Failed MOT, voluntary termination and negative equity triple whammy

dlv13

Hi

This is my first post in a while so I hope someone will be able to help please?

I have a car on finance through Premium Plan. Today it's failed it's MOT and will cost around £600 to fix (I knew there was an issue of around £250 so budgeted for that, but little else.)

I've notified Premium Plan who are sending me a settlement figure and potentially talking to me about voluntary termination too. I've paid over 60% I believe so this shouldn't be an issue, though I'm 99% sure the car is in negative equity.

Obviously, the MOT issues are likely to be considered more than wear and tear to them, though the guy at the garage actually thought the car had done pretty well with the original shocks in tact.

Partner and I expecting a baby in October so we were going to upgrade anyway (as I already have two children and the car is a Fiat Panda!) but obviously there is an issue or two here now. A couple of questions really:

1) if I've paid over half, does anyone know approximately what sort of thing they'll take into account re: failed MOT in terms of liabilities? Or is it purely based on the issues highlighted in the MOT?

2) The guy at the garage said he knows of people who've used their failed MOT car as a deposit on another car, does anyone know if that's possible in negative equity? Google isn't giving me a lot of answers.

I've had a bit of a search and can't see the same issues on the forum but if there is a link to a specific thread I'd be hugely grateful.

Sorry to ask, feel pretty stupid though there's no way I could have known about the shock absorbers (though I did know there were other problems.)

Cheers

D

motorguy

dlv13 wrote: »

Hi

This is my first post in a while so I hope someone will be able to help please?

I have a car on finance through Premium Plan. Today it's failed it's MOT and will cost around £600 to fix (I knew there was an issue of around £250 so budgeted for that, but little else.)

I've notified Premium Plan who are sending me a settlement figure and potentially talking to me about voluntary termination too. I've paid over 60% I believe so this shouldn't be an issue, though I'm 99% sure the car is in negative equity.

Obviously, the MOT issues are likely to be considered more than wear and tear to them, though the guy at the garage actually thought the car had done pretty well with the original shocks in tact.

Partner and I expecting a baby in October so we were going to upgrade anyway (as I already have two children and the car is a Fiat Panda!) but obviously there is an issue or two here now. A couple of questions really:

1) if I've paid over half, does anyone know approximately what sort of thing they'll take into account re: failed MOT in terms of liabilities? Or is it purely based on the issues highlighted in the MOT?

2) The guy at the garage said he knows of people who've used their failed MOT car as a deposit on another car, does anyone know if that's possible in negative equity? Google isn't giving me a lot of answers.

I've had a bit of a search and can't see the same issues on the forum but if there is a link to a specific thread I'd be hugely grateful.

Sorry to ask, feel pretty stupid though there's no way I could have known about the shock absorbers (though I did know there were other problems.)

Cheers

D

BVRLA guidelines will tell you what they'll look out for

https://www.bvrla.co.uk/fleet-services/fair-wear-and-tear.html

Also things like illegal tyres, scuffed alloys, scratches, dings, incomplete service history will be the obvious stuff. As well as lack of MOT.

Are you proposing VT'ing it on the basis it needs £600 spent for MOT? Because i think MOTing it and keeping it is going to by far work out cheaper.

dlv13

I think you're probably right. Unfortunately I can't lay my hands on that kind of cash and have nowhere to keep the car off road Sorn either.

My intention was a personal loan, pay the settlement and then use the car as a part ex. Now, if I can, I'm thinking of doing that but factoring in the £600 MOT to my borrowing (or reducing the cost of the next car by that amount.)

After doing a little digging, I suspect they'll charge me more than the cost of the MOT so even if I'd stuck with the original plan I probably couldn't have VT'd anyway.

Thanks for your help though.

Noree

May seem blunt, but why would you be driving a car which you know has issues?

Seems like you anticipated an MOT failure.

Sorry I couldn’t answer your questions.

molerat

1) You will be charged for the cost of repairing the car - do you honestly think they will charge you less than your local garage.


2) The car is worth what it is worth, you will need to pay the finance co the balance. The dealer may be able to wrap that up into the new deal so you will be paying that off on top of the new car. To make it affordable you will likely have to extend the length of the deal which will bring you back to the situation you are in now in a few years time.



As for being on its original shocks, how old is this car ? It looks like you need to stop taking out long finance deals on old cars, they might work on new cars but on older ones you are still having to pay it off when you come into serious repair territory.



It looks like your best option is to fix what you have.

AdrianC

dlv13 wrote: »

2) The guy at the garage said he knows of people who've used their failed MOT car as a deposit on another car, does anyone know if that's possible in negative equity?

Of course it is. But you'll basically be borrowing yet more money to pay the already-borrowed money back.

Given that you are clearly not particularly flush and have an incipient large increase in your other expenses, this sounds like a bloody silly plan to me.

Scrapit

What's it failed on? Can you get cheaper elsewhere?