Refund for Used Vehicle and Fair Usage per mile Rate

PugRuu

I purchased a 10 year old used vehicle in February this year for £4245. The car needed a major engine repair/rebuild due to excessive oil usage and the dealer took the vehicle back and did the repair. (within 6 months of purchase). The vehicle was in for the repair of 7.5 weeks, which I feel is an unreasonable length of time.

4 days after the car was returned an oil leak was noticed of which I was only notified of 2 weeks later. I contacted the dealer straight away and asked them to collect the vehicle and sort it out. They have refused to collect the car and are not accepting liability until an assessment proves cause.

However, they have offered a refund based on 45p per mile fair usage. I am saying that this amount is not fair, even although they have reduced this fee from their original £2 per mile rate.

I am currently not using the car, as they told me not to drive the vehicle until cause of the oil leak can be determined, but I do drive it for very short necessary trips within my village, not every day, and I use the bus to get to and from work (further away).

I would appreciate your thoughts on:

• the rate per mile for fair usage - what is fair
• the length of time I have not had use of the vehicle, now amounting to 10 weeks out of 7.5 months since purchase - is this unreasonable
• would anything here stand up in small claims court

The dealer is not budging on anything in their refund offer.

saajan_12

Agree £0.45 per mile is excessive for the depreciation / wear & tear - that's usually the rate used including fuel, oil, etc which you've already paid for. Maybe as a way to justify a lower rate, you could point to other organisations that use the £0.45 rate all in, and deduct your fuel receipts OR the average cost of fuel per mile for that car.

If you get a refund less the wear & tear (calculated more fairly) then you're not exactly paying for the time you owned but couldn't use it. So while the time to repar does seem high, I can't see that changing the maths since you're getting a full refund less the actual usage.

MattMattMattUK

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6685834/refund-for-used-vehicle-and-fair-usage-per-mile-rate

45p per mile would be normal for a lease car, but for a car of that age it would be high.

Those timescales are not unusual for significant fixes/repairs.

Stand up in court in terms of what?

How many miles has the car done in total and how many miles have you driven it whilst you have had it?

PugRuu

The car was just over the 79k mark on purchasing and I have driven 3110 miles

MattMattMattUK

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82160374#Comment_82160374

At that mileage I would expect 10-15p per mile depending on the overall condition of the vehicle, though they could potentially argue up to 20p per mile. Dealers cannot use the HMRC 45p (now 55p) per mile rate, because that covers fuel, tax and insurance, not just general wear and tear and depreciation.

The issue is probably going to be getting them to agree to that and reject accept the rejected vehicle. In a legal sense any usage of the vehicle after you have stated you have rejected it invalidates that rejection, so you need to plan how you do that carefully.

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82160359#Comment_82160359

its not depreciation or wear thought, the CRA allows the merchant to deduct "use" not depreciation or diminution. Unfortunately the CRA doesnt stipulate how use should be calculated.

The OP paid £4,245, im assuming there was no trade in or such that they have forgotten to tell us about. In principle if 45p was a reasonable amount then in theory they are saying there was 9,433 of miles use left in the car when they sold it. That certainly

The OP is being very risky continuing to use the vehicle though, once you have reject it you should stop all use immediately. Any use after rejection other than to return it is effectively a withdrawal of the rejection

paul_c123

What is the mileage now? Mileage when you bought it? Condition - I assume its not cosmetically better. And it will have another owner on the log book. And MoT/service - have you just MoT'd and serviced it? And valeted it to retail condition?

The only way to come up with an accurate figure would be to determine the value of the vehicle then and now.

Grumpy_chap

I am currently not using the car, as they told me not to drive the vehicle until cause of the oil leak can be determined, but I do drive it for very short necessary trips within my village

"Using" or "not using" the car is a binary distinction. "Not using apart from" sounds very much like "using". Doing so risk undermining your rejection of the car.

PugRuu

Thank you everyone, I appreciate what you have had to say.

born_again

44 miles a day despite being told not to drive. " I do drive it for very short necessary trips within my village" is not exactly short trips.

LightFlare

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82160848#Comment_82160848

agreed

They instructed you to not drive the vehicle, you continued to do so and they may be able to evidence this with recorded mileage readings

You may find that they are less cooperative when/if this is discovered