Motor Ombudsman turns 10 with half of complaints turned away

The Motor Ombudsman turned ten on 1 November, and it marked the anniversary with an argument it has been making for most of that decade. Around half of the consumers who contact it cannot be helped, because the dealer or garage they are complaining about is not signed up to one of its codes.

The organisation expects to handle more than 300,000 consumer contacts and more than 50,000 cases this year. In its first year it dealt with around 20,000 contacts and 1,000 cases with a team of about 12 people. It now employs more than 80 staff across London and a new hub in Liverpool, and its codes are followed by more than 7,500 retailers and repairers. The cases it does take show where used car disputes come from and how they end.

The half that is turned away

Membership of the Ombudsman's scheme is voluntary, and that is the source of the gap. A motorist with a fault or a misdescribed car can only use the service if the business on the other side has signed up to one of its four Chartered Trading Standards Institute approved codes. When it has not, the complaint has no route through the Ombudsman at all.

The release says this affects "around half of consumers who contact the organisation", and that the gap is particularly noticeable in the used car market, where complaints remain one of the most prominent sources of contacts and disputes. Bill Fennell, chief ombudsman and managing director, put the case for a change in the rules.

"Every motorist should have access to free, independent and impartial dispute resolution when something goes wrong, regardless of who they have chosen to use," he said. "Under the current system, too many consumers are left without a clear route to redress simply because the business involved is not accredited to an approved scheme."

His ask is mandatory alternative dispute resolution (ADR) across the sector. Automotive Management reported his briefing last week and noted the aim is to have it mandated within another decade.

A rule change that did not close the gap

The legal ground under ADR moved this year, which makes the voluntary membership point worth stating precisely. On 6 April 2026, the Alternative Dispute Resolution for Consumer Disputes (Competent Authorities and Information) Regulations 2015 were revoked and replaced by Chapter 4 of Part 4 of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024.

The new framework made accreditation mandatory for ADR providers, so a body handling consumer contract disputes now needs accreditation or an exemption before it can operate. It tightened the rules on the organisations handling complaints without changing the rules on the businesses that might use them.

Section 308 of the Act sets out the duty on a trader. When a business responds to a consumer complaint, it must tell the consumer about any ADR arrangement available if they are unhappy with the answer. The duty covers schemes the trader is already obliged to join through legislation or through contractual arrangements. Where no such obligation exists, the requirement has nothing to attach to.

For a used car dealer with no contractual or statutory obligation to belong to a scheme, little has changed since 2016. The FCA's motor finance redress scheme covers commission complaints on credit agreements, but it does not deal with a faulty gearbox.

What the disputes look like

The Ombudsman published an insight report on 30 October covering used car purchase disputes between 2023 and 2025.

Used car purchases accounted for 18,570 cases in 2025, or 40% of the 46,092 new consumer cases submitted that year. The figure was 10,262 in 2023, so the volume rose by 81% in two years. Set against 7,807,872 used car transactions in 2025, those cases represent 0.24% of the market, up from 0.14% in 2023.

The typical vehicle in a dispute is 4.7 years old when the consumer submits the case, which puts it past the three-year warranty most manufacturers offer. That timing shapes the arguments. Complaints centre on durability and consumer rights rather than on whether a manufacturer will pay for a repair.

Customer service issues accounted for an annual average of 57% of used car disputes, a category that covers pre-sale preparation, disclosure, communication and repairs that were promised and not completed. Drivetrain faults made up 17% and chassis problems 12%.

The fuel mix in those cases has shifted. Diesel drove 46% of disputes in 2025 against 40% for petrol, a reversal from 2023 when petrol led. Electric cars accounted for 5% of cases, up from 2% in 2023, while hybrids went from 4% to 9%.

Consumers won 55% of cases on average across the three years, with 52% upheld in their favour in 2025 and 40% decided for the business. The share of consumers who withdrew from the process rose from 2% to 8%. Where a monetary value was attached to the claim, the average was £8,007 in 2025, down from £9,085 in 2024 after a rise from £6,875 in 2023.

Why the numbers keep rising

The report gives its own explanations. The used car market itself has grown, with 4,025,550 transactions in the first half of 2026, up 0.2% on the same period last year. A larger pool of transactions produces more complaints even when standards hold steady.

Household finances are the second factor. When a repair is unaffordable relative to the value of the car, a consumer is more likely to escalate a complaint rather than absorb the cost. The third is awareness. More motorists know the service exists, and the Ombudsman says consumers increasingly use free AI tools to work out whether they have a case and to assemble a complaint.

What a buyer can do with this

The practical lesson comes before the purchase. The Ombudsman's codes of practice page lists the businesses accredited to each one, and checking a dealer against it costs nothing. Buying from an accredited business is the difference between having an independent adjudicator available and having to rely on the seller's goodwill or a court claim.

Timing matters as much as paperwork. The report restates the position under the Consumer Rights Act 2015: a defect found within the first six months is presumed to have been present at the point of sale, and the seller has to prove otherwise. After six months the evidential burden moves to the consumer, who has to show the fault was there when the car changed hands. Invoices, diagnostic reports and written correspondence are what that argument is built from.

The MOT record on high-mileage used EVs is more encouraging than the dispute figures alone suggest, and our used EV checklist covers the rest.

None of this depends on the Ombudsman winning its argument about mandatory membership. It depends on the buyer knowing, before the money changes hands, which scheme the seller belongs to. For around half the people who call the service after a sale has gone wrong, that question was never asked.