Touched on this in a previous post, I've been looking through all the small print of my hire-purchase finance agreement and can't find anything about my responsibilities maintaining the car. It has all the usual clauses ie. no racing, rallying but just says that keep the vehicle in good condition and they have the right to inspect at any time.

Does this mean I can't get a remap? Do I have to have it serviced by a Skoda main dealer? Can I do the BLT stutter fix myself DIY? Its very unclear what my obligations are, I do own over a third of the car as it is not entirely financed, I put a lump sum down. Finance is probably my one regret with this car, epecially a 4 year plan.

What about settling the finance agreement with a personal loan? Then full ownership transfers to you and you're free to do wtf you like.

What about settling the finance agreement with a personal loan? Then full ownership transfers to you and you're free to do wtf you like.

Yeah could do, an easy solution I know - but working out interest rate comparisons, which makes most financial sense etc etc makes my head hurt Anyway, I'm sure they make settling finance as difficult and expensive as possible

I know the HP rate when I first got my fabia TDI mk1 back in 2001 was well higher than any personal loan rate.

mine is on finance but i own it after i finished paying for it hasnt stopped me moddin mine

I know the HP rate when I first got my fabia TDI mk1 back in 2001 was well higher than any personal loan rate.

Mmm I admit, my VRS was an impulse buy and I didn't research finance schemes. Never had to take out finance for a car before, might take a look at the small print see what it would cost to settle up. But I'm not that fussed about modding it, a remap might be nice and how is a finance co. gonna know thats been done in the small chance they want to inspect. They'll probably track down this post...

so to clarify, it's staying standard for 4 years

I don't see why modifying it would make a difference to your finance at all.. the only time I can think of there being a problem (if there's nothing in your agreement which you say there isn't) is if they repossess the car and deem it to be worth less because of the mods. But to be honest if they've repossessed the car I don't think that'd be the first thing on your mind.

Do you have GAP insurance? The last GAP policy I had stipulated that the car couldn't be modified.

Mine is on finance and I don't have a problem modifying it and have done so

I think there was a recent thread on SCN about a guy who modded his Leon and fell very foul of the T&C's of his finance. Seat wiped the floor with him.

Might be worth doing a search for that thread on here (As it was discussed) and SCN

Mine is on HP - woops

The modifications i've done would take about an hour to reverse. And i own roughly half of the car as well.

The main benefit of HP is that if you are bored of the car/want a new one etc, and you have paid at least 50% of the loan back, you can hand the car back and let the finance company deal with the -ve equity. Then just start from scratch and buy another car. Much better/and cheaper than the balloon payment schemes that they offer.

i had my vrs on finance but all paid off now thank god!!

in the small print of mine it didn't say you couldn't modify the car but did say that if they repossessed the car they would take it as it is and i'd get nothing for the mods i'd put on! so i'd loose more!

going to look on SCN now for that thread lol

The main benefit of HP is that if you are bored of the car/want a new one etc, and you have paid at least 50% of the loan back, you can hand the car back and let the finance company deal with the -ve equity. Then just start from scratch and buy another car. Much better/and cheaper than the balloon payment schemes that they offer.

It is an interesting point as if there is no penalty to doing that it makes heavily depreciating cars a much more interesting proposition.

On the baloon payment thing, my Skoda Solutions has the same 50% time/50% ownership hand-back clause, so you could have the best of both worlds.

Also- when you factor in the extra cost of the interest on a 4-year deal, I suspect your route might not be that attractive.

eg. You buy a car for £12,000 and borrow 10,000 at 2.5% flat/5% APR over 4 years, so you have to pay back £11,000. If you gave it back after paying over your 50% (it's 50% of the amount financed, not the value of the car remember), you would have shelled out £8500 in total, so the car would have to be worth less than £3000 after 4 years to make giving it back viable. Even in today's market I would find that hard to see happening.

My own Skoda plan was 75,000 miles over 3 years, fully maintained including tyres with a GFV of £4105. My local dealer is saying my 55-Reg with 75000 miles on the clock with a full Skoda service history would be worth £7500 against a new, pre-facelift, Octi vRS. Oddly enough, that allows me almost exactly the maximum deposit for a new PCP with Skoda.

You should be OK unless you have GAP insurance.

BUT, should the car be reposed, or voluntarily handed back, then the finance firm will go after you for making the car standard again as well as any losses incurred as a result of non-dealer maintained cars.

SWMBO works in debt recovery on cars, and has people complaining when the finance co slap them with a big bill for various stuff - even handing the car back dirty will incur a valleting charge!

Ah, I got 3 years GAP insurance for free - guess its no remaps for me, I like to stay legal

One of my previous cars (peugeot 206) I bought brand new and I had it on finance and I did all kinds to it, lowered, alloy wheels, induction kit etc etc and the dealer wasnt bothered in the slightest !

Any warrenty work I had done which was only 2 things while I had the car was not a problem

I think when you have a car on finance or it has remaining dealer warrenty it has to be serviced by a main dealer to keep it all valid if you know what I mean ?

My fabia still has remaining warrenty and when I had it in for its service at 40k the dealer actually commented on the tidyness and how well the "after market" parts had been fitted, they scanned it for faults and never said anything about it being mapped which I presume would have showed up ?

Personally I would just do whatever you want to it as you said you own the majority of the car !

Here it is

http://briskoda.net/general-car-chat/very-interesting-read/127392/

That should be an eye opener to everyone that mods on a car that still has warranty