repairs cost more than car is worth

scottishkat

i have got a bit of a dilemma. i have a t reg fiat brava which was bought second hand for 1400 pounds at the beginning of the year. i had it serviced at a local garage who said it was in reasonable condition but spotted a leaking strut. i have also noticed oil in the passenger side footwell. i took it in to a fiat garage to get the strut replaced and asked them to have a look at what was causing the oil in the footwell. when i picked up the car last night they had a list of problems with the car - totaling a massive 2139 pounds with possibly about 650 pounds worth needed to get through its mot in feb. i dont know anything about cars and dont really know what to do. do you think the fiat garage was being over zealous or that the local garage wasnt very observant? there are a few dents in the body work so i dont think its resale value is going to be very high but i also dont want to be spending more than the car is worth just to keep it going. should i try to trade it in and buy something else?

philhuff

Clean it up and sell it privately. Now.

You might lose a little money on the car, but that's better than forking out £2k. Unless you can do the work yourself, you'll be throwing money away.

There's plenty of options at that price range for you to get a replacement, so don't worry about it.

Just sell it. Please.

skim

I bought a Fiat once - NEVER AGAIN.

Bloody engine blew up about a week after I bought it - £1000 car cost another £1200 to put right.

vansboy

Guess the main problem you have, is NOT as bad as you might think!!

It IS an older car, as you say, so the Fiat dealer will be working from a high hourly labour charge - did they indicate this figure on the estimate - & full priced genuine Fiat parts.

You'd be better off finding a small independent garage, maybe a Fiat specialist, if possible & you'll more than likely 1/2 the labour cost & maybe 10-30% less on the parts prices, WITHOUT compromising on safety/quality.


VB

saintjanet

I would be inclined to get a quote from an independant garage and see how this compares before i did anything else.As stated by others, main dealer labour rates are very high.


If you decide to sell the car privately, beware of the fact ,that although private buyers have less rights than those buying from a trader,it is against the law to mislead someone about the condition of your vehicle.Also ,As you do not say what the problems are,they could be things that would be spotted by a buyer with a bit of mechanical knowledge.

I would spend as little as possible on anything obvious that needs doing and then p/ex the car with a dealer while you still have an MOT.

Quinny_2

I would get rid of it via p/x,asap,if you can afford to do so.

Ken.

lisyloo

I think there is a big difference between dealers and independent garages.

A dealer will be doing everything to get you car perfect.
A sensible independent garage will do the minimum to get your car safe and road worthy knowing that it isn't worth spening money on making it pristine.

I would get a quote from the local garage and then make a decision once you know what you are up against.

I have an oil leak on my car (16 years old).
It would cost hundreds if not thousands of pounds to take the engine apart to replace the leaking gasket, so I do what many people do, which is to buy some oil and top it up every now and again i.e. put up with the leak.

It isn't reasonable to expect to maintain it in pristing condition but this is the standard that many dealers will automatically work to.

I have loads of minor things on my car that I just put up with (provided it's safe).
I have a warped brake disk which vibrates when I brake. I am aassured it's safe so I put up with the occassional vibrations because it isn't economically viable to pay for the repair on a 16 year old car.

movieman

I bought a Fiat once - NEVER AGAIN.
Bloody engine blew up about a week after I bought it - £1000 car cost another £1200 to put right.

Weird. My last Fiat (which was over ten years old when I bought it) ran for close to a decade with no engine problems; plenty of rust problems and occasional other mechanical parts though.

Whereas I bought a five-year-old Rover which destroyed its engine every 6000 miles; I'm not surprised they went bust. That's why I bought a nice reliable Fiat to replace it... you can see rust far more easily than you can see faults in the middle of the engine.

inmypocketnottheirs

FIAT - Fix It Again Tomorrow!

tomstickland

What's wrong with it?