Rejecting New Car

asurya

So, long story short.

Approx. 1 year ago, my wife got a brand new Citroen eC3 from Arnold Clark on PCP finance.

Within days we had the car back at the garage where we bought it (Stirling) for them to investigate why the alarm would activate at random times of the day and often during the night. They kept the car overnight and no issues where found.

However, the problem kept happening and we continued to report it and the car was looked at again and no issue was found.

Fast forward a few months (Feb/Mar 26) and many interrupted sleeps later and we receive a recall notice from Citroen and this time take the car to the Armadale branch (it's physically closer to our house). A software update is applied and we get our car back and over the next few weeks notice that the alarm has not sounded.

However, the car has new issues ranging from complaints that sensors have failed (i.e. rear parking), tyre pressure alarms, the wing mirrors failing to deploy almost 25% of the time when you use the remote central locking to unlock the car - which incidentally is the only way to deploy the wing mirrors, there is no button in the car at all for this - and in one instance, the car failing to start.

The final straw was reached on Monday, 18th of May when having parked the car at a shopping centre car park, the alarm sounded and we couldn't cancel it - we ended up driving around the car looking like we stole our own car.

The car was immediately taken back to Arnold Clark Armadale, who have it is since and the most recent update is the same as it's been for the past two months. We're working on it and in communication with Citroen technical services for advice.

We would like to reject this car - we've paid two car finance payments for a car we have no use of (although the garage did finally provide my wife with a courtesy car a couple of weeks ago). Come Monday, it'll have been 9 weeks since they took the car.

As I understand it, as it's beyond the initial 30 days, we have the onus to provide evidence that the car was faulty when we bought, or so I read somewhere - I would think reporting a fault within a week of receiving the car would count.

Aside from contacting Stellantis and praying I'm not sure exactly what our rights are. As I say , they've been working at it on and off for 9 weeks now - they could have built us about 100 news ones in that time.

Thanks in advance.

Vitor

You appear to have a reasonably strong case for rejection, although acceptance is not guaranteed.

The Consumer Rights Act 2015 applies in Scotland. After the first 30 days, you can exercise the final right to reject if one attempted repair has failed, or if the repair has not been completed within a reasonable time and without significant inconvenience. Nine weeks without a diagnosis, repair or completion date is certainly arguable as unreasonable. Providing a courtesy car does not give them unlimited time.

The original alarm fault was reported within days of delivery, so you have good evidence that it was present from the outset. The software update appears to have been an attempted repair, and the same alarm fault has now returned. Keep copies of every job sheet, email, warning message and video.

Because this is PCP, make a formal written complaint directly to the finance company named on the agreement, copying Arnold Clark. State clearly that you are exercising your final right to reject under the Consumer Rights Act 2015. Ask them to collect the car, terminate the agreement, refund the appropriate deposit and payments, and compensate you for loss of use and inconvenience.

Do not stop the finance payments unless the finance company agrees in writing. If it rejects the complaint, or eight weeks pass without a final response, take it to the Financial Ombudsman Service free of charge.

Be aware that a deduction may be made for the year’s use you had before rejection. However, payments covering the nine weeks without your own car should form part of the complaint, although the courtesy car may reduce any compensation for that period.

Isthisforreal99

I have just successfully rejected a lease car after being in the garage for 10 weeks and them being unable to diagnose the fault. My successful argument was the 'reasonable timescale' for the repair although I believe it was an inhererent fault but the finance company accepted 10 weeks + was not reasonable and took the car back. So my advice would be to focus on the same argument rather than trying to prove it was an inherent fault.

born_again

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82073956#Comment_82073956

There is no need for a complaint against finance co who have done nothing wrong here.

All they need to to ask the finance co about a S75 claim. As car appears to be under £20K @ AC