Scrapping/Selling Car

Lagoon

My car is probably coming to the end of its life. It's done well (16 years old, and always fairly reliable), but it's soon due an MOT and has started playing up.

Given that I think I've recently reached the point where I'm using it so little that I might save money NOT having a car, I've decided that if it fails the MOT and needs a significant repair I'm just going to get rid of it and see about travelling by train/taxi when I need to.

Hopefully, it's easy to fix and I can continue to enjoy the convenience of my car and all the extra places it enables me to go, but I don't have the money to keep saying 'Oh, just one more repair...' knowing that as this car gets older, those repairs aren't worth the car's value.

Since the car won't have a valid MOT, does anyone have recommendations for getting rid of it? This was my first car so I've never been through the process before.

How do I then remove my ownership, if scrapping is the best option? Do I need to inform tax/insurance, or just let those lapse (in Nov and Apr respectively)?

Should I instead try to sell it privately, stating whatever is wrong in the advert?

Or, is something like WeBuyAnyCar a better option?

Bonus question:
I do intend to get another car in a year or two. Is my insurance going to rocket? I currently have four years NCD.

paddedjohn

If you scrap it you should get an end of life certificate in exchange for the v5. It may be better to bung it on ebay as an mot failure starting it off at £150 and emphasise that it is still taxed to see what interest you can generate. If scrapping the you can send the tax back for a refund and cancel the insurance, if selling you should cancel the insurance as soon as its sold.

Iceweasel

Bear in mind that you can have the MOT done up to a month before the old one runs out and not lose out as the new 12 months validity would be from the date the old MOT expires.

That way even if it fails you have a month to decide what to do.

How exactly is it 'playing up'?

Most terminal MOT failures are due to strategic load-bearing bodywork corrosion which the driver would be unaware of in normal driving.

Weird_Nev

You can hold your NCD for up to two years, after that it lapses.

go for an MOT a couple of weeks (up to one month) before it actually expires. That way, if it's a host of minor faults you can drive it away and decide what to do. If there are major faults they may tell you that it's unsafe to drive. Do you think there are any major brake/suspension faults?

When the time comes, you could always try an ebay ad. You don't say what kind of car it is, but there are some that are sought after by certain groups: Volvo 340's, Peugeot 306 D Turbos, and some other niche models have had sudden inexplicable popularity and are worth a disproportionate amount.

So: Fail MOT. Put on ebay with 3 weeks remaining MOT and list of failure point, 7 day auction, start price set at scrap value (£100-£150). If the auction fails to attract any bids, off you go to scrap. If it gets bids, that's money in your pocket.

When you do scrap, be sure it's low on fuel, pull the tax disc out of the window, and cancel insurance from the day after for the rebate. Take the V5, give the scrapped slip to the scrap man, send your part off saying it was scrapped and the date. this ends your liability for the car.

Cash in tax, claim insurance rebate, money in the pocket!

27col

I have never understood the logic of people when they say that a repair to a car is more than the car is worth. So what, if the outlay of a £100 or £200 will keep the car on the road for another year then it has been a good investment. The fact that the car has no market value is irrelevant. It is providing the owner with transport at a low yearly cost. Depreciation is a fact of life and sooner or later the car will depreciate to nothing more than scrap value. But as long as it is running then it still has value to the owner.

Lagoon

Iceweasel wrote: »

Bear in mind that you can have the MOT done up to a month before the old one runs out and not lose out as the new 12 months validity would be from the date the old MOT expires.

That way even if it fails you have a month to decide what to do.

How exactly is it 'playing up'?

Most terminal MOT failures are due to strategic load-bearing bodywork corrosion which the driver would be unaware of in normal driving.

The current faults are that it's chugging like a train, really struggling to accelerate and sounding like something that's driven by a 17 year old boy with an excessively loud exhaust.

Certainly nothing 'terminal' for the car, I'd expect, but given that it's an R-reg, is no longer as essential for me as it has been in the past and is a low-value car runaround, I think now is the time to cut my losses before I'm locked into a cycle of maintaining a car that's costing me more to run than the worth I'm getting out of it. Particularly when my intention is to buy a new car in a year or two, anyway.

As is obvious, I don't know a whole lot about cars, but I do think that with a little bit of TLC this one could keep going for quite a while longer. On occasions when it has needed repairs in the past, people have always commented on how it's in great condition and always starts first time. I just can't justify spending more than £100 on repairing a car at this time, and see no point declaring it SORN when there's a 90% possibility that by the time I had the money to justify its repairs I'd be moving on to a new car anyway.

ETA: The MOT is already booked, for a week before the existing certificate runs out. These issues unfortunately started the day after I booked it.

Lagoon

27col wrote: »

I have never understood the logic of people when they say that a repair to a car is more than the car is worth. So what, if the outlay of a £100 or £200 will keep the car on the road for another year then it has been a good investment. The fact that the car has no market value is irrelevant. It is providing the owner with transport at a low yearly cost. Depreciation is a fact of life and sooner or later the car will depreciate to nothing more than scrap value. But as long as it is running then it still has value to the owner.

Not just taking into account the car's value, though. As I say, it's reaching the point where the amount I use it in comparison to repairs/maintenance, MOT, tax and insurance is showing that I'd probably be better off paying for a train or taxi a couple of times a month when I needed essential travel.

Repairing a car that's old and worn is something you could technically do forever, but at some point I think it's wise to cut your losses.