Insuring car dealer won't return to me?

[Cyclingfantastic]

Hi,
Help needed about whether I ought to cancel tax and insurance on a campervan. Said van is at the dealers garage, has been for 10 weeks. I've owned it for only 4 months. Dealer won't communicate beyond saying he's trying to find parts. The specialist garage have stated they can't fix it or find the part. Dealer has said basically go to court and won't communicate ...we r following cab guidelines, and will probably go to court.... Which could take two years. In the meantime what do I do about tax and insurance. The vans stuck at a garage or the dealers, we can't drive it, it's unlikely to get fixed it's am old van. We've given warning of court action, offered mediation, only had the van for about 5 weeks out of 4 months.

Thankyou, very useful, we r in touch with them. Waiting to hear back. But the garage haven't contacted them, perhaps because they know it can't be repaired? We are struggling to be part of the conversation with the garage and the dealer won't communicate.we feel totally entrapped. We don't want it on the road outside our house as moving it to anywhere could require a costly truck. Just trying to drill down on what the actual real problem is. Thanks for the contact ...it's reassuring ...

I don't understand why you don't return it under the Consumer Rights Act? It's not fit for purpose, and the seller has 1 opportunity to attempt a repair in a reasonable time frame.

Do you have legal cover on your house insurance?

Ah, mine was a diesel. I can't remember encountering a 2L petrol.

Right: you can SORN the van: tell the DVLA that it's off the road and not being driven. You should get a refund. Speak to your insurers about the insurance and if you can't get out of it (which legally I don't think you can) then switch to third party and put up the excess to get the insurance as cheaply as possible. If the van is stored at the dealer's garage then any theft or damage occurring will be covered by his business insurance.

Go on the Autosleeper owners sites (there are several) and ask for advice and help. There are lots of enthusiasts and they know everything.

This one seems to offer specialist technical advice:
https://www.auto-sleepers.com/owners/asoc

Unfortunately I think you paid much too much for the vehicle in the first place. My Clubman cost me £15K 15 years ago. We loved it and used it regularly but decided in 2021 to let her go. 42k on the clock, running nicely, no major issues — and I was happy to accept £9k for her. I would suggest making yourself such a pain in the arse at the dealer's that they give you your money back to make you go away. They will probably have offered the previous owners £5, perhaps less for her in a part exchange so they haven't got a massive amount to lose.

Are there any technicalities you can catch them out on? Did they make any promises that they didn't keep to, which you can use to argue they broke the contract? When I bought our van the dealer promised to replace one of the tyres and the rear disc brakes, which were cracked. When I went to collect it none of that work had been done but he still expected me to drive it away. This was a big dealer, not some guy working from his front drive.

Given the length of time this situation could go on for, I might find £200 for a solicitor's advice. There may be selling regulations or the requirement for a three-month guarantee. I've known people in the past buy stunning Japanese imported vans and then have them off the road for months and months while spares are sourced in Japan but I've never heard of issues around VWs before.

I'm sorry and I wish I could offer more help. I hate hearing of Clubmans in distress.

Whoops: the previous owners were probably offered £5K! in PX. Possibly not even that.

Surely there was a 3-month guarantee? I've never bought a. vehicle that didn't come with at least 3 months guaranteed.

Oh, and one last thing: I really wouldn't rely on the CAB to work through this unless you have absolutely no other option. I think the volunteers there are great for things like benefits advice but IME (I have tried seeking advice on these kind of contractual issues several times in the past) they are ultra cautious and conservative and tend to shy away from a fight, whereas IME a nicely phrased solicitor's letter can sort things out surprisingly quickly.

Have you got legal cover on your house insurance?

I would go in all guns blazing, looking for your money back. Then buy another van in February.

Here you go

https://www.xenone.de/Repair-Service/Motor-ECU/ECU-044-906-022-XX/Repair-of-the-engine-control-unit-ECU-044906022D-SIEMENS-5WP4029-VW-T4-BUS-2-0l-AAC::1700.html?language=en

Hi, no legal cover, the dealer has refused to refund, we've communicated following the correct process with CAB and gov UK online claims. He refuse so I have to take him to court for the money!

Thanks. We are making ourselves pains, we have had legal advice, but he refuses to communicate and insists that 10 weeks is reasonable. I'm concerned he's about to go bust and therefore doesn't care about legal action.b

Well I think all you can do is initiate a pre action protocol, making sure to quote the consumer rights act, the unreasonableness of the length of time it has taken and outline the timeline of communication and the failure to respond. I would include in that given the refusal to take the vehicle back, that you will be claiming the cost of insurance in the claim.

Our council have a consumer rights service and they are brilliant at drafting letters and giving advice. It might be worth checking out if yours has similar.

I used to volunteer for CAB. Tbh the standard can be quite patchy.

I used to volunteer for CAB. Tbh the standard can be quite patchy.

Thank you for acknowledging that. I don't like knocking the CAB, I know how hard the volunteers work. But sometimes when I see people saying that the CAB have said this, or that, and accepting the advice unquestioningly, I feel the need to step in and remind people that CAB isn't infallible.

Oh, OP — think about social media. Post about your unfortunate situation, asking for help, and name the dealer.

There's no correlation of prices 15 years ago to today's. They are rarer, they are sought after and COVID hiked prices massively. After having about 20 campervan the price we paid was reasonable.

Wow ..no council support here, but would have been great if that had been an option. I didn't use a credit card etc, feel a right idiot paying by bank transfer.

Sad you missed out on mine. Of course I know that there's no correlation of prices over the 15 years but when you buy a 25-year-old vehicle (that for years made us a laughing stock among friends with their VW pop-tops) you know you're likely to be in for big maintenance and repair bills.

I know how much the dealer is likely to have offered for PX because it was what was offered for mine when I proposed a PX deal for a newer van. My van was younger than yours at the time and it was 2021 — the height of van-mania.