Would you buy a car with a short MOT?

LadyMorticia

My OH and I are in desperate need of a car and we've seen one in the village we live in. It's a Golf GTI and is selling at £700.

I got in contact with the guy who was selling it and asked about MOT, tax etc.

The MOT runs out at the end of September and it has no tax (the tax thing is okay because we can tax it ourselves anyway). He also said that it has 150,000 miles on the clock but that Golfs last for a very long time (I don't know much about cars). He said that it had the cambelt changed at 60,000 miles.

Would you buy this car? The owner said that he put three new tyres on it before the last MOT and that there isn't anything wrong with the car.

Would the 3 month MOT be a problem for any of you? OH's dad said not to go for any car that has an MOT with less than 9 months left.

As I said, I don't really know anything about cars. We're going to see it properly tomorrow morning but I was just wondering if you think purchasing the car wouldn't be worth it?

hartcjhart

no worry about the mot, more of a worry about the timing belt

rev_henry

How old is it? I can tell you the cambelt needs changing again immediately almost for certain.

LadyMorticia

hartcjhart wrote: »

no worry about the mot, more of a worry about the timing belt

Thanks for the reply.

Would the mileage worry you? FIL knows alot more about cars than my OH and I. I think the car is about 15 years old. Is 150,000 miles good for that amount of time?

I'm a right newb.:o

LadyMorticia

rev_henry wrote: »

How old is it? I can tell you the cambelt needs changing again immediately almost for certain.

It's about 15 years old.

How much would a cambelt change cost? MIL had her's done recently and apparently it cost £700! :eek:

soup

Tell him to put it through an mot and then you will give him the extra £50 it costs if it passes.
If he wont do that then it may need some repairs he knows of hes trying to avoid.
150,000 is high but if its been serviced properly then it should be ok. I doubt it has been though if the cambelt needs replacing and its out of tax. Sounds neglected. Maybe its not.

edit; belt change about £150 as long as you go dont go to a main vw dealer.

rev_henry

LadyMorticia wrote: »

It's about 15 years old.

How much would a cambelt change cost? MIL had her's done recently and apparently it cost £700! :eek:

I don't really know, its very variable how much it costs and can cost £700 or more. More realistically £300 maybe, tops. Old golfs can do very high mileages though. You're buying on condition really, go and have a look and see if its tatty, whether there's any service history. If its been looked after it might be good - would certainly be quite a fun car to drive. Might be a bit pricey though, again I'm not too sure...

LadyMorticia

soup wrote: »

Tell him to put it through an mot and then you will give him the extra £50 it costs if it passes.
If he wont do that then it may need some repairs he knows of hes trying to avoid.
150,000 is high but if its been serviced properly then it should be ok. I doubt it has been though if the cambelt needs replacing and its out of tax. Sounds neglected. Maybe its not.

edit; belt change about £150 as long as you go dont go to a main vw dealer.

That sounds like a good idea. I think that's what FIL insisted the seller do when he was buying my OH his first car which was a Fiesta.

We're going to take FIL along when we go and see it properly tomorrow.
We went to look at it today and it scrubs up well, but of course there could be internal problems that can't be seen.

According to my SIL (who knows the family who are selling it), it's the daughters car but she's moved out and so her dad is selling it.

The dad said that the price was originally higher but he had a lot of timewasters so dropped the price. He also said that it has no tax because it's not on the road and not being driven.

rev_henry wrote: »

I don't really know, its very variable how much it costs and can cost £700 or more. More realistically £300 maybe, tops. Old golfs can do very high mileages though. You're buying on condition really, go and have a look and see if its tatty, whether there's any service history. If its been looked after it might be good - would certainly be quite a fun car to drive. Might be a bit pricey though, again I'm not too sure...

Thank you. An old Golf GTI is my OH's dream car so seeing one for sale around here has got him a little bit excited.:p

I don't want us to buy it and then find out that it will cost more to get fixed than it's worth, iyswim?

Gothicfairy

The other option might be to have someone like the AA look over it before you buy..yes you lose the money if it is a nail but you are saved from buying a nail.

I don't think anyone could say for sure without seeing it and hearing it etc so if you know little or nothing about cars take someone with you who does know what they are talking about.

Also the amount of MOT might well mean nothing as to be honest the MOT only makes sure your car is roadworthy on the day of the MOT anyway.
I have bought quite a few cars with short MOT's as that means I can tax them and then sort out the issues within the MOT timescale..ie I buy a car for £500 with one months mot and from that I then have a month with it being legal on the road (ie outside my house and to scrap yards etc) to sort out the issues.
You could always take it for a pre mot but if I were the seller I wouldn't pay for that on a £700 odd car..it would be you buy or leave

However as I can deal with most problems with old cars ( hate new ones cos can't get on with the electrics and computer stuff) I am less bothered about buying something cheap if it is what I want.

So after all that, my advice would be to take someone with you to look at it and let them crawl all over it and also look into local scrap yards for spares as that will always be cheaper.

Oh and as a side note, join the owners club if you buy as you can often find parts etc going for a song that way

Gothicfairy

LadyMorticia wrote: »

I don't want us to buy it and then find out that it will cost more to get fixed than it's worth, iyswim?

To be totally fair that can happen to anything.

scheming_gypsy

The cost of the repairs will depend on how long you want to keep it. If it's his dream car a few hundred quid to have it repaired will probably be worth it if he intends on keeping it.

Pick up a timing belt on line and go to an independent garage to have it fitted for a few hours labour. Or join a VW forum, you might just find somebody local to do it for you.
what history does the car come with? if it's got service history and a folder full of receipts then you can get a decent idea of how it's been treated. If you get the reg and the V5 document number then you can check it's MOT history online

3 months MOT wouldn't bother me too much as the MOT is valid until you drive out of the testing station. All it does is tell you that it road worthy at the time of the test, it's not a guarantee that it's going to be road worthy a week later.