Advice

Vikipollard

Hi. My son bought a 53 plate Ka in September from a dealer, with a full year's MOT (done the day after he agreed to buy it).

He had immediate problems with it which resulted in them replacing the brake cylinders, spark leads and some other bits. All of which had our hair standing on end as it had literally just passed its MOT. He persevered and we thought all should now be well.

Fast forward six weeks and he takes the car to a different garage for a full service (to be sure it's prepped for winter. They sit him down and ask how long he's had the car and he explains the above. They explain to him in glorious technicolour the amount of wear.

They tell him that the front suspension arm thingys are so badly worn that the tyres have had to do all the work to keep the car straight and consequently his tyres are stuffed. But worse than this, they say his brake pads have completely gone and the person who fitted the brake cylinders didn't do it right and had twisted all the pipes. So £650 for the repairs and the service. (Forgive the descriptions, I have no idea about mechanics.) The tyres were so badly damaged they were cracking.

Taking aside the obvious here, should it have been possible to pass its MOT (with no advisories) with this level of mechanical faults?

I have serious reservations about the garage that he bought it from as you can imagine, and given it was churned out with an MOT by them, I have to question whether VOSA should be informed.

Genuine questions from a horrified parent.

OddballJamie

Who are the second garage looking at the car?

Seems a lot of cash for 2 small tyres, new pads and a couple of suspension arms.

BTW cracking tyres usually comes from age rather than wear. Has the KA many miles on it?

Vikipollard

Thanks for your response. It was also for a full service (appx £150) and having to rectify the problems with the brake cylinders which had been incorrectly fitted and damaged the hoses /pipes or whatever they are connected to.

The garage was an independent one, not a big chain or anything and not a dealer. The car has 77,000 miles on it.

I see what you're saying about the tyres, but that leads back to the question how it can pass an MOT if the tyres were that bad. He hasn't done 1000 miles since he had it as he is in a position to walk to work so only uses it to visit his g/f on rest days.

OddballJamie

You could check the MOT out online to see what advisories were found, as the cracked tyres would probably be picked up as that rather than a fail.
https://www.gov.uk/check-mot-history-vehicle

It would also show if the brakes were low but passable, in my experience KAs brake are shocking anyway with both new and old pads.

If there's an issue with the repairs done by the seller take it back to them rather than pay out somewhere else. Get them to fix what you can, as paying out £650 is rather a lot on a car worth so little.

We sold an 03 KA luxury in the summer for about £800 with less than 50,000 on the clock.

forgotmyname

The garage that just fixed all those faulty items may have seen ahh parents paying. Fix anything that looks like it may need doing.

There may have been plenty of life left in the parts changed.

As mentioned suspension issues dont cause tyres to crack. Thats down to lack of use or age.

Strider590

Never, NEVER trust an MOT carried out whilst a car is on the forecourt of a used car dealer.
Its extremely common to "fake" an MOT pass, they never get caught because most people won't notice until 12months down the line.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

its wrong but it happens allot.

a dealer will send car for MOT at a garage he uses allot to do his repair work in so knows the MOT tester and owner well, they put the car through mot, and if there things on there that are so dangerous they will fail it but other things that are not but should fail, they will pass it and tell the trader to get them done asap, trader nods head says thanks and gets it back to be prettied up to get his cash from the buyer.

colino

I wont even think about getting drawn into the nonsense of an MOT station giving traders soft MOTs (If anything, they are stricter) but the OP has been badly let down by a garage that saw a ream of alleged faults and didn't ask if they wanted it put right. Needing that amount of work at a cost of another, all legal 10 year old Ka, they should have referred the owner to the selling garage and VOSA. That is of course, if the car needed anything at all.

goonarmy

Fake mots? Really?
Anyway, the non-fiction part states that a mot doesnt gareentee that the tires arent cracked, the plugs and leads are in good nick and the brake lines arent a bit skew wiff. Ive passed mots in three out of four cyclinders. People need to be aware if what a mot entails. A quick google will tell you.
The front suspension will be checked as part if the mot. But im not sure how when they are worn that then the tires are doing their work. And the wearning of tires results in wear patterns not cracking.
In conclusion: the first mot might be suspect due to the suspension faults, the repairs are quite expensive especially if the repairs are 650 plus the cost of the service (150) on a 53 plate car. And twisting of brake lines could be something and nothing, not sure of the details.