Would you buy a car with a faulty speedo?

2005eyeball

Seen a great car on eBay locally, taxed & MOT'd but speedo not working. That would make it illegal to drive technically. Anyone know how much a speedo repair would be (undoubtedly depends why it's not working!)?

scotsbob

Depends on the make, model and fault. Can you be more specific?

Does the car have a valid MOT? See this link and scroll down to speedometer.

http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/news/legal--motoring-advice/2011-12/new-mot-rules/

Your solution might be to only agree to buy with a full 12 month MOT

arcon5

Depends if it's the speed sensor or cluster really. Will often be the former. Is there an engine management light on by chance?

Depends what car it is. But I wouldn't completely be put off - would need to look in to the fault further first and push to price down to account for this.

forgotmyname

Depends on the car. Is it a new speedo cluster in the dash, A sensor on the gearbox or something broken inside the gearbox or part of the ABS system that may cost more than the cars worth to fix.

facade

google the fault with the particular car.

Corsas used to loose the speedo because a cable came loose at the back of the dash.
The old escort lost the speedo because the diff bearings went and wore the drive gear out.
On a jimny, the speedo just stops working. and disconnecting the battery for a few minutes fixes it.

Could be a cheap fix, could be a moneypit.

BertieBark

One thing to do would be google the car model + 'speedo not working' and have a read to try and spot any common faults and solutions.

*edit - just seen the exact same advice in the post above doh!

agrinnall

Of course, "speedo not working" could just be shorthand for "the car has done a million miles but the last 950,000 weren't recorded".

motorguy

2005eyeball wrote: »

Seen a great car on eBay locally, taxed & MOT'd but speedo not working. That would make it illegal to drive technically. Anyone know how much a speedo repair would be (undoubtedly depends why it's not working!)?

Could be a simple or complex fault and could cost anything from a few £ to hundreds.

Personally, my thinking would be if it was an easy fix then the seller would have sorted it.

Unless its a very specific or unique car that you *must* own, i wouldnt be bothered with the hassle.

londonTiger

nah, cars are a dime a dozen, why inherit a headache?

colino

As above, lots of potential, easy/cheap fixes on some cars, but do you want to rebuild an abs ecu for £200+ on some cars that the speedo fault is the only clue? Need lots more info on make, model and year.

maxmycardagain

agrinnall wrote: »

Of course, "speedo not working" could just be shorthand for "the car has done a million miles but the last 950,000 weren't recorded".

a quick check on the VOSA MOT website would show the MOT and mileage history