PCP car hell

[pinksquash13]

We've got a Nissan juke on pcp at £250 a month. We took it out over 4 years. After 3 years two months, it developed a fault. Turns out it's the camera that controls the automatic brakes (a safety feature that you don't get in most cars - it's not needed). The fan for the air con has also gone. The total cost via Nissan garage is over 4k because it was 2 months out of warrently. Private garages can't fix it. I just cried when they told me and have then ignored the issue as it doesn't affect the day to day running of the car. They did say we might be able to get 20% off parts through good-will but we couldn't as our service provider didn't use Nissan rated engine oil 🙄

That was 6 months ago so our 4yrs is nearly up. What do we do now? We got a letter to say buy out is 8k. Is that our best bet? Last time we gave the car back and had a deposit for a new pcp but with the 4k repair bill, will that be possible? I don't fully understand pcp despite normally being quite financially savvy so I feel really stressed by this situation. Would really appreciate any insight. Aibu to think the 4k bill for a 3yr old car is a joke. They said we hadn't done anything to break the camera. It had just stopped working. Is pcp even a sensible option going forward. This has really put me off.

I think sadly there's no good way out of this situation- all I can do is recount what my husband did with his Audi A4 when the gear box blew up after 3.5 years - so like yours - within the PCP but outside the warranty. Audi wanted to charge £16k for a new gear box 🤯. After much threatening with consumer press discussion, they reduced this to £6.5K so my husband basically had to refinance the balloon payment plus the repair costs over another 4 years. At the time there was not enough value in the car (I guess 'cos it was Undriveable) to hand it back and get a new PCP. This may be different for you as your faults don't stop the car driving.
4 years on the loan is paid off and he's happy to be driving what is still a very nice car, but the lesson we've both taken is to always extend your warranty to match the length of the PCP! Good luck!

Is it too late to take out the extended warranty? I’ve taken it out for a further two years past the regular three years to more than cover it until it’s paid off.

Cars develop faults as frustrating as that is.

You just need to find out the cars value and weigh up whether to just hand back or go for the balloon payment and get it repaired or sold on immediately. Just take the emotion away and look at the numbers

Is it AEB? Can it be turned off and would the car pass an MOT without it? As it's an extra rather than required.

In that case you might be better to buy the car and run it and just trade it at some point. Put the reg into We Buy Any Car for a rough valuation (though faults would knock it down but it is a non essential error).

How much would the air con fan be at a normal garage rather than main dealer. Once it is out of warranty and PCP you can get it repaired where you like.

Second hand car values are quite high just now so 8k might not be a bad buy.

Give the car back with the faults - technically you don't own the car you are renting it. If you make the balloon payment then you own it.
They can reduce the value because of the faults but bare in mind it won't cost the garage the 4K you were quoted as they'd fix it at cost, will get trade pricing etc. so be honest about the faults but do not let them take you for a ride with it. Please include any paperwork regarding the fault so the garage doesn't just play dumb and sell it on without repairing the issue.

But only my personal opinion and experience - get rid of it.

Thank you for replies! @Marmalade71 yes I didn't consider the warranty being shorter than the pcp length but it's definitely been a lesson. Sorry about your car. Too late to extend our warrenty now, or they certainly didn't give that as an option.

We buy any car are saying it's worth 9.5k, balloon payment 8.5k so I guess we will probably buy it and keep it. Will speak to nissan and see what they say.

@Calmdown14 yes that's it so it will still pass MOT. Can a normal garage turn off the feature so it stops flashing up as a faul t every time I drive it?

I tried to get the air con fixed somewhere else but they said it wouldn't be worth it as they'd have to get the part from Nissan. I think that was about 1k with Nissan. I guess I could try somewhere else.

Call the finance company. I work for one so will tell you what my company does.

Ask about voluntary termination - you need to have paid at least half of the total balance for there be no fee. In your situation we would collect the vehicle as a non runner and charge £200 to collect. Then you can walk away.

If any of the faults were present when you purchased the car you can also raise a complaint with us where we would possibly help with repair costs.