Can you please advise me what to do with a new electric car that has been sitting unused in my garage for almost 12 weeks now?
In May I took delivery of a brand new VW ID.3 electric car that I had leased though a firm called LeasePlan. On arrival it immediately became clear that the car had a number of serious defects, including a faulty engine management system, complete with a “do not drive warning”, dysfunctional indicators, a broken satnav and other problems. VW assist came to look at the car but could not fix it on site, so I formally rejected the car to the lease company in writing. I did so within the 14-day period allowed by the Consumer Rights Act.
Since then the car has been to a VW dealer, which improved matters but did not cure all of its problems, and the car remains rejected by me. After an initial letter chasing payment, LeasePlan has not been in contact. No money has changed hands as I blocked the scheduled payments. LeasePlan has not responded to anything from me since 2 July. Ever since, the car has been sitting in my garage, and I am wondering what to do next. What do I do with the car? RW, by email
Leaving aside the question of how you were delivered a brand new electric car that had so many faults, I think you did exactly the right thing in rejecting it. I would have done the same – too few new car buyers exercise their rights when presented with a problem vehicle. It’s a normal human reaction when you have invested so much in an item to hope that it will be resolved. The problem is that once the 14 days are up it can be much harder to get dealers to resolve problems that persist.
In this case, LeasePlan’s apparent denial of the problem was all the more bizarre since you had not paid it anything. After much to-ing and fro-ing and drawing a similar blank from the company’s head office in the Netherlands, I eventually found someone to come and take the car away. The company has now cancelled the contract and sent you a £250 voucher to apologise.
In terms of the car, it seems VW had to launch a software upgrade to its ID models, which has led to customers complaining of similar problems – although they appear to like them when they are working as they should.
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