February 2006
Can anyone please advise as we are not legal or financial experts!
My Dad has an Audi A4 Tdi on a three year lease agreement, which reaches the end of the lease period in 2 weeks time. At the start of the contract he was told he would have to sell the car and pay a "bubble payment" of £8725.
Then recently he was told it was £8725 +VAT, so the payment required would be £10250 (which he may not be able to raise by selling the car).
So he decided he would pay the bubble payment and keep the car himself, as there is nothing wrong with it, basically buying it off the lease company.
But he has spoken to them today and they have told him he cannot buy it; he has to either:
(a) sell it to a 3rd party, pay the £10250, plus pay them 2.5% of the cash raised from the sale; or
(b) pay the £10250, keep using the car, but continue paying the £300 per month installments he has been paying, and he will never own the car!!
I thought paying the bubble payment would be the end of the agreement and the car would be his to either sell or keep?
He was never made aware of the extra 2.5% in option (a), and (b) sounds ridiculous, is that legal?
He has now been advised by a friend that under the Consumer Credit Act, as he has paid more than 50% of the new value of the car in installments, he can tell them he doesnt want the car any more and give it back to them and not pay the £10250.
So with this third option, are there any other implications (legal) other than making the finance company a bit upset?!
If he does this, does he have to notify them before the lease runs out, ie. within the next 2 weeks?
Any advice much appreciated,
Rich.
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I noticed the Subaru dealer in Belfast (Donelly Subaru) advertising delivery miles Subaru Impreza 1.6TS for £9995.
It would be a bit underpowered for my taste, but could be an interesting alternative for someone considering a Focus/Astra etc etc Eurobox. Read more
sorry i googled it but cant find it now, i always thought a 1600 boxer 4 wheel drive would be underpowered but what i read said it needed stirring but would be ok,i reckon for £10,000 if anyone fancies it they should take one for a good ten mile thrash ,that should tell you once and for all if its underpowered?
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\"a little man in a big world/\"
Afternoon!
Just looking around at some Golfs (see my previos post) and I have found a 05 reg Golf 1.9TDI, 3dr with 5k on the clock for £10,995, 10 miles down the road from the black one I test drove (an 04 reg Golf TDI 3Dr) which is an identical spec, but more than a year older than the red one, with twice the miles for £11,995.
Is it purely down to the colour that the red one is £1000 cheaper, or is the Black one overpriced (i appreciate everything is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it, but still, £1000 is a lot of money!!) Read more
OK...so the GOOD looking, solid colour red cars are...
Bently Continental with the white (& I don't like) leather & red piping upholstry.
Most rag tops
Most city cars & superminis
E Type & XK8
Range Rover - there's a well speced blingish one in Luton
Rx8 - but it's not a solid red
VB
Can anyone tell me where the fuel filter is located on this car please?
thanks Read more
Is it normal for diesels to use/lose a little water over a period of time? Thinking of the higher compression etc... Read more
It may well be true. According to the Haynes Manual for the Pug 306 1993-99, the coolant should be changed every 2 years with the recommended water/antifreeze mixture. I've done just that when fitted new radiator and also when I had a replacement engine fitted after head gasket failure- which was probably partly the result of irregular coolant changes and corroding/leaking radiator in the first place when the car was under previous ownership.
Martin
I collected our Xantia today, following replacement of the cambelt (I hope). On my way home, one of the turbo intake pipes came adrift at the front of the car, because he jubilee clip which should have been securing in place had not been tightened. I stopped at a farmhouse nearby and asked to borrow a screwdriver to fix it.
On getting back home, I did a thorough inspection of what I could see under the bonnet and I discovered one completely loose jubilee clip, which should have been securing a connection from the air filter and another not tightened properly on another part of the turbo intake pipe. There were also a few smaller pipes that hadn't been put back into securing clips.
Now the garage that did the work is owned by a chap who has serviced the car for about nine years but he now employs three other people, so he doesn't do all of the work. There have been a few other examples of the kind detailed above, with loose connections etc, when I have had our Citroens serviced there, and I am convinced that they were responsible for breaking the turbo pressure sensor on the C5. I have spoken to the proprietor about it and he has always apologised, but I am now worried about what might have been done unsatisfactorily in the past, or might be done in the future, that I don't find out about.
Should I be looking elsewhere for future repairs and service on the Citroens? The big problem is there is not much choice. Read more
I would suggest a very polite and absolutely factual letter to the garage concerned. In the letter, I would point out that some further aspects of the work done are of a critical nature (eg. securing timing belt tensioner) and invite the proprietor to check the quality of the repair work done.
This would stand you in good stead if the unthinkable were to happen to the timing belt due to poor workmanship.
659.
Can anyone help please. I've got the head off my 1.6 petrol sportrak, but can't find torque settings and tightening sequence. It's got 10 bolts in the head. Read more
Arnie
The bolts can be reused. Tighten in three stages; middle two bolts first then go diagonally outwards in the conventional way.
Stage 1 19-27 Nm
Stage 2 39-47 Nm
Stage 3 59-67 Nm
No time periods or engine temp specified.
Late on saturday night, I was called out to attend a fatal road traffic accident, in which the 17yr old passenger of a Renault Clio was unfortunately killed. The details of the accident are irrelevant to the post.
Is there more that can be done to try and lessen the number of young drivers killed? I am talking here solely about young drivers, and acknowledge that all age groups have drivers who drive too fast and kill themselves or others as well.
Do we need better education for new drivers, a more stringent driving test, or legislation limiting engine size/power available to young drivers? My opinion for what it's worth, is there is probably very little that can be done. Young drivers seem to have a feeling of invincibility, which I think is very difficult to remove. This does sound somewhat defeatist though.
As an aside, how do those of you with children of that age cope with the worry when they go out at? I've got many years before my daughters are of that age, but the thought fills me with dread even now.
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let me be the last to let you down.... Read more
i agree with a lot of comments here. when i was around 17 and some of my friends had first passed their test (in a then high range and modern car)and gone out and bought some variation on a 30 year old escort (etc). Three of my friends rolled their cars within 6 or 7 months (around North Yorkshire we have curbs at the side of all the country roads). They had never learned to drive the cars they had bought, if that makes sense. A knackered old escort handles completely differently from a brand new astra.
I never learned to drive until I finished university because i just couldn't afford it and I think that has what has made me religiousley stick to speed limits and generally be careful. It's not my daddies money i'm throwing away if i write a car off.
Tests I think vary from region to region. where i took mine it was very strict and I don't think making it any stricter would decrease the amount of bad drivers. It is, as has been said many times, experience that counts. and it is easier to gain experience with the right attitude.
Hi,
I wonder if you can shed some light on this. I had my 2002 reg Clio act all odd and on taking it to the main dealer was told the throttle housing had gone. This was an expensive job to replace.
Now, I just did a web search (it had not occurred to me to that first) and discovered that clios in 2002 were recalled with a throttle housing issue. But it was for 1.4 and mine is a 1.2.
So was this failure just bad luck or should I fight to have been done at Renaults expense?
Cheers.
IC
PS My other car is a scenic and the timing belt went on saturday night. I had only been serviced at a Rnault garage about 9/10 months ago and nothing was said to us about getting it looked at. There are 68k miles on the clock. Should it have been replaced at the last service? Is this just another case of bad luck or should I chase Renault on this too? Yes all pistons need to be replaced and the valves rebored - but at an independant garage this time.
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My wife's 98 Clio 1.6 used to suffer from a problem where it would not idle, the dealers immediate response was to propose changing the throttle body, they reckoned the throttle position sensor was faulty. Having read about similar issues on this forum and elsewhere I got her to use premium brand rather than Tesco fuel (it also coincided with us moving and thus having a local BP), this solved it and the problem has not returned in 3 years.
Re Scenic cambelt, I am not sure what the scheduled change is on this though it is probably 50k miles / 5 years. Therefore if the car was serviced with say 52 - 55k miles on the clock the dealer really should have highlighted that it needed doing, on the otherhand if it had 60k on the clock he may have reasonably assumed it had been done.
Nevertheless If the car is less than 5 years old and has full history it might be worth pursuing a good will contribution from Renault though this would only be a possibility if the work is done at a Renault dealer. I personally would get the work done at a dealer anyway, I reckon you would have more comeback on them if the engine is not a crisp as it was etc.
I bought a VW Passat 2001 1.8 T recently and the climate control unit was missing but having installed a new one the controls are working and heat is coming out but the blue lcd display will not light up. I have tried installing another unit to see if the unit was faulty but it did the same with that one as well. Any help would be appreciated. Read more
Don't know if this helps but our company Galaxy had a similar problem it either didn't light up or when it did it flashed intermittently plus it was down on gas. The local Skoda garage diagnosed the low pressure, regassed it and reset the unit via VAG-COM.
Browse
VAT can only be claimed on vehicles if they are used 100% for business use - which cars rarely are. There are all sorts of complex formulae for claiming the vat on lease payments, dependent on the original list price of the vehicle. If the car costs have been claimed through his accounts your dad should talk to his accountant about the best way forward - depite being a tax advisor I'm no expert on VAT.