Dealers offering 12 months MOT with car.

born_again

tommyt41 said:

Hi there,

Been searching for a new car for a while and found one I particularly like. The Mot is running out shortly and the dealer are offering 12 months MOT with sale. However I'd prefer to see the MOT before purchasing the car, as depending on the advisories it might mean I don't want to buy it.

Any advice with this? Would a dealer offering this be liable to repair any advisories? Or could they merely ask the tester to turn a blind eye to some of the advisories if this was the case.

cheers

Do a online check of the cars MOT history is a good start.

https://www.gov.uk/check-mot-history

Ectophile

AdrianC said:

Ectophile said:

The last car I bought had 4 worn tyres, one of which was a gnat's whisker from being illegally bald.

Does nobody bother looking at cars before buying them?

I did look at the tyres.  I even had to point out to the sales rep that one of them was flat before I took the car for a test drive.

But I didn't realised how bad they were until I got home with it.  It went from "I will have to replace the tyres before long" to "I had better get the local tyre fitter to order some new ones in now".

Other than that, it was the car I wanted, and wasn't 300 miles away.

BOWFER

AdrianC said:

Ectophile said:

The last car I bought had 4 worn tyres, one of which was a gnat's whisker from being illegally bald.

Does nobody bother looking at cars before buying them?

depends what you mean by "looking"
In person, that would mean restricting myself to the local area and that's just crap.
But with digital photos and videos there's no excuse for missing stuff like tyre tread depth.
Tyre brand is one of the first things I ask to see, as even if they are brand new I'm not driving a car with budget 'ditchfinder' tyres and I will have to factor in known brand replacements that will actually grip.

Ibrahim5

It's amazing how many second hand quality prestigious vehicles have got very cheap brand new tyres. They show them close up on photographs too. You sort of think "what sort of owner would do that. They mustn't have looked after it well". Then you think maybe at the end of a lease or PCP someone would fit anything that was legal.

AdrianC

Ibrahim5 said:

It's amazing how many second hand quality prestigious vehicles have got very cheap brand new tyres. They show them close up on photographs too. You sort of think "what sort of owner would do that. They mustn't have looked after it well". Then you think maybe at the end of a lease or PCP someone would fit anything that was legal.

They're what many people actually buy, depressingly.

BOWFER

AdrianC said:

Ibrahim5 said:

It's amazing how many second hand quality prestigious vehicles have got very cheap brand new tyres. They show them close up on photographs too. You sort of think "what sort of owner would do that. They mustn't have looked after it well". Then you think maybe at the end of a lease or PCP someone would fit anything that was legal.

They're what many people actually buy, depressingly.

Agreed, it's incredible how people assume a 'tyre is a tyre' and is something to be treated as a legal requirement only, rather than something that could save your life.

nick74

A former colleague of mine was very scornful when she once saw me reading reviews and comparing different tyres on line before planning to purchase some. Tyres apparently are all just round black things which only need replacing when the MOT tester tells you they're dangerous, and you just buy the cheapest because they are all the same anyway. Well, now I know...

Grumpy_chap

Ibrahim5 said:

It's amazing how many second hand quality prestigious vehicles have got very cheap brand new tyres. They show them close up on photographs too. You sort of think "what sort of owner would do that. They mustn't have looked after it well". Then you think maybe at the end of a lease or PCP someone would fit anything that was legal.

I don't have a quality, prestigious vehicle.  Nor end of lease / PCP.

I always put the cheapest tyres.

They wear well - typically 30k - 40k miles.  Expensive tyres only do half that.

Very MSE.

BOWFER

Grumpy_chap said:

Ibrahim5 said:

It's amazing how many second hand quality prestigious vehicles have got very cheap brand new tyres. They show them close up on photographs too. You sort of think "what sort of owner would do that. They mustn't have looked after it well". Then you think maybe at the end of a lease or PCP someone would fit anything that was legal.

I don't have a quality, prestigious vehicle.  Nor end of lease / PCP.

I always put the cheapest tyres.

They wear well - typically 30k - 40k miles.  Expensive tyres only do half that.

Very MSE.

Is grip not an issue?
I'll give you an example of how bad these budget tyres can be, try wheelspin in third gear in the wet in an 86bhp diesel Fiesta.
That's a mental lack of grip, I kept them on for a day and then binned them for a decent brand.
Never again, total false economy.

Grumpy_chap

BOWFER said:

Grumpy_chap said:

Ibrahim5 said:

It's amazing how many second hand quality prestigious vehicles have got very cheap brand new tyres. They show them close up on photographs too. You sort of think "what sort of owner would do that. They mustn't have looked after it well". Then you think maybe at the end of a lease or PCP someone would fit anything that was legal.

I don't have a quality, prestigious vehicle.  Nor end of lease / PCP.

I always put the cheapest tyres.

They wear well - typically 30k - 40k miles.  Expensive tyres only do half that.

Very MSE.

Is grip not an issue?
I'll give you an example of how bad these budget tyres can be, try wheelspin in third gear in the wet in an 86bhp diesel Fiesta.
That's a mental lack of grip, I kept them on for a day and then binned them for a decent brand.
Never again, total false economy.

Can't get my Focus to wheelspin in 1st gear in snow laying on ice 😲
Deep tread on my tyres.