Car failed MOT - scrapped - or was it??

Rolandtheroadie

Paid out £650 on a 1999 1.9 tdi Passat to get it through it's MOT, it had over 200k on it at the time. I knew the car and thought it was reasonable for another years motoring.
That ran on premium vegetable oil with a dash of petrol quite happily.

On the scrapping issue, I've used cartakeback a few times. At least twice I got a letter a few weeks later saying the car wasn't being scrapped and being sold on. Their car, their choice.

GotToChange

Thanks for the info re. fuel..... I did suspect that it was something of a marketing exercise, but as I said, I thought my older car would benefit from it - I am the sucker, it seems

It was all the negativity from my garage that made me think that now would be the time to let the car go..... he never really said to me that spending approx £400 would make all well (apart from the Cat, which he said "could go but may not..." (??). He did not tell me that Scrapping did not actually mean scrapping - and DID tell me that I would get paid when all the fuel was drained off and measured - which implied to me that it actually was to be scrapped (so lied?).
I was quite badly misled.

I spent £2000 on a somewhat newer car (which is incidentally what I paid for the VW in 2007) - but I probably need not have done. Another 22 year old car for £450 might have problems upcoming that I had already had fixed on my Passat, or others as might be expected from a car so old. My Passat probably has plenty of life left in it - and I knew it and how it had been looked after.

I feel a bit stupid really

GotToChange

Rolandtheroadie wrote: »

Paid out £650 on a 1999 1.9 tdi Passat to get it through it's MOT, it had over 200k on it at the time. I knew the car and thought it was reasonable for another years motoring.
That ran on premium vegetable oil with a dash of petrol quite happily.

On the scrapping issue, I've used cartakeback a few times. At least twice I got a letter a few weeks later saying the car wasn't being scrapped and being sold on. Their car, their choice.

That is probably - on reflection - what I should have done, only it would only have been around £400. They are good cars.

Interesting re. the fuel - I thought the D in TDi stood for diesel

The process of it being scrapped - or not - was a little more convoluted in my case:
1) I was advised to scrap it
2) I was told certain things that made me believe it was being scrapped - e.g. the fuel was being drained out of it before I was paid
3) I was told a) it had gone - and b) it was still there - when I was trying to get a couple of things returned
4) My message that I left with them - before any money changed hands - and while the car was "still there" saying I wanted it back, was ignored
5) Someone took it back to the garage that failed the MOT and got it passed - I suspect that this was "my" garage
6) It has been through the hands of up to six people and now is being neglected, and yet is for sale.

Pretty complicated
I may have bought a newer car, but I am not naive enough to think that this one won't have issues as well.

GunJack

GotToChange wrote: »

Interesting re. the fuel - I thought the D in TDi stood for diesel

It does, but a lot of (especially older) diesels will run on filtered veg oil, in this case the dash of petrol is more than likely just to thin the veg oil a bit so it ran ok some may call it biodiesel

Rolandtheroadie

GunJack wrote: »

It does, but a lot of (especially older) diesels will run on filtered veg oil, in this case the dash of petrol is more than likely just to thin the veg oil a bit so it ran ok some may call it biodiesel

Wash your mouth out
For biodiesel, the waste veg was mixed with a KoH/methanol solution, glycerol removed and the remaining fuel washed with water before being dried.

esmerobbo

GotToChange wrote: »

Interesting re. the fuel - I thought the D in TDi stood for diesel

GunJack wrote: »

It does, but a lot of (especially older) diesels will run on filtered veg oil, in this case the dash of petrol is more than likely just to thin the veg oil a bit so it ran ok some may call it biodiesel

It doesn't it stands for "Direct" as in Turbocharged Direct Injection.

GotToChange

esmerobbo wrote: »

It doesn't it stands for "Direct" as in Turbocharged Direct Injection.

Shows what I know.......


Remembering why I have posted on here

mollycat

OP, apologies if this reads unkindly, it is not intended as such, but with the written word it's sometimes difficult to get the correct tone

I buy, run, repair older cars and owned a passat like yours a few years ago.

I always shop for cars in the £500-£1000 end of the pool, and have never bought an out and out dud. Having family members who owned a small garage, mates who are mechanics and being a time served engineer have helped greatly in that respect

I do not know a single "bangernomics" advocate who would have thought that paying £200-£300 to get an otherwise servicable, running car, known to yourself, (as opposed to a "new" car you are buying basically on trust), was "uneconomical".

I would have snapped his hand off to keep that car going for another year.

I am surprised that the mechanic involved with your vehicle advised you the way he did, but despite his opinion, the judgement made to sell was still your responsibility.

So, no underhand or improper games going on IMHO, but a leeson maybe in understanding the value of acting on the opinions oof others; because of your decision someone else is running about in the VW possibly bought for peanuts, you have a different older car which cost more than the £300 repair bill and may need more spent on it in the next few years than the VW will.

Stick with what yo know is my motto.....(It's not really, but you get the gist:) )

Jackmydad

OP it sounds as if you were pushed into making a decision that you later regretted.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing.
In the end it's a car. Tin box and engine.
Don't get tied up in emotion about it. I sold my old Passat for scrap, after it developed a water leak that looked like the manifold. Engine out job. The bloke who picked it up said "It's not bad is it" (body wise) I told him what I reckoned was wrong with it, and he said they'd have a look. They might have mended it and sold it as a runner. I really didn't care. It was their car then.

It'll all make no difference to you life in 12 months time.
Move on.

GotToChange

Thanks mollycat for your perspective, which obviously comes from a more experienced place than mine - and I think what you do is excellent.

I have taken my car to the same garage or about six years and maybe they are fed up with dealing with me and my efforts to keep my car going to it's last breath. BUT. I did put my trust in the man who runs it and feel that I may have been wrong to..... although he did point out that there will be things coming up - the Cat and he also said that all the coolant had "gone" although there had been no sign of it and no indication on any gauge/warning light or seeing the fluid under the car (I forgot about this before, and he also did a prsssure test and nothing bad happened......?).

Of course, I know next to nothing about cars - obviously - and this has benefitted some one else at a cost to me, I am sure of that.

Thank you very much for your intelligent input, I am not offended at all so no need for apologies