Fears of crisis in UK car finance market as owners seek payments help

As car sales plunge by almost half lenders offer repayment breaks or waive interest to halt 'handbacks'

Fears are growing of a crisis in the UK's 75bn car loan market, where 6.5m vehicles have been financed through leasing deals with monthly payments that are already proving unaffordable for some laid-off as a result of the coronavirus.

The Finance and Leasing Association (FLA), which represents the credit arms of the car manufacturers as well as the banks, said: "It's early days in terms of quantifying the impact on arrears, but the number of forbearance requests has grown significantly in recent weeks."

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