Voluntary Termination of PCP contract?

balijay

Good afternoon :) looking for advice and opinions on what you would do in this situation please!

I have a car on PCP finance. 48 month contract with 7 payments to go (plus optional balloon payment). I had intended to hand this one back at the end and start again with a new car. The car has been serviced and maintained correctly at the dealership and has done well under the mileage limit (it’s 6 years old with 54000 on the clock). However, said car has developed a fault with the engine, have been advised needs stripping down to diagnose fault, then rebuild or new engine… who knows? The garage can’t tell me how much until they strip it down. It sounds mega expensive and quite frankly I can’t afford it. It’s still currently drive able . Unsure how to proceed.. what would you do?

a) try and borrow the money and go ahead with garage repairs

b) look into a reconditioned engine and find a mechanic to fit it?

c) Voluntary Termination of pcp (I’ve paid over half of the total finance so believe I can do this) assuming they’ll deduct the cost of the issues and take the financial hit

d) sell car via We Buy Any Car (finance settled via them, again minus the cost of the issues)

e) something else?

any help much appreciated - I’m quite stressed!!

TadleyBaggie

this is the reason why you should only finance a vehicle whilst is still remains in warranty.

A_Geordie

It is of course ultimately your choice to make but of those options, I would go down the VT route. We Buy Any Car will more than likely gouge your eyes out in terms of what they offer and all other options involve costs and expenses with no guarantee there will be a result behind it.

Therefore VT is the sensible option as you have some statutory protections, but it is not without it's hassle and the risk of the creditor harassing and demanding payments with the threat of affecting your credit file. So you need to be prepared to deal with that aspect.

Most creditors use the BVRLA guidelines to assess the condition of the car, and if any warning lights are on they will abandon the collection and try to charge you for it. Either get the warning light turned off/reset and don't drive it, or tell them in advance the engine light is illuminated when switched on in which case expect them to charge you a recovery fee for the privilege. Whether you should be liable for that charge is debatable.

The creditor is going to ship the car straight off to auction and will not spend any time assessing or stripping down the engine to diagnose the problem, they are just not in that business.

I do expect them to guesstimate the issue or cost to charge you, which is where you could have the upper hand because the engine light could be anything from a simple wiring fault, to a full engine rebuild as suggested by the mechanic. It is up to the creditor to prove the actual fault with the engine in order to be able to claim the costs. No proof = no claim.

I could go on but I think what I've said is sufficient to give you an idea why VT might be the better option.

balijay

Thank you so much A Geordie for your comprehensive reply. I know really that we buy any car is a silly idea and I’m reluctant to start the process of trying to fix it because it just seems like diving into the unknown financially for a car I don’t even intend on keeping. There are no engine warning lights on and it’s driving fine, it just sounds pretty bad. Going to leave it on the driveway and contact the finance company to start the VT process I think.

A_Geordie

Sorry I thought there was an existing fault showing, but in that case even better. There's no obligation for you to point out any faults or whether it's considered to be roadworthy. It's up to the person inspection to decide what they think. Good luck