MOT failure- advice pleez

Chichi_2

Advice needed urgently. I am the proud owner of a 1999 V reg 1.4 focus CL. It failed its MOT today on 2 points:

1) Emission
2) Blue smoke from exhaust

I know it needs a new cat and exhaust system. I've been told that failure point 2) means a new or recon engine.

Not sure what value of car is. Looked on ebay and they've sold for about £1600. The car has been great for 4 years and only has 52K on the clock. I have several options including scrap, replace engine, sell privately or px, however px only gives me £900 for it.

What would you guys do? The MOT re-test needs to be done in 2 weeks.

martinbuckley

The value of the car will be determined as to how serviceable it is. I assume that the £1600 ones are not MOT failures.

Has someone offered you £900 for the car in its present condition?

How much will it cost to fix?

Assuming you can trade it in for £900 in its present condition, its going to cost you £4-5K on top to get you a car that will give you another 4 years of motoring.

It really boils down to how much you want your current car - are you prepared to spend X amount to get another year's motoring out of it or is it time to change.

I have a V reg fiat that is probably worth £1500, however my philosophy is that it is worth spending 300-400 per year to get it through an MOT, as a newer car would depreciate in value by much more than that. Thankfully, it only cost me the MOT fee this year!

Chichi_2

Yeh ebay prices were for cars with MOTs.

I was offered £900 p/x as MOT is current until mid Sept. Scrap highest offer was £1000 - £1200.

To fix it will cost approx £1100 for recon engine and new Cat + exhaust system.

I have never spent more than £4,500 on a car and most last 3- 4 years.

Conor_3

When you get the next one, change the oil more often. A car doing low mileage mainly around towns needs to have the oil changed more frequently than one doing 12000 miles a year mixed driving.

blue_haddock

I would get a 2nd opinion. There are many reasons for high emmisions and a smokey engine - could be as simple as a clogged airfilter, needing a decent tune-up or worst case scenario a shot engine.

I don't think that the value of the car warrants a full re-con engine, you should be able to pick up a decent 2nd hand engine from a breaker for a couple of hundred quid and about the same for fitting.