PCP on Faulty Car !

AdomoRainbow

Hi,
I'm wanting to find out my rights as a consumer when it comes to a car I have on PCP that has spent nearly 3 months in and out of the manufacturers garage with an intermittent fault. 
I own a Honda and have PCP through Honda Finance. In March my car wouldn't start and presented every error message possible and following hand book guidance it was recovered to our local Honda dealership. They took over 5 weeks to assess, diagnose and supposedly fix the car. I got it back mid April but 9 days later it faulted again and has been back with them ever since. I have an extended warranty so all time in garage so far has been covered under warranty however I'm told they cannot find the source of fault and are continuing to get advice from honda HQ to run various tests. 
I am nearly 3 years into a 4 year PCP deal and have so far made 3 monthly payments without use of my vehicle so where do I stand ?
I have raised a complaint with the finance company and they are speaking with the local garage but as I said because the fault is intermittent and they can't find the source I'm being told it needs to stay in the garage until it faults again and they can carry out more tests. 
I've not been given a hire car as they "don't give them for open ended faults" so I'm really upset at spending nearly £1k in PCP payments with no car. 

Any guidance on what my options could be or what I should do next ? 

Thanks 

Spies

Get the car back and take it to a different dealer

born_again

New or used car?
Mileage when you got?
Mileage in the 3 years?
Can we have a time line of faults, given the mention of 3 years into a 4 year deal?

No start & all warning lights is often a low 12V these days on cars given all the electronics, which do not like low Volts.

AdomoRainbow

There is only one Honda garage in our area (Rural SW) so has to be this one for my warranty.

It was bought brand new in 2022 and it's only done 16k miles. Fault only occured this March 2025 and I've not had the car (bar 9 days) since then. 

They assure me they've investigated all manner of issues, battery, spark plugs, ignition system etc and are drawing a blank so are now only being directed by Honda HQ. 

I have zero confidence 1. They know how to fix it and 2. I'm likely to get the car back anytime soon so wish to know my rights as a consumer under PCP as product is not satisfactory and I've paid a lot in payment for no use of car.

born_again

As you have raised a complaint with finance co you will have to see what they say.
Other than that any other action will require a 3rd party report on the issue.

eschaton

3 months in 3 years isn’t an excessive length of time if you got it fixed. Long, yes. 

If you don’t want to go to another dealer, it may be time to punt the car. 

I rejected a car in 2002. It was brand new and was riddled with faults/issues. 

The final fault, a leaking roof had two failed repairs. 

When it went in the 3rd time, they were told that they were keeping it if it wasn’t fixed that time. 

After 3 weeks they tried to give it back saying it was a lot better. I said so not 100%?  

No. It’s your car now. They’d had it for 43 of its 79 days. 

A rejection meeting followed a few days later and after lengthy negotiations that included a full cash refund offer if I walked away, to the conclusion where the GM finally accepted my initial offer. 

I won a watch that day. Paid them £300 on a £17,100 replacement, new car, new tax, new breakdown, new warranty and 02 plate instead of 51. Most importantly, he agreed to change my courtesy car to a high spec Peugeot 307 or a 406 and I got a 307 with 900 miles. I’d had a Rover 45 for 3 weeks and had enough of it. 

They jumped the queue so it was only a 5 week wait instead of 12 but I still added over 2k miles to their newish car. All in I got around 7k miles in 5 different cars for my £300. 

AdomoRainbow

Thanks for sharing that experience it's really helpful ! 

Yes I understand about when it's less than 6months old you can reject for reasons like you explained. I get my car is older but no I don't have it fixed and no fix even on sight they've suggested it could be with them for months due to low staff and lack of knowledge on how to repair so I wonder at what stage I get to say being 4,5 even 6 months without the car yet still paying PCP.

Finance team are handling the dispute and said I have 6 weeks to get an outcome. I'm hoping within that time the local garage find the fault and fix it so I get it back.