I would quite like some advice!

colino

Take the car to a local, small, personally recommended, repair workshop and find out what is really wrong with the car. A glib, "I know its the Catalytic converter because I had a diagnostic run on the car" tells me you are in the hands of the wrong garage.

ncfcfan

colino wrote: »

Take the car to a local, small, personally recommended, repair workshop and find out what is really wrong with the car. A glib, "I know its the Catalytic converter because I had a diagnostic run on the car" tells me you are in the hands of the wrong garage.

Thanks for this.

Could you elaborate?

OddballJamie

ncfcfan wrote: »

It's an option for me because my finances allow it. I ruled out other options like getting a car on finance because my finances don't allow it! There are 3 choices: Repair, Replace, Lease.

I didn't mean finance when I said "I'd rather own my own car", I meant own it outright.

If you can afford it and want a new car then lease one, but it wont save you money. Once you add in the deposit, any excess miles and any minor scratches/marks at the end of the lease, it will cost considerably more than fixing your car or buying another older one.
Then at the end of the lease you're left without a car.

colino

OK, say for instance your "tech" pulls the codes and one of them is P0420. It might even say on his machine, "Cat Error". Anyone who actually knows what the whirly things do will tell you that code can be thrown not only by a poisoned/broken cat, but a faulty lambda sensor, faulty wiring, damaged ecu or even, a pinprick hole in your exhaust pipe. Too many innocent punters have replaced expensive (and lucrative for the garage too) cats only to be told something else needs subsequently changed. (The real original fault).

ncfcfan

colino wrote: »

OK, say for instance your "tech" pulls the codes and one of them is P0420. It might even say on his machine, "Cat Error". Anyone who actually knows what the whirly things do will tell you that code can be thrown not only by a poisoned/broken cat, but a faulty lambda sensor, faulty wiring, damaged ecu or even, a pinprick hole in your exhaust pipe. Too many innocent punters have replaced expensive (and lucrative for the garage too) cats only to be told something else needs subsequently changed. (The real original fault).

Thank you.

Then it turns into an awkward situation because we've used this garage for years and always seem to be given a fair price for the work. I felt a little peeved when they told me to leave it and come back when my MOT was due..

I'm fairly sure they wouldn't...would they?

ncfcfan

OddballJamie wrote: »

I didn't mean finance when I said "I'd rather own my own car", I meant own it outright.

If you can afford it and want a new car then lease one, but it wont save you money. Once you add in the deposit, any excess miles and any minor scratches/marks at the end of the lease, it will cost considerably more than fixing your car or buying another older one.
Then at the end of the lease you're left without a car.

This is all true.

But I also don't want to fork out £400 every few months on an old banger. Not only is it expensive, but it can be quite inconvenient and stressful.

OddballJamie

ncfcfan wrote: »

This is all true.

But I also don't want to fork out £400 every few months on an old banger. Not only is it expensive, but it can be quite inconvenient and stressful.

That's one of the reasons I bought a new car this time around, there's a lot to be said for piece of mind and a long warranty.

angel00079

As said before I would put it through a MOT. This will show what has to be done and some of what might need to be done in the future. Not going to show everything but a good starting point.

If the MOT shows lots of things and you decide to sell at least the buyer has an idea. A person in the know might go down the list and know they can do it for next to nothing.

Personally if I was buying a car I would be more interested in a recently failed one than one with limited MOT and not tested.

ilikewatch

Not sure where you're based, but in the area I live (East Mids) there's a chain of MOT test centres who exclusively undertake MOT's and only charge if you pass the test - otherwise it's free if you fail. I love this idea as I know that they have absolutely no motivation to "find" work during the test. Might be worth looking to see if there's anything similar near to you.

OddballJamie

ilikewatch wrote: »

Not sure where you're based, but in the area I live (East Mids) there's a chain of MOT test centres who exclusively undertake MOT's and only charge if you pass the test - otherwise it's free if you fail. I love this idea as I know that they have absolutely no motivation to "find" work during the test. Might be worth looking to see if there's anything similar near to you.

That concerns me as they would be more inclined to pass a bad car.

Stick with the council, they tend to be fair.