Car's a right-off?

ajuk

Ok so according to my MOT I have failed on "offside outer (sill) seat belt ancorage prescribed area is excessively corded" and "offside outer rear (sill) subfraim mounting prescribed area is excessively corded" There also 3 other problems which are £50 to fix each.
Together the guy at the garage said it could take upto 3 hours of welding before they could realise whether it could be fixed or not and the bill to fix the car could be upwards of £600 and I'd be better off scraping it. I should trust someone who turns down work like that?

Oh and there's a lot of advisory stuff that makes me think I'll need a new exhaust, brake discs and roll bar work next year.
It's a P reg Fiesta with only about 70k on the clock the engine is fine despite me not having it serviced for a few years (was going to have it serviced with the MOT but decided against it now) Is it worth me getting a second opinion or should I just scrap it? Anybody know where I can get scap value for the car as it has a good engine. And could anybody give me any advice on what I could replace it with, I just need a good little run around and I have close to £1000 savings.

Lum

A P reg Fiesta, unless it's one of the sporty models that some enthusiasts still desire, is probably worth about £100, unfortunately.

I'm sure your mechanic would be quite happy to do £600 worth of work, recommending that you scrap it offers him no financial gain, so I'd be inclined to listen.

Scrap yard prices very so ring around. You will get more if you can take it to the scrap yard yourself (how much MOT do you have left?). They wont take the good engine into consideration though.

You could try selling it for "spares or repair" and be sure to emphasise how good the engine is with only 70k on it. You might get lucky and that fact that it can (presumably) be driven away currently may make it easier to sell.

As for what car to get for £1000. You're basically in banger territory, so buy based on condition not make/model. Once you've found some likely candidates do some research or maybe ask here for advice on faults or issues common to that model.

Some of the better bangers I've had, just for the purposes of example: 1994 VW Passat 1.9 TD (bought in 2005 for £750 ), 1988 VW Golf 1.8CL automatic (bought in 2006 for £250), 1991 Volvo 460 SI (bought in 2007 for £100), 1994 Volvo 940 Wentworth automatic (bought in 2009 for £400)

Of those only the 460 was scrapped. The others were vandalised, stolen and sold respectively. Of those I think the Golf was my favourite, a lovely little car, handled like a go cart, even my GF who hates front wheel drive cars liked driving it, unfortunately the local scrotes also agreed that it was a good car.

Gordon_Hose

I had the same corrosion on inner and outer sills of my Escort, MOT failure. Cost me £80+VAT to get welded up.

Have you rung around some bodyshops for quotes? Some of them are taking on as much work as possible and will do it for reasonable prices just to keep money coming in when people are spending less.

colino

Cast a good clinical eye over your car and look for other problems that are about to bite you. Even after not being serviced, the engine probably will be rattling along nicely (if a Fiesta of that age isn't rattling, the tappets are too tight), but is everything else borderline? I'm impressed that it's lasted this long, but I would be selling as is on ebay.

vaio

The seatbelt bit will be easy & cheap to do with a patch.

The other bit refers to the rear suspension mounting area and could be easy or a nightmare depending on how the bodywork is shaped/what dismantling is need to access it etc.

I’d be inclined to get a second opinion (back street garages are your friends here) and if it is terminal then a clear description on ebay will probably net the most money.

Stick it on for spares or repair, be honest about the faults/mot fail points and set the reserve/start bid at what you would get for it if you took it to your local friendly scrapyard

Strider590

"But luckily for you sir we have this fine example of a <insert undesirable car name here> for only £2000!!!"

£600 seems steep!

ajuk

Lum wrote: »

A P reg Fiesta, unless it's one of the sporty models that some enthusiasts still desire, is probably worth about £100, unfortunately.

What for scrap or working, because If I could get one working for £100 then I can't see how £1000 has me in banger territory?

Lum wrote: »

I'm sure your mechanic would be quite happy to do £600 worth of work, recommending that you scrap it offers him no financial gain, so I'd be inclined to listen.

Yeah that's why I was recommended them, and why I went back to them after they were quite honest last year, "well we could do this but it would be cheaper if we did that"

I already found another car quite similar to mine, a 1999 S reg 1.25 Z-tech for £695, I rang the dealer and enquired as to why it was so cheap, "what's wrong with it" they said there was nothing wrong with it they just wanted to shift it but it had already gone,
There is a back street garage around the corner, I might go see them.

jase1

Normally I would say that if the car is basically sound, take it to a couple of places as 3 hours of welding doesn't cost the earth. £600's worth of labour is a loooooonnnggg time.

However, the Fiesta of this period is a renowned rotbox (as is the Ka). Unless you can get the amount of welding down to less than three days' worth of labour the car sounds like a wreck to me and I would be looking to get shot. It'll fetch £150 on ebay regardless of how knackered it is.

As for a £1000 replacement, well I bought a 2003 Mitsubishi with a FSH for £1050, which is utterly solid and reliable. It's not all rubbish out there, but you'd have to be careful else you'll end up with something as bad as what you have.

forgotmyname

Problem with rust is half the car may fall off before they find something solid to weld to. I did a
fiesta (old mk1) many years ago, Just needed a small patch the guy said.

Wire brush in the drill and the whole passenger floor fell out. Hole big enough to put your head through.

Good job i took a large sheet of metal and plenty of welding wire.

ajuk

Does the underside of cars not get treated to protect against rust when you service them?

Lum

ajuk wrote: »

What for scrap or working

"Working"

because If I could get one working for £100 then I can't see how £1000 has me in banger territory?

With a maximum price of £1000, a large number of the cars you will find for sale will be classed as bangers. This isn't the same as being barely functional death traps, though some of them almost certainly will be, just old and maybe a bit tatty and a few broken gadgets that you don't really need anyway.

All the cars I mentioned in my last post were bangers, e.g. that Passat, 2 of the electric windows didn't work, one of them because the motor had been replaced with a table leg. It had 250,000 miles on the clock and apart from one tiny leak in a fuel hose there was nothing wrong with it mechanically. I only got rid because someone smashed every window and it was only insured 3rd party.

It was mechanically sound and ran well enough, I didn't care what make it was, which is my point, buy based on condition.