Lease Car & Replacement Vehicle

jaykay877

I have a question regarding who is responsible for providing me with the correct courtesy vehicle, and as a consumer, is there a breach of contract anywhere?

Essentially I have a fault with my 10 month old VW lease car. This was recovered through VW Assistance to the local dealers for evaluation and fix under warranty. This left me in the situation where VW Assistance would provide a lease car. VW Assistance use Enterprise to supply lease cars, and where I live (or potentially globally) there's a vehicle shortage, so instead of receiving a small automatic car (a like-for-like) i received a large Manual Transit Van. Not ideal.

In summary:

• Enterprise can't help, there's simply no cars (as discussed with the local branch)
• The Lease company can't help as my lease doesn't include a Courtesy Car
• VW assistance can do anything as they only source cars through Enterprise (I suffered a circular conversation with the local Enterprise branch which left me frustrated)
• The Dealer can't help, they have no courtesy cars (I am awaiting diagnostics on the car, and we need a car not a van)

Where does this leave me? Is there a situation where there's a breach of contract between myself and the lease company?

AdrianC

No, you have no contract that promises you a courtesy (clue) car, so the lack of availability is not a breach of any contract.
Especially since you DID receive a courtesy vehicle (from a more expensive group), you just don't like what was available.

I presume that you hold a manual licence, so it's simply a case of personal preference, not an inability to drive a manual...?

Your best bet is to talk nicely to the supplier, and hope that they'll swap for something more suited to your preferences as soon as it becomes available.

jaykay877

As suspected. Good to get another opinion on it. It's interesting to know that the concept of a courtesy car is essentially fictional, as you say, it's 'courtesy' and dependant on availability. I took the van as I simply had no choice as I needed wheels at that moment in time. Yes, I have a manual license but my wife does not, and she's the primary user of the car. Good to know these services aren't reliable when you need them. But equally this global shortage of cars is now something I'm aware of

AdrianC

jaykay877 said:

Yes, I have a manual license but my wife does not, and she's the primary user of the car.

Is your car automatic? Can she use that for the interim?

But equally this global shortage of cars is now something I'm aware of

It's been mainstream news for months now.

The story started to break back in January
https://www.ft.com/content/e264fd41-7ee9-4fba-be3c-21446298efd9
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-55704936

By February it was clear it was going to be industry wide
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-55936011

Now it's clear it's going to be long-lasting
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58465954