Ending Car PCP early due to faults with car

tw76237

Hi, this post is sort of a half looking for advice, half to vent so sorry it’s a bit long. Done a bit of lurking and think I know what the established options are but maybe someone has similar experience and can share?

I brought a 1 year old Hyundai Kona hybrid back in Sep 2021 on a PCP agreement. At the start of 2023 the engine management warning light came on (amber/low risk error, driving performance hasn’t been affected) and it basically has not been off since. It’s been investigated multiple times by a Hyundai garage and has always had the same error. About a month ago I thought it had been finally fixed when they basically replaced the entire exhaust assembly. But alas its back on, I’ll get it checked out again but I have a strong feeling its still related to the same problem. I’ll put a little summary of the fault at the end of this.

My agreement ends in March next year but given this issue I pretty much just want to get rid of the car, even if this current fault is something new. Going backwards and forwards to the garage has been quite inconvenient for me and I’m worried that even if it doesn’t affect the car now it will develop into something worse that might cause me problems at the end of the PCP.  

Do you think Hyundai finance would be willing to end the agreement early and take the car back as is via voluntary termination? My argument being its likely to require a lot of time and effort to truly fix the problem and I don’t think I should have to deal with all that trouble and keep paying for it when the car is essentially faulty. Like if this happened in the first 6 months of the agreement I would have rejected the car. I’ve already paid back half of the loan amount, so I believe that is my right. I certainly do not want to pay off the final installment to keep the car. 

Timeline of the fault is:

Jan 2023 – investigated, system reset and light stayed off during tests so no further action taken , the light came back on the same week

Feb 2023 – investigated again same error code as before and believed the O2 sensor in the exhaust to be faulty. Think they said it was throwing an over pressure error. Two weeks after that they replaced the sensor. The light stayed off for a week or so. At this point I was traveling to Ireland for work frequently and the garage advised they could look at it again in June when it was in for service and MOT.

June 2023 – they carried out further investigation including an ‘extended road test’ This time they said that the DPF was full of soot and not able to regenerate which was causing the warning light. So they manually regenerated it. This surprised me as the car is a petrol hybrid and not a diesel but apparently new petrol’s also have these filters now.  They said short journeys can cause this which I questioned this as I use this car for commuting and its 50 miles each way but they just brushed it off saying to call again if it came back. They finished the service and passed the MOT. Warning Light came back on within a week.  

July-October 2023 working in Ireland full time so did not progress anything. (was not using the car during this time)

December 2023 – Had to wait 3 weeks after getting back from Ireland in oct to get the car looked at again as they were fully booked. They kept the car for a week this time. Gave the car back and said they had to send off a sample of fuel to test for contamination. Got annoyed at this as I didn’t think that the fuel could be the problem, apparently this was part of some sort of tick box exercise they needed to do before doing any further work.

March 2024 – test results take 2 full months to come back. No problems with fuel. Car taken in for 2 weeks, they found the catalytic converter had basically died and that is why the DPF was full of soot and unable to regenerate. Replaced all the relevant parts under warranty. I was told came to about £6k for the parts alone.

April 2024 – EML back with a vengeance

DrEskimo

I imagine it would be difficult to hand back under VT given the fault.

Is the dealership that have been working on the fault also the dealership who supplied the car?

If they are, I would seek some valuations from other garages/WeBuyAnyCar, etc, and if that is same or equal to the current finance settlement, speak with the dealership and ask if they will buy the car from you for it's current trade in price and settle the finance in full as a result.

In general, it's far easier to do this then go through the process of VT with the finance company.

tw76237

DrEskimo said:

I imagine it would be difficult to hand back under VT given the fault.

Is the dealership that have been working on the fault also the dealership who supplied the car?

If they are, I would seek some valuations from other garages/WeBuyAnyCar, etc, and if that is same or equal to the current finance settlement, speak with the dealership and ask if they will buy the car from you for it's current trade in price and settle the finance in full as a result.

In general, it's far easier to do this then go through the process of VT with the finance company.

It isn't the same dealer but it was originally from another hyundai dealership.  I dismissed this idea in my head as I'm worried they will offer a reduced price due to the problem when I think that is unfair on me. I have looked after the car as required, still has a couple years of warranty and it is below my mileage limit, its them that are failing to find and fix the problem. 

But as you say it is the simplest way. The garage has annoyed me but they have treated me pretty well, maybe they'll be pragmatic as I would only be asking to settle the finance. 

DrEskimo

tw76237 said:

DrEskimo said:

I imagine it would be difficult to hand back under VT given the fault.

Is the dealership that have been working on the fault also the dealership who supplied the car?

If they are, I would seek some valuations from other garages/WeBuyAnyCar, etc, and if that is same or equal to the current finance settlement, speak with the dealership and ask if they will buy the car from you for it's current trade in price and settle the finance in full as a result.

In general, it's far easier to do this then go through the process of VT with the finance company.

It isn't the same dealer but it was originally from another hyundai dealership.  I dismissed this idea in my head as I'm worried they will offer a reduced price due to the problem when I think that is unfair on me. I have looked after the car as required, still has a couple years of warranty and it is below my mileage limit, its them that are failing to find and fix the problem. 

But as you say it is the simplest way. The garage has annoyed me but they have treated me pretty well, maybe they'll be pragmatic as I would only be asking to settle the finance. 

I would first find out the value considering no faults. If this is higher, then I would suggest asking the original supplying dealer if they would be willing to buy the car for the same price.

Of course you could negotiate down to the settlement figure (either way, it would leave you in the same position as VT), but I wouldn't use this as your starting position.

As you say, you don't want t be left worse off, so it would be fair for them to buy it at the full trade value.