car failed MOT HORRENDOUSLY- what now?

dook_2

Hi I'm hoping someone can help me, I'm a bit distraught over all of this!

I bought a R reg Ford Ka around 11 months ago for £1,300. I have just taken it for its MOT and they said it's one of the most dangerous cars they've seen.

Apparantly it has awful corrosion all underneath (the mehanic said he put his thumb through the chassis by accident) and they wouldn't do the rolling road brake test because he reckoned it was quite likely my car would have just split or broken if the brakes were applied too sharply. He said the welding underneath was no where near up to standard and that in places it was just spots of welding. Then the woman at the garage stopped him talking because I was crying so much!!

It's really scared me that I was driving around in this.

But... now do I just scrap the car? Do I have ANY comeback on the man who sold it to me (who carried out the dangerous welding). What about the garage that passed it last year?

Thankyou,

Holley

Gorgeous_George

It may be worth contacting your trading standards for advice but, I fear, you may not get any compensation for this car.

Also, it may be worth having a friend look at the car to confirm that the MOT test station are not exaggerating.

It could just prove to be an expensive lesson.

GG

dook_2

Thankyou George. I will contact trading standards.

This is the second time this has happened to me! 2 expensive lessons, hopefully I have learnt now... I am sending a big scary man to buy my cars in the future!! Or maybe just have a mechanic check it over.

milkydrink

Was it a private seller you bought it off or a garage?

If private I doubt theres much you can do, but if a garage perhaps the trading standards?

Also they may be interested in the fact that such a dangerous car was passed a year ago.

I'm getting my car MOTed in a couple of weeks, I have booked it in at the local council testing station for an MOT (on the advice of what I read on the motoring pages on here), could it be worth you doing that, to make sure the garage are not trying it on?

Mind you it sounds like they weren't trying for a repair more like telling you to scrap it.

Bad luck:(

dook_2

Yup they just told me to scrap it. They also said they would look over any new car I was looking at for free to see if its safe, or at least not in the state of mine!!

The seller is apparantly well known (or so the garage said when they asked where I got it from) for buying up scrap cars, getting them through an MOT and selling them. He has a garage (apparantly) but I bought it from him at his home. Maybe I'm niave but personally I just couldn't watch someone drive away in a 'death trap'.

trets77

don,t worry my car squeezed through it's MOT last year only to be declared dangerous on 9 points this. i don't lose sleep over it

look in your local paper in classified car adds to see if any scrap merchants are offering cash to come and collect your old car

GOT £60 for mine !!!

may i also suggest getting something hard wearing , good safety with full FSH and low maintenace this time . Nissan Micras tick lots of boxs IMO as they are japanese , have chains instead of belts too.

blue_haddock

An MOT only proves that the vehicle is fit to drive on the day it is done - the welding may have been sufficient and up to scratch on the day. This means the car may have been perfectly ok last year but has worsened since, once rust has set in it is very difficult to cure fully.

It would be foolish to scrap the car though, if you no longer wish to drive it i would recommend selling it on ebay as spares or repair. If you can weld yourself the repairs may not actually cost that much so could be a nice project for someone else.

chilli_dog

Did you have a HPI check done on your car? It will record any major accidents the car has been in?

dook_2

I didn't have any checks done on it. (Lesson learnt).

Blue haddock- I'm worried that if I ebay it, someone else will do exactly the same thing, patch it up and sell it to someone just like me. Ethically I'm a bit torn about this, am I right to be? But it is a lovely car and it does seem a shame to scrap it. And I am an incredibly poor student, eeek, ethics or the cash!?

Gorgeous_George

Selling it for spares can be more profitable than scrapping it. For example, I recently paid £60 for a new door handle.

Sell it for spares and make it clear that it's an MOT failure. Don't lose sleep over it.



GG

northern_munky

Did it only fail on welding? Why not get a few quotes from welders and see what they say. I can't see it would be worth scrapping unless it is really bad, although Ford Ka are know for rusting.