My car has failed its MOT

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My beloved car (which I badly need to sell) has failed its MOT. It's only worth about £1000, and the repairs needed to get it through the retest could be up to £400.

As I now only stand to make about £500 profit on the sale (provided I can find a buyer), are there any other options open to me to recover some value - like selling it to a garage or scrapyard for parts etc?

― Burt, Friday, 15 July 2005 08:04 (twenty years ago)

on the off-chance it's a mitsubishi colt (CJO body-shape): can i have your rear nearside roof drip moulding cap?

well, it was worth a try.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Friday, 15 July 2005 08:06 (twenty years ago)

Bear in mind, you get a different car, you still get to pay a bill like that, trust me.

If the car is basically sound, you may be better off stumping up.

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 15 July 2005 08:11 (twenty years ago)

Do it like they do in Hackney and set it on fire!

― MIS Information (kate), Friday, 15 July 2005 08:12 (twenty years ago)

Take it to another garage and get another quote on the work.

― Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Friday, 15 July 2005 08:17 (twenty years ago)

My car had it's MOT on Wednesday & passed, although I'm sure that's of no help to you. If you can afford it, I'd get the work done & sell it quick smart.

― PinXorchiXoR (Pinkpanther), Friday, 15 July 2005 08:18 (twenty years ago)

What's up with it, make, model etc

Not that I know much about cars but maybe someone could help.

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Friday, 15 July 2005 08:18 (twenty years ago)

Funnily enough (well not reall) my car had it's MOT on Wednesday too. It needed a new windscreen wiper (a quite reasonable £3 - I thought they'd have really stung me on something like that), a new tyre and a new license plate (the old one was falling apart). I thought £200 for all that plus a full service (inc fuel filter change) was quite reasonable.

But it did pass - even though they gave me the wrong license plate number!

― Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Friday, 15 July 2005 10:10 (twenty years ago)

my last car failed because some tiny relay somewhere was stopping the rear fog-light working. i think the garage ended up charging me 75p for the part. i was very impressed.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Friday, 15 July 2005 10:24 (twenty years ago)

I failed to mention the 3 new tyres I had to get pre-mot. One of these was urgent as I decided to have a blow out on the A14/M11 at 80 mph. What an interesting morning that was!

― PinXorchiXoR (Pinkpanther), Friday, 15 July 2005 10:42 (twenty years ago)

My MOT cost me £55 (including the MOT test) as all it needed was 2wipers. But it came with a warning that next year I'll have to replace both front brakes, and a couple of other things. At least I have enough notice to save the money up for it. Though I'm trying to sell t anyway... Anyone want a Nissan Almera?

― Craig Gilchrist (Craig Gilchrist), Friday, 15 July 2005 11:10 (twenty years ago)

Tell us what it failed on - you might be able to shop around and get it done for say £200. If so, it might be worth soldiering on with the old motor. But honestly, cars = financial ruin. There's no escaping it.

― Dr. C (Dr. C), Friday, 15 July 2005 11:14 (twenty years ago)

What a waste of time.

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Friday, 15 July 2005 11:18 (twenty years ago)

is the MOT is as much of a farce over there as here? My car failed last time for the headlights being off colour (???), when I brought it to Colin, the mechanic, he was like "yeah take the old bulbs with you just cos there's every chance they'll just fail you again on this even with new ones"

― Ronan (Ronan), Friday, 15 July 2005 11:20 (twenty years ago)

One of these was urgent as I decided to have a blow out on the A14/M11 at 80 mph.

Eek!

― tissp! (the impossible shortest specia), Friday, 15 July 2005 11:42 (twenty years ago)

one year passes...

My car's MOT is due in a month.

My car's gearbox seems to be having problems - I can't easily get it into 2nd gear and if I do, it slips out again quickly.

If I take it to a garage now to get it fixed, I suppose it's worth getting the MOT done now too, even though it has a month to run, yes? I am new to all this.

― Alba, Monday, 26 February 2007 14:30 (eighteen years ago)

from the DVLA website:

'If the vehicle is presented for test within the calendar month prior to the date that the MOT is due, the test certificate will run from the date of the test to one year after the expiry date of the current certificate for example if the current certificate was due to expire on 1 April 2003, and the vehicle was presented on or after 2 March 2003, the certificate would run from the test date until 1 April 2004.

To have this extension, the vehicle owner should present their old certificate to the test station to verify that the extra time is applicable.

The same rule would also apply if the vehicle was taken in within a calendar month of its first MOT. In this case, the vehicle owner would need to present their registration document.

If the vehicle is tested earlier than one month before its due date, the MOT will only run for twelve months.'

― Vicky, Monday, 26 February 2007 14:51 (eighteen years ago)

Oh, terrific. Thanks. I am rather scared about driving to the garage with no 2nd gear, but I expect I'll get there somehow.

― Alba, Monday, 26 February 2007 14:55 (eighteen years ago)

Miss out 2nd when driving! Thrash it a bit in first, then change straight up to third.

― C J, Monday, 26 February 2007 14:57 (eighteen years ago)

Is this general driving advice?

― Alba, Monday, 26 February 2007 15:12 (eighteen years ago)

― Ed, Monday, 26 February 2007 15:12 (eighteen years ago)

I used to have a boyfriend who hated third gear for some inexplicable reason, and would always change straight from second to fourth. He was a bit of a twat though.

― C J, Monday, 26 February 2007 15:17 (eighteen years ago)

Oh, and if I am having this problem with it not engaging with 2nd gear, is that likely to mean the gearbox, the clutch or something else is broken?

― Alba, Monday, 26 February 2007 15:19 (eighteen years ago)

you're broken, Nick

― Dr.C, Monday, 26 February 2007 15:20 (eighteen years ago)

O no!

― Alba, Monday, 26 February 2007 15:20 (eighteen years ago)

Most people change gears too quickly and waste ~~gasoline~~ petrol. It should really hum mightily for a bit before you shift.

― Tracer Hand, Monday, 26 February 2007 15:20 (eighteen years ago)

Seriously - it's probably the synchromesh that's buggered. It will have nothing to do with the clutch.

― Dr.C, Monday, 26 February 2007 15:20 (eighteen years ago)

Just in case anybody needed to hear a condescending twat hold forth about vehicles.

― Tracer Hand, Monday, 26 February 2007 15:21 (eighteen years ago)

The "synchromesh"! I shall mention that word to the mechanic and perhaps he will charge me less. Is that an expensive thing to fix?

― Alba, Monday, 26 February 2007 15:22 (eighteen years ago)

It's a mechanism that helps to match the cog speeds so that you don't have to be a precise rev count to change gears (or something like that). If it's broken you should still be able to change gears but you have to be precise about the speed that you do it.

On the other hand if it just won't change, it could be a bent cog or something.

I think most gearbox work is quite expensive regardless of what's wrong because you have to take the whole bloody thing apart.

― Dr.C, Monday, 26 February 2007 15:27 (eighteen years ago)

Oh well, I'll hope for the best. Thanks.

― Alba, Monday, 26 February 2007 15:38 (eighteen years ago)

Dr. C I hope it was clear from context that I was referring to myself.

― Tracer Hand, Monday, 26 February 2007 15:52 (eighteen years ago)

I don't understand your petrol point. I thought higher gears used less fuel?

― Alba, Monday, 26 February 2007 20:32 (eighteen years ago)

Most people change gears too quickly and waste gasoline petrol. It should really hum mightily for a bit before you shift.

hmm, no,

You want to be in as high a gear as possible at all times, accelerate slowly and try to maintain a constant speed.

― Ed, Monday, 26 February 2007 20:36 (eighteen years ago)

It's true. When I bought my current car, a Ford Focus, the sales guy demonstrated to me the AMAZING (to him) feature that allowed me to drive in 5th gear at just 30mph! See those revs drop! No more annoying 4th gear! Loads of petrol saved!

If you put your handbrake on and put the car in neutral at traffic lights, that also makes revs drop and conserves petrol. A minute amount, admittedly, but still...

― accentmonkey, Monday, 26 February 2007 21:19 (eighteen years ago)

Burt, if you can afford to spend several thousand pounds to buy a car that's unlikely to need a lot of work for a few years, then by all means do that. But if you'd just be replacing this £1000 car with another £1000 car then you'll always be likely to have to deal with repairs and servicing charges.

A scrapyard is highly unlikely to give you £500 for a car. Sometimes you even have to pay them to take it off your hands.

If you are in general happy with the car, just spend the £400 (or cheaper if you can get a better quote). Cars ARE expensive, there's no two ways about it.

― Mark C, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 11:27 (eighteen years ago)

Or, if you are wanting to sell it, stick a notice up in your supermarket/in your local newspaper, whatever, explaining it's failed its MoT. Someone will buy it (though I only got £100 for my old Fiesta that way, it was cheaper than scrapping it and that £100 + what I saved by not putting it through its MoT bought me another cheap car which has done me for two years thus far.

― ailsa, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 11:40 (eighteen years ago)

Oh, shite, we're giving someone useful advice that they asked for two years ago!

(dear mods, plz to make big time gaps more obvious to morons?)

― ailsa, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 11:42 (eighteen years ago)

(I'm not actually calling Mark a moron...)

― ailsa, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 11:42 (eighteen years ago)

I guess Burt has resolved the problem now - he posted in July 2005! I wonder what he did and whether we'll ever see him again.

I want an old Beetle.

― Dr.C, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 11:44 (eighteen years ago)

Maybe it's not petrol saved, then. My mechanic told me about staying in gear longer before shifting up, he said it was better for the car (a 1968 Volvo). I could swear he said it was more fuel-efficient, too, but I guess I'm just imagining that.

― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 11:57 (eighteen years ago)

Haha I didn't notice that either!

We are lovely giving people and our karmic positivity has increased.

― Mark C, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 12:09 (eighteen years ago)

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