Rejecting a lease car (Lex)

Pj90se

Hi all,

Wondering if anyone had any experience of how easy/difficult it was to reject a leased car (especially leased via Lex).

I took delivery of a brand new Renault Zoe in late October and since then it’s been back to the dealers 3 times for the same recurring electrical fault.  It’s still with them now and out of the 8 weeks I’ve been leasing it, I’ve only actually had it with me for 3 weeks in total.

I’ve been reading up on consumer rights as I’m really feeling let down by the car.  Going electric was something I wanted to try and I’m perfectly prepared to live with the slight extra planning of charging etc. but having been unable to drive to work and stranded away from home waiting for 5 hours for a recovery truck on separate occasions, I’m leaning towards returning to a workhorse used petrol/diesel.

From my understanding, if there’s a fault with a brand new car I’m required to give the dealers chance to fix it but if it’s still not resolved after that, then I’m able to reject it.

The car is leased with Lex Autolease and I initially contacted their complaints team to start the rejection process about 2 weeks ago and they’ve informed me today that my case is ‘still in a queue’ and can’t give me any idea how long it’ll take but it could be up to 8 weeks.

-Has anyone had any experience of how I might be able to get this sorted faster?

-The car is still being repaired and isn’t back with me yet- am I best letting the dealership know that im intending on returning it or shall I take it back for the meantime so I have a car? 

-I have been sorely tempted to cancel my direct debit as it pains me to pay £250/month when I’ve had the car for so little time, but I’m assuming  it could cause problems with Lex rather than rushing them along?

Thanks everyone, I’d appreciate hearing other people’s stories or suggestions  if they might be helpful, getting very close to my wits end!

Have a good day!

DrEskimo

You have done the right thing by going through the lease company.

They will need to process the rejection, and given your issues I can't see how it won't be upheld.

Have you been given a hire car by the dealer?

Don't cancel the direct debit. You will be refunded all payments once the rejection is approved.

It's a shame your first experience with an EV was so bad. I've had my used Zoe for 3yrs (now 5yrs old), and the 10k+ miles on I've not had a single issue. Hope it doesn't put you off EVs for good. 

Pj90se

DrEskimo said:

You have done the right thing by going through the lease company.

They will need to process the rejection, and given your issues I can't see how it won't be upheld.

Have you been given a hire car by the dealer?

Don't cancel the direct debit. You will be refunded all payments once the rejection is approved.

It's a shame your first experience with an EV was so bad. I've had my used Zoe for 3yrs (now 5yrs old), and the 10k+ miles on I've not had a single issue. Hope it doesn't put you off EVs for good. 

Thanks for the reply! 

Glad it seems I’ve done the right thing, I wasn’t sure whether to approach Renault directly or not. 

I’m without a courtesy car at the moment, Renault apparently had none available at the time of asking and there was a 2 week wait with Enterprise, so I told them at the time not to bother (naively thinking it’d be a quick process to return).  I did laugh when they offered to pay for a hire car that I’d arrange up to the cost of £25/day…

That’s the sad thing, it’s actually a cracking car when it’s worked and I was really happy with it, it’s just lost any trust I had in it (and Renault’s customer service when it’s gone wrong has been rather deficient to say the least!).  The plan is to wait a few years and plod on with an ICE car then give electric another go.

Penelopa.Pitstop

I recently rejected PCH car with WVFS and it took only 10 working days to get approval. After I agreed to the terms and gave green light, car was collected within the week. I got my initial payment back and now waiting for the monthly payments repayment.

But Lex might be more difficult to deal with and it may take much longer. It's good you already started the process.

531063

Good luck with LEX one of the worst companies I've ever dealt with, I know it's a bit late now but google Lex autolease reviews