Engine Blown on my van on finance

tacpot12

Other people in this situation would find a way to borrow the money for a reconditioned engine. The alternatives are to scrap the van, sell it with the engine needing replacing, or store it until you can get a job to earn job to pay to replace the engine.  

maxsteam

You need to pick up the pieces. The vehicle needs to be somewhere suitable. I don't know whether or not it's ok to leave it where it is.

It's possible to hire vehicles. It's possible to buy another vehicle. It's possible to fix your current vehicle. You need to look at the finances of your business and decide if any of these are viable options.

A 6 year old commercial van with 17k miles is unusual. There can't have been anything seriously wrong with the vehicle when you bought it as it has lasted 6 months. It's not unusual for commercial vehicles to require major maintenance when they are 6 years old. If the major maintenance was required when the guarantee was in place, someone else might have paid. Now that the guarantee has expired, you are responsible.

It possible to get a 6 year old Luton van for not a lot of money. If you decide to carry on with the business, you should also decide whether or not buy the next vehicle for cash and avoid being under the thumb of a finance company. The finance company may repossess the vehicle if you miss payments but they will still want the payments even if you don't have the vehicle. Being self-employed is not suitable for everyone. 

maxsteam

You've been robbed by the garage that sold the vehicle. The finance company are going to keep robbing you for the finance term. I am concerned that you are going to get robbed by a garage that's offering to fix the vehicle for you.

[Deleted User]

maxsteam said:

You've been robbed by the garage that sold the vehicle. The finance company are going to keep robbing you for the finance term. I am concerned that you are going to get robbed by a garage that's offering to fix the vehicle for you.

Wow - you have a very low opinion of the Society that we all live in. I struggle to see what the garage has done wrong. It sold a van with a warranty that the buyer accepted that presumably had a valid MOT. The purchaser could have purchased a third-party warranty to cover the cost of future repairs.

The OP also entered into a Finance Agreement which has terms and conditions. Unless he was held with a gun to his head, the Agreement was signed voluntarily in the knowledge that payments had to be made for the agreed term.

If all garages are ‘robbers’ then we are all doomed. FWiW, vehicles with low mileage are rarely a good investment. It suggests that they have been subject to numerous stop/start events. The corollary to this is ex Motorway Police vehicles with 100k+ on the clock sell quickly because they have been driven for extended periods with little ancillary wear.