secondhand car problem -advice needed

leninspot

Thanks - will do.

Stoke

sheslookinhot wrote: »

I would doubt that the MOT is genuine. A car would not go from being awarded an MOT to a rust bucket in less than 8 weeks.

This is a Ford KA we're talking about.

onomatopoeia99

leninspot wrote: »

. I'm a pensioner & a woman who knows nothing about cars so it's a real worry to me.

One piece of advice for the future then, so you know something about cars when you buy the next one. If you spend £700 you'll get something likely at the end of its life and likely to require significant sums spending on it. You might get lucky and get years of trouble free motoring (so-called "bangernomics") but you probably won't.

My first three cars were bangers, one had the floor rot out, one was OK and the last needed a huge amount of mechanical work in the first few months of my ownership (which I did myself, I was a student and couldn't afford to pay a garage).

Stoke

onomatopoeia99 wrote: »

One piece of advice for the future then, so you know something about cars when you buy the next one. If you spend £700 you'll get something likely at the end of its life and likely to require significant sums spending on it. You might get lucky and get years of trouble free motoring (so-called "bangernomics") but you probably won't.

My first three cars were bangers, one had the floor rot out, one was OK and the last needed a huge amount of mechanical work in the first few months of my ownership (which I did myself, I was a student and couldn't afford to pay a garage).

All depends on the car you buy. I wouldn't spend 2 grand on a Ford Ka let alone 700 spot. Most people know how prone to rust they are.

VW Lupo's on the other hand........ one of the best bangernomic hatchbacks money can buy.

sevenhills

leninspot wrote: »

I recently started to smell petrol inside the car & took it to my local garage (not where I bought it) & was told it needed a lot of welding costing £100's to fix a problem which will get worse & that it won't pass an MOT next April. I rang the garage where I bought the car & he's not happy & says he'll look to see if he can fix it (already saying it won't cost much).He wants me to ;leave the car with him for a few days. I'm not sure what to do - ideally I'd like my money back. There wasn't a warranty with the car. Should I go straight to my credit card for a refund? help please.

A welding issue is unlikely to cause a smell of petrol, and a few hundred is just what cars do, put a hole in your wallet.

motorguy

Tarambor wrote: »

Under Consumer regs you have to give the seller the opportunity to repair it.

Repair what? Rust on an old car that might fail MOT in 10 months time?

forgotmyname

Exactly, it passed its MOT in April this year. Next year is your problem not the sellers.

AdrianC

The old-shape Ka does rot badly, but a fuel smell is unlikely to be down to structural rot.


I think we've got two things getting confused.


Yes, they do rot on the wing around the filler neck - among many other places - but that's immediately apparent at a glance, and the filler cap should seal onto the neck itself, so rot in the wing shouldn't cause a smell of fuel. I wonder if we've simply got a manky bit of fuel piping causing the smell, while the garage have looked at the car as a whole and said "Blimey, that's not got long left."

A £700 car from the trade has no reasonable expectations of much more than a few months of life left in it, so "But it'll fail a ticket in 10mo" is going to get you nowhere.