r/CarTalkUK

So, I may have made a rather expensive mistake back in September 2024 when I signed up for a 4-year Personal Contract Hire (PCH) lease on a brand-new Hyundai IONIQ 5. 😅
I opted for a 12,000-mile annual allowance, thinking that would be plenty. Famous last words!
Between commuting to work, it being our only family car, and regular long-distance trips to see my daughter (that’s a whole different story deserving its own subreddit 🤷🏽‍♂️😂), I’ve already clocked up 42,100 miles in just over two years!
Here’s my situation:
● Car: Hyundai IONIQ 5
● Lease: 48 months (started September 2024)
● Mileage allowance: 12,000 miles/year (48,000 total)
● Current mileage: 42,100 miles
● Excess mileage charge: 9p per mile
● Early termination: Apparently 50% of the car’s value, which makes getting out of the lease rather painful.
The frustrating part is that I genuinely like the car. It’s been brilliant, and I’ve had no issues with it whatsoever.
However, at my current rate, I’m going to blow past the mileage allowance well before the lease ends, and I’d rather not get slapped with a hefty excess mileage bill.
So, what are my realistic options?
Has anyone been in a similar situation with a PCH lease? Is there any possibility of renegotiating the mileage allowance, extending the lease, buying the car outright, or finding another way out without taking a massive financial hit?
I’m not particularly keen on getting another car, especially as this one has been great. I just want to find the most financially sensible way forward.
Would really appreciate hearing from anyone who’s navigated something similar, particularly with Hyundai or UK leasing companies.
Any advice, experiences, or creative (legal!) solutions welcome. Cheers!

I bought a used car privately in good faith. I received a V5C showing the registration and VIN, and the VIN displayed on the vehicle matched the V5C. I drove it for months with no issues and later sold it privately.
A few weeks later police seized it as a suspected clone. Their log records a completely different VIN, followed by “NO TRACE ON CHASSIS”, but doesn’t explain where they obtained this second VIN. The buyer is now taking me to County Court.
I have proof of who sold it to me, payment, the V5C and checks from when I bought it. If the car was already cloned when I bought it, where does that leave me legally, and what does “no trace on chassis” likely mean?

I want to pay tribute to the humble banger.

We recently sold our diesel SUV since we’d stopped driving long distances after our little one arrived and with diesel going through the roof. For a long while we were planning to get a used EV to make use of our new driveway, but at the last minute we changed course because I had second thoughts about dropping £16k on a car which is going to have to do a lot of renovation grunt work for the next year or so. Instead, we got a 2011 Grand C-Max (1.6 petrol - not ecoboom) with 125k on the clock for 1/8th of our original budget.

Now I love this car. It’s got loads of useable space and handy sliding doors, it’s been well looked after and seems mechanically sound (got a new timing belt at 90k and sailed through the MOT without any advisories), plus it’s somehow narrower than the Karoq which is a major asset for someone who resents the gravitational pull of ever larger cars.

Obviously the fuel costs will be a lot higher than a home-charged EV, but the upfront saving will make a massive difference to our lives in the short to medium-term. Plus the insurance group is significant lower than most of the EVs we were considering. So I’m suddenly looking at cars through new eyes: why on earth have I spent the last 15 years wilfully ignoring the banger option? Obviously some older cars warrant the moniker, but I have radically underpriced the risk/reward of that end of the market. Not anymore!

I have a late-2016 Golf that has been serviced annually at VW. The original service book was stamped every year up to 2023, but the 2024 and 2025 services weren’t stamped.

I distinctly remember taking the book in and being told servicing was now recorded digitally and they weren’t really using the paper book any more. I’ve already found a Marshall VW health-check email proving the car was at the dealer on 11/11/2024.

Has anyone else with a pre-May-2017 VW that originally came with a paper service book had the VW dealer stop stamping it and rely on the Digital Service Schedule instead? Were you able to get a complete printout from VW when selling? Thanks.