u/Professional_Shine97

My mother is in her early 60s and drives a Skoda Fabia with 115,000 miles.

She doesn’t earn very much and fuel costs are rising and the car can’t have much life left before things start getting expensive for her.

I have a Polestar 4 and installed a charger at her place a few years ago so she has the infrastructure.

She does 25mi a day but will occasionally need to do 60mi without having range anxiety.

Realistically, what budget do I need to have in order to buy her a suitable EV that will last and be reliable?

[Wales] Bought a used EV (3 years old, 35k miles) from a large dealer in February for £20k, paid outright on debit card. Eight weeks later it completely stopped charging on any charger and threw up a propulsion system warning. Turned out to be a failed battery control module, repair quoted at £2.5k.

I reported it to the dealer in writing straight away citing the Consumer Rights Act and asked them to sort the repair. They told me over the phone to cancel a manufacturer diagnostic I’d already booked and take it to their chosen local garage instead, and to deal with their third party warranty company who they said were acting on their behalf (I followed up with a summary email). The warranty company authorised £2,000. The garage refused to do the work for that amount. The dealership said they’d speak to the warranty company who upped their offer to £2.2k. The warranty company then put in writing that they wouldn’t pay any more and that anything further I need to speak to the dealership. I sent numerous emails, sent an official letter of complaint, sent a demand for repair, sent a second notice (all recorded mail) never replied.

Eventually the garage needed the car off their premises so I had to collect it unrepaired and pay the £199 diagnostic fee myself. I sent a final demand saying collect the car for repair by X date or I’ll arrange the repair myself and recover all costs from you. I also warned them that I now needed a rental car (£30 a day while I was waiting for their reply). They ignored that too, so I had the repair done and paid the £2,500.

At the start of the process, if they’d just paid for the repair in a timely manner, I was willing to absorb my consequential losses (up until that day I had to go collect the car). Now, I don’t feel so sympathetic.

I was on my way to the Shuttle to France when the error started so I’ve included alternative flights, hire car abroad return flights and then 5 weeks of hire car when I returned (while I was giving them time to reply to my complaint, demand for repair and then the time the repair took), postage costs, taxi costs to drop off the vehicle etc. the total value of the claim is now £4,500.

I sent a combined demand for payment as a final notice before action (due to their lack of engagement up to that point). It’s now 3 days to the deadline and they’ve responded saying they’ll pay me £2.2k.

As I understand it they were required under the CRA to repair at no cost to me within a reasonable time and without significant inconvenience, they failed on all counts, and the hire car and travel are consequential losses that don’t need their “approval”. My understanding is that they’re also on the hook for consequential losses such as rearranged trips etc.Everything is documented - every letter, every deadline, every non-response, summary emails I sent them of phone calls.

My concern is that they could argue I should’ve just paid the £300 different between the warranty company and cost of repair and claimed it back later. But I think that only works with hindsight. At the time the warranty company wanted the invoice in their name to pay directly and they only authorised a repair of £2200. It’s not like they said “we’ll contribute £2200 to a bigger invoice” and I was concerned they’d use this as justification not to pay. The warranty company and dealership had been very insistent and clear on “all repairs must be authorised first”.

I know I have a duty to mitigate, but every single one of these costs accrued while I was waiting for them to reply to something. They had the power to stop the meter running at any point by simply engaging. So surely they also have a responsibility to mitigate their own costs?

I’m looking for a sense check on the merit of this if I need to file a small claim and if there’s anything that weakens my case here that I need to be mindful of.