Car failed MOT - What now?

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Crabman wrote: »

As for buying Japanese - as long as you stay away from Nissan hopefully you'll be OK

Nissan are rebodied Renaults, assembled (badly) in England.
I don't think you can get a worse car, since Yugo stopped production.

(Yes I have a Renault Nee-San)

freelancepuddle

Crabman wrote: »

Welding isn't expensive if you go to the right places - ask around for recommendations - taxi drivers may have contacts.

As for buying Japanese - as long as you stay away from Nissan hopefully you'll be OK

I honestly don't think it's worth it - apparently the corrosion is so bad the brake pipe is beginning to corrode. All in 6 months of very little use, never driven off road or left by sea water. I'm beginning to think the last MOT certificate which I got with the car was fake/botched. Garages have told me it's only good for scrap because I imagine if it was in an accident, it would fold into itself.

Got my eye on a 2001 Daihatsu Sirion that's been recently MOT'd, new cam belt, serviced, road tested & valeted. I don't drive long distances, everything is within 5-10 miles of my house - gym, local train station to go to work and the shops, so hoping this will be more reliable as a simple run around car.

AndyMc.....

freelancepuddle wrote: »

I honestly don't think it's worth it - apparently the corrosion is so bad the brake pipe is beginning to corrode. All in 6 months of very little use, never driven off road or left by sea water. I'm beginning to think the last MOT certificate which I got with the car was fake/botched. Garages have told me it's only good for scrap because I imagine if it was in an accident, it would fold into itself.

Got my eye on a 2001 Daihatsu Sirion that's been recently MOT'd, new cam belt, serviced, road tested & valeted. I don't drive long distances, everything is within 5-10 miles of my house - gym, local train station to go to work and the shops, so hoping this will be more reliable as a simple run around car.

Another car prone to corrosion.

freelancepuddle

AndyMc..... wrote: »

Another car prone to corrosion.

Source? All cars are prone to corrosion, yet ford KA is notorious for being one of the worse.

Edit: Thanks for pointing this out by the way. The car has to be put through an MOT by the garage before they can sell it to me, so I will tell them to check for corrosion on the outer & inner sills and the fuel pipe.

Car_54

Despite your bad experience with the Ford Ka, I'd still suggest that it's best to stick to "mainstream" brands, unless you have expert knowledge.

Are you aware that "Sales of Daihatsu motor cars have now ceased across Europe." http://daihatsu.co.uk/index2.php

They may well be good cars, but customer support (and resale values) will almost certainly suffer.

freelancepuddle

Car_54 wrote: »

Despite your bad experience with the Ford Ka, I'd still suggest that it's best to stick to "mainstream" brands, unless you have expert knowledge.

Are you aware that "Sales of Daihatsu motor cars have now ceased across Europe." http://daihatsu.co.uk/index2.php

They may well be good cars, but customer support (and resale values) will almost certainly suffer.

Thank you for the heads up. I'm aware, it's because it's not worth their bread and butter. The currency of the pound and Euro is next to nothing to the yen nowadays, so not worth the import prices. They're losing money, rather than making it essentially due to high import and overseas manufacturing prices.

I'm buying it for less than £800 with all the services, new cam belt etc. thrown in. Unfortunately this is all I can afford for a town run around at the moment. Garage told me they will buy it back when I'm done sometime next year (planning on emigrating) for parts or for resale, taking that with a pinch of salt but my choices are another Ford KA or a Corsa (had several before, they all eventually leak inside).

System

freelancepuddle wrote: »

How would you know if it's roadworthy or not?

If it passed a MOT. A MOT is a test that the vehicle meets minimum legal standards of roadworthiness and emissions.

I honestly don't think it's worth it - apparently the corrosion is so bad the brake pipe is beginning to corrode. All in 6 months of very little use, never driven off road or left by sea water

Not using cars is bad for them. Doing low mileage actually causes a lot of problems with things like brakes.

I've only added around 500-800 miles on the clock and used it very little (don't think I've driven it for longer than 30 minutes at a time

Given how little mileage you do when you factor in all the static costs of MOT, tax, insurance and annual service it would actually be a hell of a lot cheaper just to use a taxi. Personally for that little mileage I'd not even entertain owning a car.

jbond

freelancepuddle wrote: »

How would you know if it's roadworthy or not? Would it state so on the MOT certificate? It doesn't say on the MOT, it just says that there's a lot of corrosion underneath hence the failure.

An MOT is really just a pass or fail system, and it only applies on the day of the test. You could drive it down the road later on, find out the wipers don't work for example, and technically, it would fail its mot until you got that fixed.
With rust, it would depend on where the rust was. What sort of garage was it? One that does repairs as well?
Not saying the garage was dodgy, but, unless you've physically seen it yourself (and knew what you were looking at), I'd get a second opinion.

jbond

Just as an add-on comment:

"apparently the corrosion is so bad the brake pipe is beginning to corrode"

To me, I wouldn't necessarily say that's any kind of indicator at all. I'm not saying the brake pipe can't rust, but I don't think I'd use the state of the brake pipe as any kind of comparison at all.

freelancepuddle

Tarambor wrote: »

If it passed a MOT. A MOT is a test that the vehicle meets minimum legal standards of roadworthiness and emissions.



Not using cars is bad for them. Doing low mileage actually causes a lot of problems with things like brakes.



Given how little mileage you do when you factor in all the static costs of MOT, tax, insurance and annual service it would actually be a hell of a lot cheaper just to use a taxi. Personally for that little mileage I'd not even entertain owning a car.

Taxi costs around £25 for 5 miles where I live. Absolute waste of money. Plus I have to deal with taxi drivers.