Car Finance - Ford Main Dealer - Daughters mistake always read the paperwork, never trust a salesman

OldandBold

so, my daughter single and in her 20`s returns to the UK after working in the US as a nanny. Moves 400 miles away from home, up North ..... purchases a Ford Fiesta on PCP ( over 24 MONTHS, with option to return at anytime)  finance from a Ford Main Dealer and starts a new Nanny job in Manchester. All is good for 6 months but the 2 door vehicle is not ideal looking after 2 baby twins....
So back to the dealer to see if she can get a 4 door .... seems simple enough.
I of course have no reason to doubt her but this is how the car "upgrade" panned out..
Salesman - I can put you in a 4 door, same year, same model, same spec for £158.00 per month thats just £8 more a month, everything else will be the same "
Daughter - Great and its still PCP as im off to a new job in Australia early 2021 ?
Salesman - yes everything is the same.
A few days past, she went to the dealership collected the car, signed the paperwork without checking, and carried on as normal.
Covid then arrived so she moved home to London with the car of course. Its MOT was due last week so i looked at all her paperwork. 
It now appears that in the few days of them offering her the "deal" they were unable to approve her finance on PCP again over 24 months as before, they didn't tell her, she signed the paperwork on collecting the new car, the "new" agreement is standard HP over 60 moths, no PCP, no chance of returning the vehicle early, and a whole different ball game  

I have contacted the dealer, they wont talk to me because of Data Protection, even though my daughter has given her permission to discuss it with me. 
I know what many will say on here, shes signed for it and thats it, but i personally feel guilty as at the time I worked for a FORD MAIN DEALER in Essex, and told her she can Trust them, which incidentally is part of their trading name. 

any comments please people go easy on me

Grumpy_chap

If you worked for a Ford Main Dealer, were you not able to get your daughter a better deal than whatever she could get from a different dealer, walking in off the street as a regular customer?

molerat

She has exactly the same vehicle return options with both forms of finance, PCP is HP but structured differently.  Neither have the option of "returning the car at any time", well they do but only after payments have reached or been made up to half the total amount. When changing cars the dealer would have bought the car, paid off the finance and lumped any equity, negative or positive, into the new deal. She did not "hand the car back early"  The situation would have been exactly the same whichever type of finance she took.

neilmcl

So she doesn't get approved for PCP yet gets approved for HP from presumably Ford Finance. That doesn't make any sense given that both HP and PCP are effectively the same type of finance arrangement other than the fact PCP allows for an optional final payment.

I don't mean to sound rude but your daughter is going to have to put on her big girl pants and confront the dealer as to why the agreement is different and why she wasn't expressly informed. She also needs to start taking some responsibility and start reading important contract information she's being asked to agree to.

NottinghamKnight

What PCP deal offers a return at any time?

marlot

>> im off to a new job in Australia early 2021
You don't say when she did the deal, but she may have been better hiring a car.
But I don't see that the PCP vs HP would make that much difference - they're both just loans and she can sell the car whenever she wants (but will likely be in negative equity).

macman

As above: what was the date of purchase for the latter deal? It must have been in 'early 2019 if she thought she was signing a 24m PCP that would end before she left for Oz in early '21? But she can't have known that schedule 2 years prior?
Did she somehow think that the original PCP term (24m, 6m in, so 18m remaining) would continue to run on when she changed cars? That isn't how it works.
As pointed out above, there is no 'return at any time option' on a PCP.

NBLondon

Moved from a 24 month deal to a 60 month deal - wouldn't that have brought the monthly payments down quite a bit?  Surely more than the £8 increase for a 5 door in the same spec as the previous 3 door.   Did she not notice that?  Or if  it is more because of the different deal then the salesperson was clearly mis selling.  

Why is a nanny transporting her employer's children in her own car?  Is she providing car seats as well?  Shouldn't the employer be allowing nanny to use their car and adding her to insurance?

AdrianC

NBLondon said:

Moved from a 24 month deal to a 60 month deal - wouldn't that have brought the monthly payments down quite a bit?  Surely more than the £8 increase for a 5 door in the same spec as the previous 3 door.

It's a different thing, though.

24mo PCP = pay for 2yr depreciation, don't pay for residual value in car.
60mo HP = pay for entire price of car.

So the difference between the two is that years 3-5 of the HP are effectively paying off the balloon of the PCP. That would suggest the 2yr balloon is roughly 60% of new price, which is the right kind of ball park.

sheramber

Is she insured for business use if she is transporting her employers children?

NBLondon

AdrianC said:

NBLondon said:

Moved from a 24 month deal to a 60 month deal - wouldn't that have brought the monthly payments down quite a bit?  Surely more than the £8 increase for a 5 door in the same spec as the previous 3 door.

It's a different thing, though.

Yes, I know they are different...

AdrianC said:

24mo PCP = pay for 2yr depreciation, don't pay for residual value in car.
60mo HP = pay for entire price of car.

So the difference between the two is that years 3-5 of the HP are effectively paying off the balloon of the PCP. That would suggest the 2yr balloon is roughly 60% of new price, which is the right kind of ball park.

That makes it look like salesperson did a quote for the desired 5 door version to get to the price - then when the deal wasn't approved; looked for a different deal to hit the same monthly payment but without consulting the customer.  Which is decidedly dodgy but if the customer signed without checking the end date or noticing the changes in the agreement - it might come down to her word against the salesperson as to whether it was discussed.