FOS upholds rejection of Range Rover 3.0D Hybrid  

The interaction between statutory and legal rights, used car warranties and manufacturer guarantees is often a bone of contention between dealerships, finance companies and customers.

Almost without exception, where the buyer has owned the car for 7 or 8 months the trader will suggest liability under the manufacturer’s guarantee for a particular part will take primacy, followed by the (often-limited) liability of the third-party warranty in terms of cover and claim value.

This is what happened when the Hybrid battery failed on Miss B’s 2015 Range Rover 3.0D hybrid, leaving her seemingly with no recourse.

The facts

In September 2021 Miss B bought the Range Rover for around £38,000 by way of a Hire Purchase Agreement with Alphera Financial Services.

The car had relatively low mileage, around 60,000, and was supplied with a 12 month dealer warranty.

In May 2022 the car broke down and was recovered to a Land Rover dealer for inspection revealing the hybrid battery to be faulty and requiring replacement at a cost of around £20,000.00.

The Land Rover dealer explained that the hybrid battery was supplied with a 6 year manufacturer’s warranty which had expired shortly before Miss B bought the car.

Miss B contacted the warranty company, as advised by the dealer, only to be told that the warranty doesn’t cover hybrid electric vehicle batteries.

Miss B complained to Alphera, who did not uphold her complaint explaining:

As the fault with your hybrid battery occurred approximately 8 months into your agreement, it’s not considered to have been there when you bought the car and we have received no evidence to suggest otherwise, given that there were no reported faults prior to this one since purchase.

Our Instructions

Miss B instructed Stormcatcher to provide a legal opinion on the merits of her case and instructed Mr Harmer to take up the matter with the dealership, Alphera and the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Decision

Stormcatcher successfully argued the Range Rover had not endured for a reasonable period in that 8 months into a 60-month finance agreement and after 6000 miles, cannot be right.

An independent inspection revealed:

“(the manufacturers) guarantee the battery for 6yrs/60,000 miles. As the vehicle was less than 7 years old when the battery failed it would be reasonable for the manufacturer to make some contribution to the battery/replacement costs”

This supported the position that there is some liability by the manufacturer, but because Miss B bought the car from a dealer by way of finance this liability lay with them.

The Financial Ombudsman Service decided that under normal circumstances Alphera would be allowed the opportunity to repair the Range Rover. However, because they had declined liability and refused to accept the rejection, that opportunity had passed.

Alphera were ordered to unwind the finance agreement and pay Miss B back her deposit and refund her the payments paid despite not having use of the car.

The full FOS decision can be found here >>>>>

chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/decision/DRN-3944517.pdf

Conclusion

This case demonstrates how often finance companies misinterpret the relevant legal principles and exclusively focus on the application of the Consumer Rights Act 2015, when there are several other common law and statutes which are applicable.

In this instance, the position of Alphera seemed to pivot on the car breaking down after 6 months and the mistaken application of the law in these circumstances. This led the complaint being unnecessarily protracted, causing Miss B significant financial and personal distress.

If you’re having problems with Alphera about a vehicle bought from them on HP and need to reject a car call 0333 700 7676 for first advice.