MOT failure

Emmanouil

Hello all! I want your opinion as my car failed in MOT.... Below are the defects, my car is a Corsa 2008 model..  Do you think is worth it to get it fixed or i should be looking for a new car.. The mechanic told me that only for the first two bullet points the cost is going to be around 500-550£

• Nearside Front Lower Suspension component mounting prescribed area is corroded to the extent that control of the vehicle is likely to be adversely affected arm mounting point front. 
• Nearside Front Sub-frame likely to fail suspension arm front mount securing point. 
• Offside Windscreen wiper does not clear the windscreen effectively 
• Nearside Headlamp insecure 
• Nearside Front Direction indicator incorrect colour 
• Nearside Rear Tyre slightly damaged/cracking or perishing offside rear 
• Offside Front Upper Shock absorbers has a slightly worn bush 
• Offside Front Lower Suspension arm pin or bush worn but not resulting in excessive movement rear bush 
• Oil leak, but not excessive engine                              Thank you in advance!!

CasualBagger

The first two points sound pretty rough, especially the likely subframe failure. Both the first two points are corrosive problems which means the rest of the underbody of the car is also probably rotting at this point. 

The best person to ask if the car is a goner is the mechanic that looked at it. 

The rest are annoying points but not horrible. 

If it were me I would probably be thinking of buying a different car. But I owned an '08 Corsa at one point and found it heavy, gutless and annoying. You would probably be delighted by something more modern, lighter and zippier.  

treeroy

You should ask your mechanic how bad the rust is, go underneath the car with him and get him to point out all the other bits of rust that are going to come up in next year's MOT :P 
The first one shows that your car is rusty. Rust doesn't usually just affect 1 area so you could pay £500 to get it through and then 1 year later the rust will be back bigger than before and it will cost £1500 to get it through

Ask the mechanic for more information about the rust.

Grumpy_chap

Is the car reliable?
How many miles do you do in a year?
Apart from the first two items (£550), the remainder look like basic maintenance.
Ask the garage for a total cost to keep it going.  If the car is reliable and the total cost is, say, £700, then you can have a car for a year for the cost of two monthly payments on a newer car.
Then save the next 10 months to get another car just before the next MOT is due.
Obviously, if you do a massive mileage, it is likely time to buy a newer car now.

Emmanouil

Grumpy_chap said:

Is the car reliable?
How many miles do you do in a year?
Apart from the first two items (£550), the remainder look like basic maintenance.
Ask the garage for a total cost to keep it going.  If the car is reliable and the total cost is, say, £700, then you can have a car for a year for the cost of two monthly payments on a newer car.
Then save the next 10 months to get another car just before the next MOT is due.
Obviously, if you do a massive mileage, it is likely time to buy a newer car now.

Well, i bought the car last year(my first car in UK) after the MOT. I did just 2500 miles in one year, but next year i plan to do more than 4000-5000 miles. The car during this year had a replacement exhaust system(corroded) for 360£ and i changed also for 40£ something in the engine as it was shutting down unexpectedly..

Grumpy_chap

Exhaust on an older car is a consumable item.  The £40 engine management event can't have been serious.
This car does not sound like a long term keeper, but if you spend £700 to get the MOT and then choose a new car at leisure, you will probably be able to recoup most of the £700 when you sell the car.
 5k miles in a year is not many.

MinuteNoodles

Emmanouil said:

Hello all! I want your opinion as my car failed in MOT.... Below are the defects, my car is a Corsa 2008 model..  Do you think is worth it to get it fixed or i should be looking for a new car.. The mechanic told me that only for the first two bullet points the cost is going to be around 500-550£

• Nearside Front Lower Suspension component mounting prescribed area is corroded to the extent that control of the vehicle is likely to be adversely affected arm mounting point front. 
• Nearside Front Sub-frame likely to fail suspension arm front mount securing point. 

I'm all for bangernomics and keeping a car going until it expires in a pool of it's own oil vomit and cloud of smoke at the side of the road but once a car starts to rot around structural points to the point of being a MOT fail then it's time to get shut, the only exception I'll make is for the outer sills.

Emmanouil

Ι am struggling to understand how the same car last year passed with no advisories to be honest...
Also i do not know what is going to come up next year..The same new parts probably will be ok but the older ones may fail and i am afraid i may end up paying a fortune.  

Grumpy_chap

Then it is time to get rid.
Put the Corsa on eBay as MOT failure, spares or repair.
Put your £700 towards something new.

noclaf

Emmanouil said:

Ι am struggling to understand how the same car last year passed with no advisories to be honest...
Also i do not know what is going to come up next year..The same new parts probably will be ok but the older ones may fail and i am afraid i may end up paying a fortune.  

My 16 yr old focus flew through its MOT last year with not a single advisory. This year I had 4 including one for sub frame mount corrosion...a lot can change in a year! In my case, will not bother with trying to rust proof or clear the corrosion as it could be just avoiding the inevitable if other areas are also corroding.

Emmanouil

sorry to hear that..how much did they ask for repairing it?