Salary Sacrifice Car

MabunV

Hello, 

I need some advise. I want to know what are my rights in cancelling my lease contract.

I took out a car via NHS FLEET and the car was delivered in September. End of October I was alerted of a safety recall on the car. I was initially told to stop driving the car (via a vague email on Friday afternoon at work) I tried to call for further information and was told to call the manufacturer BMW. I called them and they said the car is okay to drive and they booked me in for  repair in January. So I continued driving the car as per their advice. The following week I got a call from BMW assist (on a private number) wanting to arrange recovery of the car (again on a Friday afternoon while I was at work) the advisor said a replacement car would be arranged for me, he asked if I wanted to arrange delivery of the replacement first before booking recovery to which I said yes. He then said the next call will be from LSH auto to arrange the replacement. I was told they would call me in the next 20 minutes. Then once I speak to them I should call them back and arrange the recovery. 45 minutes later I got a call from a tow truck driver saying he was at my house to collect the car! I call back BMW assist to inform them of this and they say they need to take the car to BMW ASAP as this is an urgent recall (first I'm hearing of this new grading of the recall). So fast forward to almost 2 days of phone calls and back wards and forwards. I get told the car was not safe to drive and at risk of catching fire!LSH never called! So I was told to speak to Enterprise to get a replacement. I got given a diesel car as I was initial told that Enterprise don't have electric vehicles in their fleet and this was the closest they could get to like for like. The replacement was for 2 weeks while they carried out the repairs. It's been 2 months now, I still don't have the car back and have not heard from BMW at all to advise how long the car will be. I have sent emails enquiring and have had to resort to calling Enterprise to check how long BMW extended the hire for. 

I still have been making full payments to the lease company. The replacement car is of a lower spec (I leased out a BMW i4 and they gave me an X1 diesel as a replacement). Can I get out of the lease or at least make a claim and get some money back? 

Thanks

flashg67

I'd suggest your first port of call is to the leasing team at your NHS provider and/or a call to the lease company themselves. Apart from looking at any compensation, they'll have contacts at BMW to get more info on what the hold up is.

Aylesbury_Duck

The short answer is to check your contract.  It will tell you whether the replacement spec is permitted.  I suspect that since they've provided a perfectly adequate replacement and that the recall was on extraordinary safety grounds, it won't be enough for you to get out of the lease.  There's no harm in asking for something else by way of compensation, but that's best done when the repairs are complete and you have the car back.  At the moment, you don't know how long this may go on for.

born_again

Something like this is never going to be a quick fix.

A example is the Ford Kuga PHEV (also hit the mini) had issues like this. Took them over a year to fully fix the issue.

1st find fault, then run tests to ensure it is fixed. Then run fix out to cars. Given most dealers are busy & even getting a service can mean a months wait. They will have to fit issues like this in as & when they can.

Seems the issue is  replace the battery modules affected by the debris issue in the cathode. So that is strip a battery down & replace parts, as & when they have supply of them.

Manxman_in_exile

@MabunV -  why are you trying to sort this out yourself rather than directly with NHS Fleet or with the person in your NHS trust who is nominated to deal with lease cars?  Isn't this their job?

(I assume you are an NHS employee... )

powerful_Rogue

MabunV said:

Hello, 

I need some advise. I want to know what are my rights in cancelling my lease contract.

I took out a car via NHS FLEET and the car was delivered in September. End of October I was alerted of a safety recall on the car. I was initially told to stop driving the car (via a vague email on Friday afternoon at work) I tried to call for further information and was told to call the manufacturer BMW. I called them and they said the car is okay to drive and they booked me in for  repair in January. So I continued driving the car as per their advice. The following week I got a call from BMW assist (on a private number) wanting to arrange recovery of the car (again on a Friday afternoon while I was at work) the advisor said a replacement car would be arranged for me, he asked if I wanted to arrange delivery of the replacement first before booking recovery to which I said yes. He then said the next call will be from LSH auto to arrange the replacement. I was told they would call me in the next 20 minutes. Then once I speak to them I should call them back and arrange the recovery. 45 minutes later I got a call from a tow truck driver saying he was at my house to collect the car! I call back BMW assist to inform them of this and they say they need to take the car to BMW ASAP as this is an urgent recall (first I'm hearing of this new grading of the recall). So fast forward to almost 2 days of phone calls and back wards and forwards. I get told the car was not safe to drive and at risk of catching fire!LSH never called! So I was told to speak to Enterprise to get a replacement. I got given a diesel car as I was initial told that Enterprise don't have electric vehicles in their fleet and this was the closest they could get to like for like. The replacement was for 2 weeks while they carried out the repairs. It's been 2 months now, I still don't have the car back and have not heard from BMW at all to advise how long the car will be. I have sent emails enquiring and have had to resort to calling Enterprise to check how long BMW extended the hire for. 

I still have been making full payments to the lease company. The replacement car is of a lower spec (I leased out a BMW i4 and they gave me an X1 diesel as a replacement). Can I get out of the lease or at least make a claim and get some money back? 

Thanks

But you're benefitting by driving a replacement car, and us such not putting any mileage or wear & tear on your own motor. As such, I can't see any reason why you would be entitled to any money back.

visidigi

Whats your loss?

At the end of the day you have a car and you have mobility. Maybe the cost discrepancy between electric and diesel but that's going to be minor given the cost of electricity at the moment.

MabunV

@Manxman_in_exile - I tried to engage them and they have been so slow with responses and are the ones that sent me to BMW. They forwarded me the email about the recall 2 weeks after I had already dealt with BMW direct through their Assist team and that was after I called them to check and they had no record of it up until that point.

Manxman_in_exile

Are you employed by a NHS trust?

I can't comment on the pros and cons of other posts* as to whether you are losing out here or not, but if you feel badly done by you need to find out who in your trust is responsible for liaising with NHS Fleet and complain to them.  If it's them you are complaining about, complain to their manager.

*But I agree with others that it depends on what your lease contract actually says about this sort of situation.  I have no doubt it will be covered in the small print.  But that doesn't necessarily prevent you from complaining.  The worst that can happen is they ignore you...