When Dinesh’s finance agreement came to an end, he faced problems in selling the car on. He found out the mileage disclosed by the finance provider and odometer was a lot more than what he’d originally bought it for.
What happened
Dinesh bought a car that was around five years old through a hire purchase agreement. It had a mileage of 25,000 miles on the odometer and that was also recorded on the sale documents. When Dinesh tried to sell the car on after the agreement had ended, it came to light that the mileage when he’d bought it was in fact around 30,000 more than shown on the odometer and in the sales paperwork. So Dinesh struggled to sell the car on.
Further investigation revealed that a faulty instrument cluster had been replaced by the same dealership a few years before Dinesh had got the car. This had caused the odometer to reset.
Dinesh complained to the finance provider who offered Dinesh £500 compensation. Dinesh didn’t think the finance provider had considered his circumstances properly and the problems he faced, so he contacted us to complain.
What we said
We agreed with Dinesh that the garage’s statement about the car having 25,000 miles on the clock was incorrect. We were also satisfied that given the huge difference in mileage – Dinesh wouldn’t have bought the car for that amount, had he been aware of the actual mileage. We also noted the problems Dinesh had when he tried to sell the car on. So we asked the business to take the car back and refund Dinesh’s deposit with interest at 8%.
Even though Dinesh had not got the car he’d expected, he’d had a trouble free drive of the car during the time he’d had it. So we didn’t ask the finance provider to refund any of the monthly payments he’d made towards the agreement. But we did think he’d suffered some inconvenience and so asked the finance provider to pay him £150 to reflect this.