Advice please! Car engine blown up!!!

Ems!

Hi

I'm just after a bit of advice on what are our options on our car now it needs a new engine!! Basically it blew up last week and the breakdown recovery guy said it needed a new engine ( we will get this confirmed but am pretty sure he is right!) We now have a 5 year old car needing a new engine which will cost us approx £1500 including fitting ( we can probably get this cheaper but will look into this if need be). We have pretty much decided we want to get rid of it, we had been considering getting a company car anyway as can get a really good deal, so that decision seems to be made for us now. Problem is, we can't really afford to get it fixed right now. It will prob take us about 3-4 months to save up, and that will be at a push. So, we could either wait 4 months, get it fixed, then sell it for approx £3,000 , or somehow try to get rid in the state it is in now. This would be the most preferable option by far but I don't know if it is possible at all. We would be willing to lose a few hundred - eg if we could get a grand for it as it is now we would snap their hands off, but ppl have told us we would probably only get scrap value, even though its only 5 years old.
The related problems with leaving it til can afford to get fixed is that tax and mot run out in june, but the only place we an reasonably leave it parked is on the street outside our house, so does that mean we can't declare it off road? There is a public car park with no limits to how long you can leave your car there just down the road, if we put it there could we declare it off road? Also, we paid the insurance up front 6 weeks ago, does anyone know if we can now change the policy to 3rd party, fire and theft and get a rebate or have we just lost out there? I will ring insurnance co to check but would be good if someone had an idea!

Sorry for the millions of questions, am just totally clueless on this!!

Thanks in advance for any help.

spacenase

Have you considered sticking it on e-bay?

Ems!

spacenase wrote:

Have you considered sticking it on e-bay?

It has crossed my mind but have no idea what sort of money i could reasonably expect to get for it. I tried several searches to try to find a similar listing but couldn't find any.

hjb123

What sort of car is it? Some car engines are notorious for blowing up! It happened to my parents Discovery and we got it mended but it is still causing no end of problems!

northern_munky

What car is it, what size engine and when you say 'blown up' what exactly happened?

Wig

I'll bet it's the timing belt.

All may not be lost if you tell us what caused the engine failure, the model of the car etc. You might get away with a new head and pistons.

No you cannot SORN it in a car park, and if you did it would get vandalised.
If your insurer will not change policy and refund you, you can cancel the policy for a one month fee, and then take a new policy TPFT (if you really want to).

Gorgeous_George

Decide what the car is worth using Parkers Price Guide to help.

Advertise it on eBay with a reserve of (car value - £1000) and see if it sells. Should only cost about a tenner to advertise it. Include an email address/phone number in the listing and advise that the car is advertised elsewhere. Chabce are that someone with a similar car that has been smashed up on 3rd party insurance will be interested.

GG

Fran

I think you'll have to get it fixed, apart from not having anywhere to put it off road, a car which doesn't work and has no MOT is very unattractive for a buyer!

plane_boy2000

Stick it on Ebay - it will be of interest to someone like a dealer or mechanic who can fix it cheap and sell it on.

Ems!

Thanks for the replys, to answer the questions:

Its a ford focus 1.6 zetec

The car started making a really loud knocking noise while we were on motorway, we pulled over, not sure what to do, and let the car cool down. Turned over engine, all seemed fine, set off again, within 2 minutes the noise started again but really loud, smoke was pouring out of bonnet and exhaust, car absolutely stank, at this point the oil light started flashing ( it hadn't done earlier) , managed to get it to hard shoulder just as it totally conked out.
There was apparantly oil splashed up the back of the car ( according to recovery guy) so looks like it was something to do with an oil leak.
When i say car park, its not like a big car park in a town. Its a small piece of land with room for about 10 cars, where locals park, and I really don't think it would get vandalised if we left it there.If I can't sorn it what does that mean for me cos i obviously can't get it taxed! Just take the fine?
The £3000 i said is roughly what its worth in Parkers ( part ex value as that is lowest) Do you mean adverise for £2,000 with the car not working? I would have thought that was very optimistic! Like I said, at this stage i would accept £1,000. I suppose it might be worth a try on ebay then at a reserve of say £1,500 but I won't be holding my breath!

ArsenalFC

If its an oil leak then the engine is gone for sure.

The other poster suggest putting an ad on ebay with a reserve of £1000, not £2000. £1500 reserve is a good try because you are going by the lowest price guide on your car at £3000. Garage or a mechanic can get a recondition engine fix for cheaper than £1500.