car rental companies advice

lle

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Has anyone experience of long term (3 month) car rental in UK, which they can recommend?


My husband has a car through a company lease arrangement, which finishes on 30th July, so the car has to be returned on that date. We ordered a new vehicle from a local main dealer and was told it would be ready for 31st July. However when the car in this country, it turned out to be the wrong spec (3 doors not 5), otherwise. The dealer said the factory in Germany must have coded it wrongly. There will now be a 12 - 14 week delay in getting the car we have ordered and paid a substantial deposit on, so will be without a vehicle for approaching 3 months.


Should we expect the dealer to do something to help us out?

AdrianC

12-14 weeks from when? From the order going in correctly (ie now)? If so, that's less than two months from the end of July.

Yes, I'd be leaning on the dealer to help out here. Whatever they may tell you, the factory aren't the ones who mis-interpreted the order coding... I wouldn't expect them to get me into a car for two months free of charge, though. A reasonable target would probably see you contributing the equivalent of a fairly typical monthly lease cost for a similar vehicle. That's likely to be cheaper than rental, though it's worth investigating. Make sure you understand any Ts & Cs - see https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5281277

lle

Oh yes, hadn't quite done my sums right. It would be 14 weeks (hopefully 12) from today, we'll be 3 weeks in to that period when the current car is taken back, so nearer 2 to 2.5 months.


All the dealer has done is now offered a five door, with same spec as original except different (slightly smaller but less fuel efficient) engine, for a slight reduction in price. When we couldn't find this in the current brochure, they admitted it was actually the old spec (2014), so it would have been sitting around in a field somewhere for some time. So we're not accepting that.

lle

AdrianC wrote: »

Make sure you understand any Ts & Cs - see https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5281277

I just saw that thread before I posted!
That's what made me worried, that we might get similar problems for long term rental. I've only had short term rentals in the past (less than two weeks) and fortunately had no problems.

Lionel1987

Hi,

I would probably agree with Adrian on this one, can't see it being a factory error, more a dealer error. The new offer isn't up to standard and a 3 door car being delivered rather than a 5 door is actually an incorrect model, not even spec.

Going back to the dealer with your predicament and leaning on them to come up with some sort of compromise for you is best place to start. Yes, 2 months courtesy car for free is probably a step too far but an offer of something suitable that you could make a payment towards in the meantime as a goodwill gesture would be best case for everyone.

I understand you probably signed an order form for the 5 door, have a good read through the T's and C's on cancelling due to vehicle supplied not as advertised etc. More for back-up if anything else.

In all honesty, this should be something the dealer should be looking to resolve for you after they, or their supplying manufacturer made an error. You offering to make a contribution as good will should only help smooth it over for them and save you both some money too.