Lost car in Luton fire, new one failed it's MOT

jimjames

Herzlos said:

Desmond_Hume said:

I’m not convinced I’d be fixing this tbh.  Sure, get the major stuff fixed this time and it passes an MOT. In 12 months time - maybe less - we still have the minor stuff, which will probably be major by then so we’re throwing more good money at this? Not for me. 

Lesson learned here is properly check before buying. Sub £1K is proper bottom of the barrel stuff these days. 

Maybe if it fails next years MOT the car situation will have improved a bit but I honestly think this is normal now, and the £1k banger is now £3k.

That's inflation for you. When a new car is over £30k it will drag older cars up too especially when new cars then become unaffordable for many. I suppose the same comments would have been made about the £100 banger a few years ago.

Goudy

Herzlos said:

Desmond_Hume said:

I’m not convinced I’d be fixing this tbh.  Sure, get the major stuff fixed this time and it passes an MOT. In 12 months time - maybe less - we still have the minor stuff, which will probably be major by then so we’re throwing more good money at this? Not for me. 

Lesson learned here is properly check before buying. Sub £1K is proper bottom of the barrel stuff these days. 

If it needed frame welding, engine stripping or anything complex then I'd agree with you. 

That's the killer on a car like this.
There's just no point sorting out rust, that's when it's time to wave goodbye.

If you're going to coax a bit of life out of a banger, you probably couldn't do much better than a Nissan of this vintage.

It was built in Sunderland, mainly for the European market, so the quality of the steel and rust proofing tended to be very good at the time.

Renaults involvement was an alliance in regards to engines, but at that time it was only the 1.5 diesel engine which was shared. (not a bad things as it was/still is a cracker), the petrol was all Nissan's Aichi Kikai.

Most of the parts are interchangeable with other Nissans built around the same time, like the Primera. So they are piled high, readily available and very very cheap.

The QG engines used were fairly thrifty for the time and are pretty bombproof, mini cabbers all over the world will account for that.   
I have little doubt that the engine and gearbox are probably "mechanically sound", as long as you keep the dipstick wet with oil, it'll run and run.

And there's nothing about them that would worry your average back street garage, which is where you should head.
Get enough down now to get it through the MOT then when the funds are a little better, start on one or two of the advisories.