Engine Failure on PCP 10 October 2022 at 9:56AM in Motoring 29 replies 1.5K views

l_maz95

My bf's car is 3 years into a PCP contract and has now sustained extensive damage to the engine which is going to cost upwards of £4k. The car has only done 30k miles on the clock, 5 years old, only used to travel to work in the area every day when it has all of a sudden broken down due to something with the engine, we have been told this is a common thing with this car type. It has been to 3 garages who have said it is not worth being repaired as it is going to be so expensive. The car is no longer under any warranty, Honda have said they will contribute 1k to repair costs as a gesture of goodwill but that is it. Insurance will not cover this type of damage. We have been advised to not drive the car as it is not safe to do so as at some point the engine will completely fail. Can anyone please help with what options are available to us, we can't afford a repair over £3k for a PCP car

Flight3287462

You need to find out exactly what is wrong with the car to get any meaningful response. 

Ebe_Scrooge

What exactly is wrong with it?  £4K sounds an unusually large bill.  Is it a known fault that should have been fixed under recall, or is it down to lack of correct servicing?  More details needed before we can offer any meaningful advice.

DullGreyGuy

So it was a 2 year old secondhand vehicle when you bought it on finance and now 5 years old?

What is the model? what is the exact fault? Have you followed all servicing requirements etc?

shiraz99

l_maz95 said:

My bf's car is 3 years into a PCP contract and has now sustained extensive damage to the engine which is going to cost upwards of £4k. The car has only done 30k miles on the clock, 5 years old, only used to travel to work in the area every day when it has all of a sudden broken down due to something with the engine, we have been told this is a common thing with this car type. It has been to 3 garages who have said it is not worth being repaired as it is going to be so expensive. The car is no longer under any warranty, Honda have said they will contribute 1k to repair costs as a gesture of goodwill but that is it. Insurance will not cover this type of damage. We have been advised to not drive the car as it is not safe to do so as at some point the engine will completely fail. Can anyone please help with what options are available to us, we can't afford a repair over £3k for a PCP car

Car's breaking down and requiring new engines, whilst can happen, is certainly not a "common thing". You mention Honda, what model is it and what exactly was the fault?

You do have your statutory consumer rights, under the Consumer Rights Act (2015) but you would need to prove that any fault was present when you took delivery of the car. The other complication is that it's a PCP so your bf will need to work with the finance provider to get any sort of remedy.

DrEskimo

You will no doubt need to inform the finance company about the condition of the car, but in effect your options are the same regardless of the fact you paid the original invoice price of the car using a secured loan.

You either scrap the car, pay off the remaining finance owed and get another car, or pay to have the car fixed and continue with the payments as outlined in your finance agreement.

If the car has been regularly serviced as per the manufacturers advice, you could look to raise a complaint with Honda that such damage is not acceptable on a well maintained car given it's age and mileage, but that will depend on exactly what the fault is and what led to it developing this fault. For example it took a while, but Audi finally admitted a manufacturing fault with their 2.0TFSI engines leading to excessive oil consumption and damage to the engine cylinders. As such, anyone with the issue had the repair done for free. It took a lot of examples and shouting before they accepted liability though...

daveyjp

It is always a gamble buying a used car on PCP which will be over 5 years old once the PCP loan ends.  There is always a risk of an expensive repair required before the finance period finishes.

I am however surprised a Honda has failed, assuming it has been serviced regularly.  What is the problem?

Boyfriend is liable for paying the PCP payments and paying off the debt if the car can't be repaired.

Other option is to have a 'bodge' fix and hand the car back once 50% of the PCP payments have been made.

shiraz99

daveyjp said:

It is always a gamble buying a used car on PCP which will be over 5 years old once the PCP loan ends.  There is always a risk of an expensive repair required before the finance period finishes.

I am however surprised a Honda has failed, assuming it has been serviced regularly.  What is the problem?

Boyfriend is liable for paying the PCP payments and paying off the debt if the car can't be repaired.

Other option is to have a 'bodge' fix and hand the car back once 50% of the PCP payments have been made.

Totally agree, PCPs aren't really the best vehicle (pardon the pun) for financing a used car purchase.

Not sure how a "bodge fix" followed by a VT is going to help. Voluntary termination doesn't take away the legal responsibility of handing the car back in a reasonable condition.

l_maz95

Ebe_Scrooge said:

What exactly is wrong with it?  £4K sounds an unusually large bill.  Is it a known fault that should have been fixed under recall, or is it down to lack of correct servicing?  More details needed before we can offer any meaningful advice.

It is an engine Timing issue, 2 of the 3 garages have said not worth repairing. Car has been serviced every year/10,000 miles accordingly, latest one in jan of this year as well as an MOT. The model has had a recall but does not include his particular car as checked on Honda website and mainly an issue on US models.

l_maz95

daveyjp said:

It is always a gamble buying a used car on PCP which will be over 5 years old once the PCP loan ends.  There is always a risk of an expensive repair required before the finance period finishes.

I am however surprised a Honda has failed, assuming it has been serviced regularly.  What is the problem?

Boyfriend is liable for paying the PCP payments and paying off the debt if the car can't be repaired.

Other option is to have a 'bodge' fix and hand the car back once 50% of the PCP payments have been made.

It is an engine Timing issue, 2 of the 3 garages have said not worth repairing. Car has been serviced every year/10,000 miles accordingly, latest one in jan of this year as well as an MOT. The model has had a recall but does not include his particular car as checked on Honda website and mainly an issue on US models. He only has 1 year left on the pcp agreement

l_maz95

shiraz99 said:

l_maz95 said:

My bf's car is 3 years into a PCP contract and has now sustained extensive damage to the engine which is going to cost upwards of £4k. The car has only done 30k miles on the clock, 5 years old, only used to travel to work in the area every day when it has all of a sudden broken down due to something with the engine, we have been told this is a common thing with this car type. It has been to 3 garages who have said it is not worth being repaired as it is going to be so expensive. The car is no longer under any warranty, Honda have said they will contribute 1k to repair costs as a gesture of goodwill but that is it. Insurance will not cover this type of damage. We have been advised to not drive the car as it is not safe to do so as at some point the engine will completely fail. Can anyone please help with what options are available to us, we can't afford a repair over £3k for a PCP car

Car's breaking down and requiring new engines, whilst can happen, is certainly not a "common thing". You mention Honda, what model is it and what exactly was the fault?

You do have your statutory consumer rights, under the Consumer Rights Act (2015) but you would need to prove that any fault was present when you took delivery of the car. The other complication is that it's a PCP so your bf will need to work with the finance provider to get any sort of remedy.

It is a 67 plate Honda civic there is a timing issue with the engine