Car Finance Mileage Charge

Shieldsie40

I am currently in dispute with FCA car finance company.  Having given back my car once the credit agreement expired, over 1 year ago now.  The car was inspected and the company stated the car would more than likely to be sold at auction, not returned to car showroom standard. The company have since been in contact to ask me to pay £1,200 as I had exceed the mileage in the original finance agreement.  I requested a copy of the original fiance agreement document, as I never received my signed copy.  Their copy stated I had agreed to 5,000 miles a year.  This was on a separate page to my signature.  I would never have agreed to such a low mileage, as my car insurance is 10,000 a year.  I was also sold the car under the pretence that I could part ex the car after 2 years of the agreement.  When I tried to do this the car was in negative equity as a new model was brought out a month after I bought the car.  So I was left with the car longer that I was intended, and was one of the reasons I chose to buy the car.
Has anyone had any luck disputing a similar situation with mileage agreements?  Any advice would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks 

[Deleted User]

It sounds like you didn't carry out due diligence before going into a financial agreement, sorry.
There are several points which would have made you consider otherwise, if you had.

Mileage detail being on a separate page to your signature isn't unusual, finance documents are more than 1 page long, there would have been several points that wouldn't have been on it.

Your car insurance declaration of 10k a year isn't going to have a bearing on a finance document at all.

Depreciation of a vehicle is substantial in the first 2 years so part exchanging will be difficult.

These things are the very reason we need to do as much DD as possible, when it comes to parting with your hard earned money you've got to be going into the ins and outs in minute detail.


Someone's going to come along in a minute and say how very unhelpful i've been - that's subjective - what it will do is enlighten others that read this, over the next x number of years via 'searches', and give them some things to consider.  


Hell, you might even come and say "you're right, i didn't go into this as well as i could have, i need to bite the bullet and get on with it".
The point of answers is, that there will always be someone reading it that gets a lot of help from it.

foxy-stoat

Did you not keep a copy of the original finance agreement?  Its quite possible that you signed up to 5,000 miles a year without reading the document.

If this was a PCP then you were never going to be positive equity until right at the end but only if you stuck to the original mileage limit.

You may have to chalk this one down to experience and move on.

DrEskimo

Shieldsie40 said:

I am currently in dispute with FCA car finance company.  Having given back my car once the credit agreement expired, over 1 year ago now.  The car was inspected and the company stated the car would more than likely to be sold at auction, not returned to car showroom standard. The company have since been in contact to ask me to pay £1,200 as I had exceed the mileage in the original finance agreement.  I requested a copy of the original fiance agreement document, as I never received my signed copy.  Their copy stated I had agreed to 5,000 miles a year.  This was on a separate page to my signature.  I would never have agreed to such a low mileage, as my car insurance is 10,000 a year.  I was also sold the car under the pretence that I could part ex the car after 2 years of the agreement.  When I tried to do this the car was in negative equity as a new model was brought out a month after I bought the car.  So I was left with the car longer that I was intended, and was one of the reasons I chose to buy the car.
Has anyone had any luck disputing a similar situation with mileage agreements?  Any advice would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks 

As above, the fact your mileage on your insurance is different is not proof that the finance agreement mileage was wrong. If this is the original agreement then that is what you signed and agreed to.

I'm very confused though...you say you gave it back, but in bold you state you 'chose to buy the car'. Which was it?

You can't dispute an excess mileage charge. It's a black and white objective case. You signed up to an agreement for 5,000miles per year, and agreed that if you sent the car back to the finance company, you would liable for a charge of £X.XX/mile for every mile you are over the agreed limit.

superbigal

Yes of course if you had signed up to 10,000 miles per month your monthly payments would have  been higher as the "balloon value" when then be lower.  You are now paying back that difference.   £1,200 is very low if you are over by say 20,000 miles (5,000 over 4 years).

Also you could still have traded in after 2 years, negative equity or not. You chose not too.

macman

You cannot seriously suggest that you signed an agreement which made no reference at all to the annual mileage?

Dr_Crypto

There was a FOS case on this (look on their website). The customer claimed that she asked for a 10k annual milage but the dealer incorrectly put it through as something else (6k). Despite her having signed the document for 6k the FOS sided with her after having looked at all the evidence including her insurance declarations and trade-in mileages on her previous vehicle.