for your post.

Germanshephardlover, I suppose if they charge me £50 given the scrapes that wouldn't be the worst, I just hope my assessor is as decent as your assessor. Wear and tear that I have googled generally mentioned paint damage. on checking it today it's more like scuff damage to the paint. I'll head to halfords and see if they can give me anything that might work?
Thanks to you both:)

jaymidlands

and also take loads of pics of the whole car with a ruler over any minor marks

katiekaty84

thanks jay

CKhalvashi

katiekaty84 wrote: »

thanks ckhalvashi... i think you're right. Its a Kia Picanto. The buy out price would have been £2,750 but webuyanycar.com would have given me £2,650 for the car so i would have been at a loss of £100 as opposed to a massive loss for my extra mileage costs. BUT I think Santander has passed the vehicle on already to this other company so i may be well too late to work backwords here. I'm gonna ring and check in the morning and see.
I was getting worried about it until I thought, well I did the mileage. It's not like it magically appeared on my wee car so I may as well suck it up. Thanks for your post.

Germanshephardlover, I suppose if they charge me £50 given the scrapes that wouldn't be the worst, I just hope my assessor is as decent as your assessor. Wear and tear that I have googled generally mentioned paint damage. on checking it today it's more like scuff damage to the paint. I'll head to halfords and see if they can give me anything that might work?
Thanks to you both:)

If you don't ask, you don't get.

See what the local Kia dealer would pay you, too, before deciding. I would also suggest, although it's a little hassle, that selling privately may be a good idea, and that there could be £1000 in it, including a quick sale (especially if your car has a better spec than this or same as this)

CK

Hintza

It is normally £200(ish) per panel.