BMW Recall & Subsequent Hire Care Disaster

pauloluisimo

Hi all - thanks for reading!

1) I have a pcp arrangement with BMW that costs me c.380 pcm
2) I go in for service /MOT (costs me £650)
3) Turns out they have a product recall in place
4) This subsequently takes 3 weeks
5) I now have to use a hire car they have provided via enterprise, which is a Vauxhall Mokka, about £150 pcm worth of car
6) i finally get to pick up BMW
7) leave hire car OUTSIDE OF garage on the street, purely because the is no room WITHIN BMW due to the high amount of hire cars
8) Customer adviser says it will be fine on the st
9) Next day i get an email from Enterprise saying the is 'FRESH' aka brand new paint damage to the side of the car - which will subsequently cost me upwards of £250 (yet TBC)

the question i have is, do i have any kind of leverage here? I get that legally i am ultimately liable, but none of this is *really* my fault. I have been paying a premium, for a premium product - and have zero compensation, zero 'courtesy', essentially nothing from BMW or Sytner (no solely lay the blame at BMW's door).

Does anyone have any kind of experience with this? I would like to point out that i hold BMW /Sytner as liable for the damage - as there was no space in their garage to leave the car and I had picked up my BMW.

Any thoughts appreciated!

neilmcl

Have you spoken to Sytner (Nottingham?) about this and what did they say?

If it was Nottingham I know how busy it is there, was there a week ago, but there was still places you could dump the hire car on site even if all the customer parking was taken up.

Your argument should be that although it was an Enterprise hire car, it was arranged by BMW and therefore your responsibility ends when you hand the car back to BMW, if it gets damaged in the meantime that's not your problem.

jimbo6977

service /MOT (costs me £650

Is that for real? Wow, I though £350 was a lot for a dealer service on my 1st new car recently.

Who is Enterprise's customer in this?

pauloluisimo

hi there - it's actually Harold Wood.

Thanks for the argument thoughts, i agree - but i think legally it's probably different, and i had to sign for the hire car. It's down to them providing some goodwill really i suppose? Or is there something more at play within the 'spirit' of the agreement perhaps....

There was genuinely nowhere to park it, and the adviser above said it would be fine - it's stupid that i took that risk but at the time, as you point out, i assumed it was all their responsibility once i had picked it up.

pauloluisimo

Yes exactly, i think legally i am probably their customer- i'm the one that said i didn't want to pay the insurance etc. It felt weird that i had to go through that as i assumed i am Sytner's customer, no one else's.

debtdebt

Did you get someone to check the car over when you dropped it off?

pauloluisimo

no - that wouldn't have achieved anything as i dropped it off with Sytner and the damage was brand new this morning - so it definitely happened in the interim

photome

pauloluisimo wrote: »

no - that wouldn't have achieved anything as i dropped it off with Sytner and the damage was brand new this morning - so it definitely happened in the interim

the damage happened after you dropped the car off?


if thats the case why wouldnt it have achieved anything, it was in their care after you dropped it off


or am I reading it wrong

lopsyfa

pauloluisimo wrote: »

no - that wouldn't have achieved anything as i dropped it off with Sytner and the damage was brand new this morning - so it definitely happened in the interim

Yes it will because it will show when you dropped the car there was no damage. Liability will then lie with whoever took charge of the car from you.

Herzlos

If you don't get the car signed off as good when you return it, you're on the hook for any damage between dropping it off and it gets inspected next. Can you prove the damage happened after it had left your possession?

Aylesbury_Duck

£650 for a service and MOT? Wow.

Anyway, on to the main point: I think you're looking at a goodwill gesture from the dealer as your only route here. You decided to leave the hire car outside the dealer's premises and the stuff about the adviser saying it would be alright is ultimately irrelevant because the car is your responsibility until formally handed over to Enterprise. You also chose not to have it inspected in person so you have no way of proving the damage was caused after you dropped it off, but even then, it was still in your care. You also chose not to take out excess waiver insurance.

Sorry it's not what you want to hear, but those seem to be the facts. Coming back to the service price (it's perhaps relevant after all!), a free interim service would probably cover the hire car damage costs, so perhaps see if you can negotiate that from the dealer.