Faulty Lease Car

Carlos77

I got a Kia Sorento on lease 18 months ago, and it has been nothing but trouble, and we have finally had enough of it. It has now been in the dealer 8 times, with the following faults

1. Faulty stop-start system, Intermittant fault that basiclly makes the car not restart after it has stopped at a junction, roundabout ect. the only way to restart the car is to turn the ignition on and off again. This happens 4-5 times a week. Was first reported to the dealer when the car was 2 months old, and they still havent managed to fix it!
2. Faulty Alarm, had a tendancy to go off randomly - This actually got fixed, took them 5 weeks to get the part but got fixed in the end.
3. The DPF has an issue, the car is used on long motoway runs a couple of times a month, yet the DPF is still clogging up, and causing the car to go into Limp mode - The issue hasnt been sorted, has happened twice in the couple of months, and nothing other than the dealer forcing a re-gen has been done to sort it.
4. The flywheel bearing collapsed, the clutch and flywheel has been replaced, but now the car has a rattle on the near side front corner.

I have been to see the dealer principle, and he understands that we have completly lost confidence in the car, and had the car been on PCP would have swapped it for another one of a similar age/spec/milage straight away as he acknowlages the car has not been of a satisfactory quality for a 20 reg car with 11k on the clock. The complication is that the car is on a lease rather than a PCP, so we have to go through the leaseholder company. The dealer said he would contact the leaseholder and explain the situation, and that it had faults that they were unable to fix, in an attempt to reject the car and get a suitable replacement.


Question is, has anyone gone through this process of getting a lease car replaced due to faults after 18 months, and if they do replace it how does it work? Would they just instruct the dealer to provide me with a similar replacement, or will they send me another car direct?

What are my options if the lease holder refuses to replace the car, as the dealer cant fix it?

Grey_Critic

The only people who can answer the question is the lease company that is who you have a contract with. Has the dealer spoken with Kia?

m0bov

Have YOU spoken with the lease company? They need to arrange a replacement.

Carlos77

We reported it to the lease company direct on 1st September, they said 5-6 working days for a response, the dealer (principal) reported it again to the lease company on 8th September, they are waiting too. I phoned to chase this morning, and have been told the team will call me back. They question I had was, if anyone else has gone through this kind of process, and if so what was the outcome and how long did it take? 

Grey_Critic

Who is the Lease Company?

BOWFER

Grey_Critic said:

Who is the Lease Company?

Probably Kia finance themselves.
The only lease company I've had any problems with in years of leasing, which doesn't bode well for the OP.
They tried to hit me for £300 on the return of an immaculate Sportage, a year after I returned it.
Thank goodness I hadn't deleted the photos I took on the day of return.

Carlos77

The Lease company is Arval

BOWFER

You say you've had the car 18 months, how soon after delivery did the faults start?
If they were present from the beginning and have been ongoing, you've probably got a far stronger case for rejection than if they've just started now.
I take it you are able to document dates and how many days it's spent off road?

Carlos77

First time I took it into the garage with it was within 2 months of collecting it, I can’t remember the exact first time  it happened, but was some time before then, and the car was booked in, and usually takes a week or 2 to get an appointment, it’s an intermittent problem, and Covid lockdown happened a couple of weeks after collecting the vehicle, so the car got little use initially, so more than likely a problem from build. The garage has records of every time it was in and for how long each time

BOWFER

If I were you I'd be compiling a very detailed dossier of the faults, the dates they occurred and how long they took to get fixed.
I'd be sending that to the lease company in writing (email is fine) and giving them a clear and reasonable timeframe for them to respond, after which you'll be involving the ombudsman.
This is what I did when I was considering rejection of a car.

Carlos77

BOWFER said:

If I were you I'd be compiling a very detailed dossier of the faults, the dates they occurred and how long they took to get fixed.
I'd be sending that to the lease company in writing (email is fine) and giving them a clear and reasonable timeframe for them to respond, after which you'll be involving the ombudsman.
This is what I did when I was considering rejection of a car.

I have got the records from the garage, of when it was in, what the issue was and how long they had it for each visit, also them confirming that they have verified the intermittant problems exist and cant locate or fix the problem. Touch wood the dealer is trying to assist with me getting a replacement or out of the contract. Somehow though if i get the contract cancelled (rather than a replacement), i doubt i will get another Sorento, nice enough car when working, but my experiance has been tainted.