Finance deal confusion

[Iain-Le-Roi]

I originally ordered my Van early December on the 3.6 APR 4 yr PCP deal but shortly after (January) a new Q1 deal came out which I was told I could switch to (and California Chris even said in his videos and the comments said we would be able to switch to). The new figures were sent to me and I agreed that's what we would proceed on (nothing signed). The new deal was better as it was lower APR (2.9) and was a 5 year PCP deal so the payments were much more affordable. Now I am being told that as my Van has arrived after Q1 then I cannot have that deal, even though it is VW's delays that have pushed me beyond that date. My options are now the new Q2 deal which is much worse or back on the original December deal which I have since totally discounted as an option and changed the amount I was putting in and the monthly payments I have budgeted for. This is all happening a few days before I am due to pick up the Van. The dealer is now going to "see what they can do" by speaking to VW finance but didn't sound too hopeful. Does anyone have any experience of this or know where I stand as I'm pretty furious? It’s actually stressing me out now and really tainting what should have been the most enjoyable purchase I’ve ever made, and it was already bad with the communication and delays.

 

[VWCoastbusters]

No experience other than to say we've done exactly the same - agreed a new deal on the new figs in Jan. We aren't picking up our van til end of next week so not heard anything about it yet but I'll check to see. Would be a real issue for us as we've changed out finances around for this new deal and not sure we could proceed on the old one. I'll be livid if this is the case and we haven't been informed.

 

[Iain-Le-Roi]

Exactly the same here. I was given those figures in January so I have saved the (lower) deposit accordingly and based on it being spread over 5 years. I can’t afford to put extra in to get the payments down to the manageable amount I have agreed with them and don’t want to be paying more than I’ve planned each month. They have made the experience so stressful.

 

[VWCoastbusters]

Hopefully they'll honour the agreement due to the delay being theirs and you not being warned this could happen. Seems a bit dodgy to me.

 

[Iain-Le-Roi]

I’ve got it all written and agreed in emails and through numerous phone conversations so you would hope so. I’ll hopefully find out in the morning so would let you know. Not sure where I can take it next if they come back with bad news but I won’t be accepting it without taking it to the top.

 

[andyinluton]

The dates where when I was looking to place an order & the deals clearly said for vehicles delivered by xxxx date.

How much has it gone up by? todays PCP figures allow deposits as low as 1% and 5 year PCPs
Putting in just £1k on a 4motion Ocean on a 5 year deal ( so most expensive van & stupidly low deposit) means you end up paying 14k in interest, at 2.9% you would still be paying about 10K so an increase of £4k / 60 months = an extra £66 per month.

If you've put in 10% deposit & got the normal 10-12% deposit you will be borrowing less & it would only be an extra £50/month


Depending on how you were going to pay the final balloon I would be seriously considering VWs HP option over 7-71/2 years at the same payments but not needing to worry about finding / financing the balloon.
If the new payments are too high you could do the Hp over up to 10 Years.

 

[VWCoastbusters]

I've got the pcp quotes sent from the dealer and there are no terms attached and no wording relating to timeframes. Therefore, we agreed to a deal not knowing about any timing issues. Will be interesting to hear what they say. Unfortunately, £50 a month is a lot of extra money for us - we are very tightly budgeted.

 

[Iain-Le-Roi]

Just checked as I screen shotted the deal and no obvious mention of delivery dates so it must have been buried in small print rather than clearly
Stated.
Surely all the above is beside the point if the dealer has provided those figures to me and told me that’s the deal I’ll be on and are only now going back on this days before pick up? Why should I pay an extra £50 per month to VW just because you seem it “only” ?

 

[VWCoastbusters]

Just checked as I screen shotted the deal and no obvious mention of delivery dates so it must have been buried in small print rather than clearly
Stated.
Surely all the above is beside the point if the dealer has provided those figures to me and told me that’s the deal I’ll be on and are only now going back on this days before pick up? Why should I pay an extra £50 per month to VW just because you seem it “only” ?

I agree. Definitely worth the challenge. It's making the van £3,600 more expensive - or whatever your figures are. I'd be asking for that as a price reduction if they won't honour the deal. We had no paperwork at all so I think they are on a questionable legal footing to refuse it if they haven't shared the legal terms. How do they know you saw the post online and weren't told it by a VW employee?

 

[VWCoastbusters]

Also, there's no logic of them allowing you the deal when you ordered for the deal now - surely the same rule should apply with the first deal that its expired? So how can they justify allowing one but not the other?

 

[Dodge1311]

Hi,

I went through this yesterday when I collected my van exact scenario but stood my ground and they said that VW had agreed to it. I am quite sure it is going to be honoured for everyone that challenges it. Note I don’t think you can cherry pick any offer though and mix and match. Either the current deals or the ones in place at the point of order. For me the 3.6% + the £1,000 VW deposit contribution 5 year warranty and 4 services worked out best for me.

 

[Iain-Le-Roi]

Hi,

I went through this yesterday when I collected my van exact scenario but stood my ground and they said that VW had agreed to it. I am quite sure it is going to be honoured for everyone that challenges it. Note I don’t think you can cherry pick any offer though and mix and match. Either the current deals or the ones in place at the point of order. For me the 3.6% + the £1,000 VW deposit contribution 5 year warranty and 4 services worked out best for me.

Was that over 4 years or 5 years? Only 4 years was available to me at point of order but we didn’t really go through the finance in great detail as the new deal over 5 years came out shortly
After which they have always based my figures on.

 

[Iain-Le-Roi]

I agree. Definitely worth the challenge. It's making the van £3,600 more expensive - or whatever your figures are. I'd be asking for that as a price reduction if they won't honour the deal. We had no paperwork at all so I think they are on a questionable legal footing to refuse it if they haven't shared the legal terms. How do they know you saw the post online and weren't told it by a VW employee?

Yes good point. Obviously all deals are still available (within reason) for the different points people ordered at. Anyone who ordered a couple of weeks after me could still get that deal so it’s still there and would be a case of won’t rather than can’t.

 

[VWCoastbusters]

Hi,

I went through this yesterday when I collected my van exact scenario but stood my ground and they said that VW had agreed to it. I am quite sure it is going to be honoured for everyone that challenges it. Note I don’t think you can cherry pick any offer though and mix and match. Either the current deals or the ones in place at the point of order. For me the 3.6% + the £1,000 VW deposit contribution 5 year warranty and 4 services worked out best for me.

Sorry, just to clarify, you didn't get the 2.9 or you chose the 3.6?

 

[SJL178]

I asked my dealer for an updated pcp deal moving from the 3.6% deal onto the 2.9% deal, having questioned Cali Chris whether this would be possible. I have this quotation in writing and this 'should' be the one that was submitted to VW for final approval.
Interestingly, whilst i was a allowed to change the finance deal, apparently i was unable to take the whole deal losing out on the £1200 worth of options. Anyone have any success securing this when moving deals?
Hopefully collecting mine next week so will be keeping fingers crossed for you all, look forward to reading about your experiences.

 

[Iain-Le-Roi]

I asked my dealer for an updated pcp deal moving from the 3.6% deal onto the 2.9% deal, having questioned Cali Chris whether this would be possible. I have this quotation in writing and this 'should' be the one that was submitted to VW for final approval.
Interestingly, whilst i was a allowed to change the finance deal, apparently i was unable to take the whole deal losing out on the £1200 worth of options. Anyone have any success securing this when moving deals?
Hopefully collecting mine next week so will be keeping fingers crossed for you all, look forward to reading about your experiences.

Yes, I had the same. They said I could have the deal but not the 1k free options which I agreed to and asked to proceed on that basis. No mention of an expiry date. I don’t know whether they then sat on it rather than submitting to VW. Will
Let you know what they say tomorrow.

 

[Dassy1308]

I ordered mine Jan 20 (obviously pre-pandemic) and the deal at the time expressly stated it was valid for vehicles delivered prior to 31st March (which obviously didn’t happen).

When the Cali turned up in early August I too was told that VW wouldn’t honour a Q1 ‘promotion’ for a Q3 delivery. They’ll allow a single quarter delay, but not two. A bit of dealer jiggery-pokery got me close enough to not matter (VW’s APRs were consistently around the 4.9% mark that year anyway).

My takeaway from the experience is that VWCV UK do try to do the right thing, but VWFS have their hands tightly bound.

Anyway - see what your dealer can do. Good luck!

 

[Elmo3]

Vendor finance companies typically run quarterly programs. When you place an order for goods, you are contracting with the supplier to purchase said goods at the price stated on the order. Who actually funds the purchase price is irrelevant, whether it’s the customer directly (or indirectly via a bank loan, overdraft etc) or a finance company, manufacturer badged or third party.

I fully understand the issues with long lead time vehicles and hope those impacted manage to find a solution. There may be some leeway and goodwill from VWFS (it will be out of the dealers hands) but don’t be surprised if there‘s not (I was in the leasing industry for circa 20 years btw). Good luck.

 

[Dodge1311]

Sorry, just to clarify, you didn't get the 2.9 or you chose the 3.6?

I chose the 3.6% as the deposit contribution was lower on the 2.9% deal and the list price of the vehicle had also increased when the offers switched over. They did offer me 5 years on 3.6% which was not something I took up as the payments were £5 pcm lower over 5 years so i saw no benefit to myself in extending. The total cost of purchase ( which is always my primary driver) was £1,527 more to go over 5 years. My original deal at 3.6% with £1,000 deposit contribution worked out like for like at £2,392 less that the current deal over 4 years but of course i had to buy my servicing and extended warranty separately at £428 so net saving of £1964 plus the old list price. If i was to order today at the new pricing assuming i could achieve the same discount which i just tried with drive the deal the same van discounted is at best £1,724.36 ( assumes a 12% discount) more,sfor a high specced Ocean the real world total price to pay if financed for me would be £3088.33 more that it was 9 months ago.

 

[Iain-Le-Roi]

Wouldn't you have to buy servicing and warranty either way? I didn't think either the 3.6 or 2.9 deal had this. The new one seems to include all sorts but is a much worse rate. Does anyone have the detail of what freebies you should get with each,

Q1 2021 2.9% - 600 deposit and 1K options (not available if you transfer over to it though)
Dec 2020 3.6% - 1000 deposit - If I get put back on this then should I be getting anything else?
Q2 2021 4.9% - News free stuff like camping membership but I am not interested in being on the latest.

 

[andyinluton]

Q2 2021 4.9% - News free stuff like camping membership but I am not interested in being on the latest.

I cant see that there is anything at all being offered in Q2.

The £99 for 2 services has disappeared from the servicing part of the site, no mention even of the camping membership.

 

[testpilottimmy]

Looks like 4.9% with 4 year warranty and 4 years servicing (wonder if this includes the cam belt . ..)

VW California Camper Van Finance & Lease Deals | VW Vans

Explore Volkswagen California great-value finance deals and get in touch. Get the California with solutions personal contract plan. Request a quote.

www.volkswagen-vans.co.uk

 

[WelshGas]

Looks like 4.9% with 4 year warranty and 4 years servicing (wonder if this includes the cam belt . ..)

VW California Camper Van Finance & Lease Deals | VW Vans

Explore Volkswagen California great-value finance deals and get in touch. Get the California with solutions personal contract plan. Request a quote.

www.volkswagen-vans.co.uk

It won’t, nor the DSG or Haldex oil changes.

 

[Perfectos]

Heads I win tails you lose

I wonder if you challenge the fact that VW failed to deliver your vehicle in the prescribed time frame stated at the inception of the contract / or within a reasonable time thereafter (delivery date stated at time of order) it was therefore VW who invariably varied the spirit of the original contract (not the customer).
which now disadvantages the customer, Who through no fault of his / her actions and who has no control over when VW chose to deliver the order, now has to pay more or lose some of the previous benefit of the agreed contract

there is a legal & moral argument which could be upheld.

fianacing in the U.K. is heavily regulated, regulators don’t like the consumer being rolled over and being asked to pay more for goods and services through no fault of their own!
the express intention of the contract was to secure business at a certain finance rate with the intention of delivering a product within a reasonable time srated at the time of the contract (within a reasonable margin).

VW’s well documented inability to deliver orders or accurately inform customers of delays and potential variation to the original contract (in a timely manner) , should not allow VW to vary the intended contract to the detriment of the paying customer.

 

[Swiss Cheese]

I agree with @Perfectos . If you happen to have some form of home legal protection/advise, then give them a call and explain along with what is mentioned by him. Very good statement of the situation from a potential claim standpoint.