Car Problem 30 January 2008 at 2:43PM edited 30 November -1 at 1:00AM in Motoring 13 replies 638 views

FrenchMaid_2

Hello I do not know if this is the right board to post but here it goes anyways.

I am caught in the middle of a horrid chicken and egg situation.

I used to drive my German registred car here in the UK but 6 months ago the brake system broke and it is not worth having it repaired. It has since been declared of the road.

Now in order to sell it in the UK I would have to get a full MOT done, insure it and tax it. But to get MOT I would have to repair the brake system which is sooooooo expensive and costs more than the car is actually worth.

Can't sell it in Germany because obviously would have to drive there and without brakes a bit dangerous!!!!

What other options are there - that ideally don't cost me anything - to get rid of the car!

Thanks for letting me know


Mel (shaking her head in why me???)

cajef

Look in your local paper or yellow pages for a breakers yard, probably give you £50 for it.

Nile

Hello FrenchMaid

I'll move your thread to the 'Motoring & Public Transport' board.

Hi, Martin’s asked me to post this in these circumstances: I’ve asked Board Guides to move threads if they’ll receive a better response elsewhere(please see this rule) so this post/thread has been moved to another board, where it should get more replies. If you have any questions about this policy please email [EMAIL="abuse@moneysavingexpert.com"][email protected][/EMAIL].

Regards

Nile

Jorgan_2

Have a look on e-bay and see what your type of car is going for as spares or repair. There are a number of breakers out there that may well pay good money for your car, the sum of the parts being worth more than the car it self.

kenb2

Yep, scrap it, the only option for broken down and dangerous old cars.
scrap iron is still at a high so you should not have to pay to get rid of it.

hartcjhart

Hi can you tell us what sort of car it is,is it LHD/RHD,
make ,model,year etc, it will give a better idea of what advice to offer
also where the car is located

rsooty

FrenchMaid wrote: »

Now in order to sell it in the UK I would have to get a full MOT done, insure it and tax it. But to get MOT I would have to repair the brake system which is sooooooo expensive and costs more than the car is actually worth.

There is no need to get it MOT'd, insured or taxed to sell in the UK. Just ensure that you make it known there is no MOT etc and make sure they know about the brake fault.

A brake fault shouldnt cost that much to repair, most parts in the system are quite cheap. Let me know what type of car it is and I will give you a 'guess-timate' as to what to expect to pay.

Sooty

Wig

As it is a foriegn vehicle, the UK scrap yards are likely going to be un able to scrap it for you. In which case (if it were a UK car in Germany) I would break it myself, taking the panels & engine to the local civic amenity site, and using an angle grinder to chop up the chassis. Taking photographs as I went, to prove to DVLA that the car had been scrapped/broken by myself.

I suggest you ask the German DVLA what proof they require that you have scrapped the vehicle, either yourself or if at all possible by a UK scrap dealer.

A scrap man will give you £40 - £50 if he collects the car from you or £70 - £80 if you take it to them.

FrenchMaid_2

Thank you - it is a left hand hand drive Fiat Punto - my husband told me to say it's not the brake but the ABS system - don't quite get the difference.

I just want to get rid of the car so I can declare it as "no longer mine".

Lol about the suggestion to take it apart by myself - I can't even hang my shower curtain rail... can you imagine the damage I would do to myself trying to chop my car in 2???

tomstickland

THe LHD is more of a problem than the ABS system. Someone could fix that pretty easily with a recon part or part from a scrapped vehicle.
Try selling the car as it is via local paper, tradeit.co.uk and or Ebay.

Wig

You have to register foreign vehicles with the DVLA within 1 year from the date of entry. But they don't ask for proof of date of entry so you can probably easily do this.

If after talking to German DVLA & scrap man in UK you think it will not be possible to scrap it (as German car) then ring up UK DVLA (01792 782341) and ask them the process of registering the car as British with a SORN status just for the purposes of scrapping the car in the UK. There will be minimal costs involved in reregistering it as British, but that is one way to get it scrapped easily.