Please Help - Bought used car with Dodgy MOT

mi33cupc@ke

Hi all,

I bought a used car 3 weeks ago from a used car dealer for £1500. It was 'sold as seen' with no warranty. They had their own in-house MOT and as such the car came with a full MOT. My exhaust pipe snapped this week and I took the car to Kwikfit who have given me a long list of problems which need sorting amounting to over £1100! I could only afford to have a few things done and now have the car back but have been advised that the other things need doing asap as they are in the red advisory section of the vehicle report they have given me. I asked the guy at Kwikfit whether it should have passed the MOT with these problems and he said no, it should never have passed an MOT.

What on earth should I do? Should I get the problems sorted and go back to the garage to recoup the cost of repairs? Can I report them to VOSA? I just can't afford to fix the problems and now have an unroadworthy car which I don't feel safe putting my children in.

Torby

firstly...Kwikfit can find faults in cars where none exist...so you may need another opinion, I would contact the sellers of the car and find out more about their MOT and see what they say..if you fix independantly then try to recoup the cost you may find it difficult...so first port of call is the dealer...they may be keen to help if their MOT process is dodgy.

gordikin

I wouldn't rely on Kwikfit to put air in my tyres.

catflea

If you believe that there are serious faults with the car that should not have passed the MOT report them to VOSA.

I take it the MOT was done recently?

BTW, the exhaust snapping is not nessecarily something that would have been picked up by the MOT - as long as it wasn't falling off & the emissions OK

Dizzy_Ditzy

gordikin wrote: »

I wouldn't rely on Kwikfit to put air in my tyres.

neither would I!

My advice would be to take it to an independent garage and ask them to look over it for you. That way you have another opinion to back you up when you go back to the dealer. If you dont get any joy with them, I would go to VOSA

mi33cupc@ke

catflea wrote: »

I take it the MOT was done recently?

BTW, the exhaust snapping is not nessecarily something that would have been picked up by the MOT - as long as it wasn't falling off & the emissions OK

Yes it was done a few days before we bought it. When we drove it away about 10 miles down the road the exhaust emissions warning light came on and has been on and off intermittently ever since then. Then the cat converter sheared away from the middle box and I've just had to spend £690 getting it sorted. :eek:

Anyway, I've booked it into my usual garage on Tuesday to get a second opinion and I'll go from there.

cyberbob

The thing is an MOT only states the car was Roadworthy at the time of the MOT. So the faults need to be long term to show the car shouldn't have passed the MOT.


Have you actually spoken to the dealer you bought it from? Before you spend more money getting it checked out I would see what they say first.

catflea

I *think* that its 3 weeks for mechanical and 3 months for corrosion for a VOSA inspection for a dodgy MOT

mi33cupc@ke

cyberbob wrote: »

The thing is an MOT only states the car was Roadworthy at the time of the MOT. So the faults need to be long term to show the car shouldn't have passed the MOT.


Have you actually spoken to the dealer you bought it from? Before you spend more money getting it checked out I would see what they say first.

No I've not spoken to them yet, I wanted to get a second opinion first as queen of cheap says, then I can at least go armed with some sort of back up.

tcr_3

There's a good chance your local council have an MOT test centre for their own vehicles, but it's available to the public too. They don't do any repairs so don't have a vested interest in telling you about work that doesn't need doing. You could contact them, explain your problem & see if they'd be prepared to give the car a look over ?

MSE had an article here you might want to look at. It's got a list of council MOT test centres.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-mot

mi33cupc@ke

Thanks for everyone's help. The car is at another garage as we speak and they are doing a full report for me. Just have to wait and see now. I'll update when I hear anything. Also, they said Kwikfit are a bit notorious for this sort of thing.