Nissan Car Finance (RCI) sold when I didn’t need it.

Salster278

When I retired in 2017 from my job that gave me a company car, I used part of my pension lump sum to buy a new one. I had decided what I wanted (Nissan Qashqai, new) so went to my local dealership. I wanted to pay the whole purchase price as I didn’t want to commit to monthly payments with my substantially reduced income. I didn’t realise at the time the benefits of them getting me to take finance but they really pushed for me to take out finance, throwing in heated seats/ some diamond finish if I took it out. They told me to take out the finance to get the ‘free’ heated seats etc and then pay it off after three months. It’s only now that I realise it was so they got a chunk of commission for selling it me. 

Has anyone else had this happen and is it worth me putting in a claim?

Ayr_Rage

Nobody can tell or force you to take out finance!

You could have purchased outright if you had wished

If there was a Discretionary Commission Arrangement you may have a claim, do your research and ask the finance company.

That's the only situation where you may have lost out, if they just got their usual commission and you got your freebies then it's a win for you both, minus the small amount of interest you paid over those three months.

Grumpy_chap

Salster278 said:

When I retired in 2017 from my job that gave me a company car, I used part of my pension lump sum to buy a new one. I had decided what I wanted (Nissan Qashqai, new) so went to my local dealership. I wanted to pay the whole purchase price as I didn’t want to commit to monthly payments with my substantially reduced income. I didn’t realise at the time the benefits of them getting me to take finance but they really pushed for me to take out finance, throwing in heated seats/ some diamond finish if I took it out. They told me to take out the finance to get the ‘free’ heated seats etc and then pay it off after three months. It’s only now that I realise it was so they got a chunk of commission for selling it me. 

Has anyone else had this happen and is it worth me putting in a claim?

Yes, that has happened to a lot of people.

It is quite common these days that the best discounts / incentives on a new car purchase are tied with taking finance and often suggested on these boards to do exactly that and then clear the finance as soon as the eligibility for the "incentives" has been met thus avoiding the interest costs through the term.

The Dealer is selling things - cars - finance - accessories - insurance and so on.  The Dealer makes a profit / commission on all of those things they sell.

Did you do as you intended and pay off the finance early?

No, it is not worth you putting in a claim.

Nasqueron

Salster278 said:

When I retired in 2017 from my job that gave me a company car, I used part of my pension lump sum to buy a new one. I had decided what I wanted (Nissan Qashqai, new) so went to my local dealership. I wanted to pay the whole purchase price as I didn’t want to commit to monthly payments with my substantially reduced income. I didn’t realise at the time the benefits of them getting me to take finance but they really pushed for me to take out finance, throwing in heated seats/ some diamond finish if I took it out. They told me to take out the finance to get the ‘free’ heated seats etc and then pay it off after three months. It’s only now that I realise it was so they got a chunk of commission for selling it me. 

Has anyone else had this happen and is it worth me putting in a claim?

You could still have paid off the finance pretty much immediately as they said and had all the benefits while paying minimum interest, the days of saving vast sums by paying cash are long gone

No-one is able to "claim" the cost of finance because you chose to take it out

Regardless you took it out in 2017, any complaint will be time barred - 6 years from point of sale, 3 years from knowing, or, from when you could reasonably have known, you had cause for complaint. 3 year rule is important to understand, you cannot just pick an arbitrary date like today and say that was when you knew, annual statements, finance letters etc all trigger it 

Salster278

Thanks everyone for your comments. I guess I was a bit naive back then having been lucky enough not to have to buy a car for over 20 years. The reason it came to light is that I’ve just bought another new car and the whole process was so transparent (thanks to all the publicity re miss selling) that I realised how the last purchase hadn’t necessarily been in my best interest. 

Thanks again🙂

DrEskimo

But if you did settle the finance early, you should have paid only minimal interest charges. This should have been less than the value of the additional extras you were given (heated seats), so not sure how you are arguing this is not in your interest?

I also did this with my last used car purchase from Renault. Taking finance I didn't need meant I was able to benefit from their £1,000 deposit contribution and get 2 free services. Once I paid it off in full the charges were minimal (i set up the finance to give the maximum deposit), so was substantially better off as a result.

MrFrugalFever

It was your choice to go ahead with the finance, no one forced you. The commission they made on a new (expensive) car would have been negligible. Commission is much heftier on used vehicles.

You wanted to pay 'cash' for your brand new car, proceeded to buy a brand new car, lost the VAT the minute you drove off plus natural depreciation plus monthly depreciation....it is a depreciating asset that quite frankly you should have rented and left the money in your pension pot making far more than when you pulled it out to buy a depreciating asset.

Wouldn't bother claiming.