Advice about corrosion and a dodgy MOT?

Mr.Generous

Photos here: https://imgur.com/a/HSpvPpp

LarpLady

ilikethesimpsons - thanks for your reply.

Literally every car we looked at, we googled, and they all had some kind of common fault - Electrics in Mondeos, MAFs in Golfs, Flywheels in Vectras, etc - as I've said a few times, we thought we would be protected by going through a registered dealership and buying a car with clean MOT and full service history.

We're not car people and we didn't expect to get screwed.

Mr.Generous

That rust looks terminal - I remember Dodge Neons used to rust quickly, They don't protect the underbody for British weather and salt on the roads. I'd have to agree though, that didn't happen in 1 year, and the fact that 1 sill was plated over shows it was probably corroding much earlier.

LarpLady

Mr Generous - you’re a gent. Thank you so, so much for your response, that’s really all I wanted to know.

The car is being inspected independently this week by our finance company - I’ll update ifn when I get their feedback.

Nobbie1967

I agree that it hasn't all happened in a year, but as sill covers were fitted, the previous MOT was not bound to find the rust as they are not allowed to remove parts. Not sure they are allowed to guess at what might be going on behind.

I hope you get some resolution, but with 11 months since you bought it, it may be difficult.

droopsnoot

Yes, it's possible that while it hasn't all happened within a year, it may be that the corrosion is going on "behind the scenes". An old car of mine looked perfectly fine for MOTs because it's fitted as standard with plastic sill covers. Once they come off (which they do not, for an MOT), it's clear that the sills are in a very bad shape.


There does seem to be some of the report that seems a little over the top, especially when compared to what the MOT test actually involved. (ETA: On the bushes, for example, this seems to be very much down to the individual testers opinion as to what is a fail and what is not - so it may well be that they haven't "miraculously fixed themselves" but that the later tester simply has a different opinion, or maybe even that they were replaced. I'm not sure about the comment about the inner structure of the sill being non-existent when the outer sill was removed - how would any MOT tester see that?)


And don't forget that it's also possible that the people who sold you the car don't have any knowledge of this. They may well not have deliberately sold you a dog, and relied on the MOT results as much as you did. That might make them not a very good dealer, but does not necessarily make them dishonest.


(ETA: haven't looked at the photos. )


(EATA: after looking at the photos, it's a bit difficult to figure out what's going on and where those are, given I am not familiar with the vehicle. A photo of what it looked like before he started poking about would have been useful, to better judge whether the previous MOT station could reasonably have noticed the repair. It's really easy to describe a repair in different ways depending on the point you're trying to make.)

LarpLady

The top two pics are apparently the centre panel, at the front?

The others are the door sills, I believe.

I have about 39-odd pictures, I just posted the first few.

tiggerbodhi

After owning Land Rovers which rust for England and watching them do it before my eyes! :-) I would doubt that all happened in a year, but with a good coating of under seal it may have appeared solid in Jan 2017, only when you start poking and really prodding does a 5p size hole become a fist sized hole.

But as previous posters have said there has been a previous bodged repair, so either a previous owner did a DIY job on it or a previous garage bodged it, do the MOT's prior to 2016 show any suggestions of corrosion?

MOT's are very subjective and rely to some extent the MOT tester having experience of a particular car and its "hot spots" for rust, my Classic Mini passed MOT's with horrendous bodges until it came to me and got a MOT from a garage with experience of Minis.

LarpLady

Quick update - car is being inspected by a private inspection firm (finance company have contracted them) on Friday.