Not upheld: satisfactory quality and durability of goods supplied under hire purchase complaint against BMW Financial Services (GB) Limited, trading as Alphera Financial Services

Decision detail

Summary

Ms R purchased a used car under a hire purchase agreement with Alphera Financial Services in February 2024 for £24,995. The car was approximately 5.5 years old with 60,380 miles and passed an MOT test before supply. The engine failed in July 2025 after Ms R had driven it for over 26,000 miles and the car had passed another MOT test in February 2025. Ms R complained that the car was not of satisfactory quality, but an independent expert inspection concluded the engine fault was not present or developing at point of purchase. The ombudsman found insufficient evidence of defects at supply and did not uphold the complaint.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman applied the satisfactory quality test under consumer law, which includes durability. The car was 5.5 years old with 60,380 miles at supply and passed MOT tests both before and after supply with no advisories. The independent expert inspection explicitly concluded that the engine fault causing the failure was not present or developing at point of purchase, and that other faults were to be expected in a used vehicle of this age and mileage. The 18-month period and 26,000+ miles of use between supply and engine failure, combined with the expert evidence, meant there was insufficient evidence of a defect at point of sale.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website