Worried about MOT, please advise?

mcjordi

still close enough if it comes with a little mot lol (even 1 day would do to drive it home)

boxerlover_2

mcjordi wrote: »

still close enough if it comes with a little mot lol (even 1 day would do to drive it home)

Will certainly keep you in mind!

mcjordi

i hope it passes cheaply for you tho.. its a pain in the arris when it costs daft money

boxerlover_2

I've just been having a chat with a friend about my car.

He thinks I should get it up for sale straight away on Autotrader. The MOT doesn't run out until beginning of Oct (I was confused with the date, I was looking at the earliest date you could have it tested to keep your anniversary!) The tax runs out this month, so I will buy 6 months. My friend does car detailing and has very kindly offered to give it a throughly clean, inside and out, hopefully this will make it more attractive to buyers.

Even if I only get a few hundred pounds, I can add it to my other saved money and buy something else.

I would really like an estate as I have 2 dogs. Just having a quick look on Autotrader, they have a good few around the 2,000 mark, am I best looking at Diesels? There is one that looks interesting, its a Fiat, 2003, done 50,000 miles, FSH. Seems very cheap?

Any advice would be greatfully received!

bigjl

I would think it is worth a lot more than £450 as a private sale, why not pop round a few dealers and see what they will give you on a trade-in, a slightly rusty KA will be nothing unusual for a trader, if it isn't obviously rusty to look at, only underneath you may get a nice surprise.

Another option is to take it for an MOT pretest, if it is going to fail then it shouldn't show up on the database as having failed, if they say it is good to go, then get the same garage to test it ASAP.

Don't forget that your car is the most desirable KA around, not including the more sports orientated and softtop, which are a little more of a niche car anyway.

As far as Diesel goes, they are more expensive to buy, dearer to service, more complicated and tend to be used by higher mileage drivers, there are lots of good petrol estate cars, Astra, Focus or simliar are good cheap reliable cars.

As a completely leftfield choice what about a Chevrolet Tacuma, CarGiant has them on an 07 plate with 15 to 20k on the clock, 2.0 CDX, Auto for under £3000, when my wife bought her Clio diesel we looked seriously at them, but the wife does 20k a year and we went for the diesel choice, but for cheap family motoring or a car with space for a dog, you really can't go wrong for £3000, they even have an 08 for under £4000. not pretty, but they where probably £12000 new.
http://www.cargiant.co.uk/Chevrolet/details-477068-Chevrolet.asp

boxerlover_2

Thanks for that post bigjl!

I had no idea you could get an MOT Pre-test, do all MOT garages do these?

I've been researching around and my car, sold privately at the moment could be worth around 900.00, I will go around some local garages too and see what they offer!

I only do around 5,000 miles per year, so might be better getting a petrol car then, I just thought diesel cars lasted longer and were cheaper to run, tax etc.

I will look into the car you suggested, I must admit I have been surprised at what is available around my budget! :T

bigjl

My usual MOT garage does them, just ask the receptionist or other staff there, as far as tax goes, check before you buy, my wifes car has tax, I think that is £30 a year, not sure about the car I linked to, probably more due to it being a 2.0, but for the price it is a lot of car, not the prettiest but value, value, value.

boxerlover_2

bigjl wrote: »

My usual MOT garage does them, just ask the receptionist or other staff there, as far as tax goes, check before you buy, my wifes car has tax, I think that is £30 a year, not sure about the car I linked to, probably more due to it being a 2.0, but for the price it is a lot of car, not the prettiest but value, value, value.

I will ask my local garage tomorrow about the pre MOT test. I'm not bothered about how cars look, as long as they get you from A to B, that's the most important thing to me!

jd82

The Fiestas failed on all of them in the past. Its not a big job really but depending on how bad it was it probably should not have been left. You don't want a wishbone snapping or a brake pipe failing at 70mph.