Faulty vehicle - bought as new but 2.5 years old

generationgavin

So VWFS were trying to push me towards the dealership, the dealership were trying to push me towards VWFS, but since the dealership went into receivership (yes, it was Haysleden Doncaster) this means that VWFS weren't able to push me towards the dealership anymore. 
Late last week, VWFS allowed me to end the PCP agreement and gave me a large goodwill payment, although not quite as much as I'd have got from the Financial Ombudsman, but I just wanted to be put straight.

So from my point of view the financial issue is now closed.

The Financial Ombudsman put all decisions (where it goes to the final stage) on their website, and there's a few things to note for anybody in the same situation. These are all Financial Ombudsman quotes for other cases;

"CA Auto does not get one chance to repair each different fault, simply one chance to repair the car.".
"it’s not a single chance of repair for the dealership AND a single chance of repair for MFS – the first attempted repair is the single chance at repair. What’s more, if a different fault arises after a previous repair, even if those faults aren’t related, the single chance of repair has already happened – it’s not a single chance of repair per fault."
“This fault first arose when the car was just 18 months old, and had travelled just 21,000 miles. I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect a new car to have such a significant fault in that relatively short time.”
“We noted that although parts of cars do wear, the problems started at around a year and 8,000 miles. We thought it reasonable to expect that problems such as these wouldn’t happen at this stage and that the car would be more durable.”
"MBFS should by now be fully aware of our approach to refunding deposits under hire purchase agreements. The

advance payment made under the agreement is a deposit, it’s not the same as an advance rental made under a hire agreement – which we would usually say should be refunded pro-rata."

I have also learnt to always purchase a vehicle on vehicle finance as the finance (FOS) protections are much stronger. 

Mildly_Miffed

generationgavin said:

I have also learnt to always purchase a vehicle on vehicle finance 

Once again, on a PCP you have not purchased the vehicle.

You are currently renting it, and at the end of the term you will be given the opportunity to hand it back and walk away, or to buy it at a price you agreed at the start.

You do not own it. It sounds as if you have no intention to ever own this particular car, even if you continue to possess it until the end of the term.

generationgavin

Mildly_Miffed said:

generationgavin said:

I have also learnt to always purchase a vehicle on vehicle finance 

Once again, on a PCP you have not purchased the vehicle.

You are currently renting it, and at the end of the term you will be given the opportunity to hand it back and walk away, or to buy it at a price you agreed at the start.

You do not own it. It sounds as if you have no intention to ever own this particular car, even if you continue to possess it until the end of the term.

OK - apologies, I have always learnt to "acquire" a vehicle on vehicle finance.
My PCP has now been terminated, with a reasonable good will gesture which has meant I've purchased another brand vehicle on HP. 

I was fully intending to own the VW once the term was up and was saving for the balloon payment, honestly reliability aside it was an amazing car, but VW were awful to deal with.

S7UMU

generationgavin said:

Hi - I'm after any advice, comments, hints or anything else.


June 2023  - I purchased a brand new vehicle, a VW ID.4 from official VW dealership A. All repairs and work since then have happened at VW dealership B
March 2024 - I had a fault where the doors would open themselves. Took a few visits but was fixed.
Feb 2025 - I started getting error messages due to 12v electrical faults. Took it in and no faults found
May 2025 - Had my car in for a service, they wiped the faults should fix my battery issues. Battery tested OK
August 2025 - More issues, took my car in, they found faults and reflashed the software.
August 2025 - Broke down and vehicle wouldn't start and needed recovering 
August 2025 - Needed jump starting again
August 2025 - Dealership B replaced the 12v battery.
November 2025 - Driving along, vehicle switches off and e-handbrake comes on. Recovery is required taking 6 hours to move the vehicle as it will not move.
November 2025 - Dealership B has vehicle for 2 weeks. Eventually find the issue replacing the DC-DC inverter. Car is test driven and returned.
November 2025 - I pick up the car and make it *2* miles before the car completely shuts down and cannot be moved.

At this point, I obviously do not trust the vehicle or any repairs at all. The dealerships have said they cannot guarantee a fix, and the vehicle stops without warning, so if this happens on a motorway it could honestly kill somebody, including my kids. 
It's also worth pointing out that my car insurance said my car won't be covered (but it would be third party) if an accident happened due to the fault unless I had a guaranteed fix. 

So I've requested a refund or replacement from the selling dealership, brand and finance.

So far I've come to a pretty much dead end, the selling dealership say they haven't seen the car and won't refund, they would require around £500 to have it towed to them to look at and they would only make multiple repair attempts and not be able to guarantee a fix.

VWFS have essentially said the brand and dealership have said no, so they cannot do anything (I know this isn't completely true)

I know under CRA2015 the burden of proof is on me to show the fault was there since the start, I've spoken to two garages and one investigator who all say that proving this would be impossible if VW cannot find the fault. 

There is much more to this, but for the complaint I've put together a 14 page document for the dealership, VW and VWFS outlaying all of the facts.

Next steps will be to go to the financial Ombudsman for a long drawn our process, but does anybody have any advice on anything I can do to help my case, speed things up or just generally what my chances might be.

Also should I ask the dealership to repair my vehicle at this point, or would this weaken my overall case as I'm giving them another chance to repair it (I honestly don't think I can drive it though)

Hi, I can’t offer any advice or support but I found this interesting and helpful. To start, Volkswagen and Volkswagen Financial services are ignorant, dismissive and negligent!

I leased a VW ID.4 from Vertu, Leeds in March 2025. It’s absolutely littered with problems. The main one being the emergency brake assist activated for no justifiable reason. This has happened 21 times now. I’ve suffered whiplash 4 times and my son suffered once as a result of this. 

I’ve made all parties aware of the dangers and hazards of this car, that it has caused in just and is unsafe, but they still refuse to acknowledge this or take any responsibility or action. 

It has been inspected twice and they can’t find a fault. I find this very disturbing because if they can’t find a fault it will keep on happening. Their software systems that control the car are not fit for purpose and make the car so unsafe. 

I’m trying to pursue legal action now for breach of lease / contract and negligence. I’m also in the process of contacting media outlets to get this out in the public. There are already numerous articles, especially with Daily Mail, highlighting the massive issues with VW EV cars.