Car finance nightmare

esj13

Firstly, this is not regarding me personally.
A friend of mine who is too laid back for his own good, had a used vehicle on finance in early 2017, after 6 months it suffered engine failure as a result of poor service history. He was left paying the finance on it for some time, and is still owed some back.
He also paid money to the garage that took the car from him, for which he has not been recompensed.
He had his private registration assigned to the car, which he communicated with them he was to get back, but was told to hold off as changing the reg could complicate matters.

Eventually when it was all closed, he was left out of pocket and minus his plates. When contacting them he said the car had been sold and the plates went with it and there was nothing that they could do to get them back and wouldn’t give him details of the purchaser under GDPR.
Basically was told tough and that was it.

I personally feel this is so poor and a massive injustice. I have advised him to at least contact a no win no fee claims company to deal with it, they’ll advise if its worth pursuing, even if they take a cut, he’ll be better off than he is now and if its a no go then he knows, but to not even bother trying?

Has anyone else ever experienced something like this?

pinkshoes

esj13 said:

Eventually when it was all closed, he was left out of pocket and minus his plates. When contacting them he said the car had been sold and the plates went with it and there was nothing that they could do to get them back and wouldn’t give him details of the purchaser under GDPR.
Basically was told tough and that was it.

So basically, the engine failed, so he gave it back to the garage he bought it from (?) and they sold it on, gave him the money they got for it (which did not cover the loan) and the bit being quibbled over is the return of the private plate?

There is a LOT missing from this post...

Did he get anything in writing about the plates belonging to the car and not to be sold?

Was the engine failure your friend's fault or the garage he bought it from? Did it go back to the garage he bought it from? If the engine failure was not his fault, did he reject it under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and get an independent report to show he was not at fault?

What were the private plates worth? What was the car worth (with failed engine)? How much did the garage give him?

JamoLew

Let him sort his own mess out and don't have anything to do with it.

If he wants help, he can register here and post all the information/details and answer the questions himself

If he transferred the V5 back to the garage with the plate on - basically tough