Subscribe now and choose from over 30 free gifts worth up to £49 - Plus get £25 to spend in our shop
Car has just failed its MoT and will cost way more than it is worth to fix. So sadly it's time for it to go. Particularly sad as we've had it over 18 years.
However everything comes to an end I guess so......where do we get rid of it?
There are various of these "We buy any car" type of websites, but are some better than others? Not looking to make a load of money, but something would be nice.
Ta in advance
Ebay with an honest description, start at £1. Someone will collect and break it for the parts.
As @tthew above, eBay auction, 99p start.
You might get a none paying bidder but so what? list it again, eventually some lunatic will take it off your hands.
Hot Rod it
Sold my old BMW on FB marketplace. Scrappy offered £140, got £400 cash for it.
If its 18 years old it should probably be scrapped, I scrapped mine, I didnt want to sell it to someone and have something happen to them. It was a 2007 mondeo, the local dismantlers gave me £130 cash for it and took it away from my house. No hassle, no haggling and I know if it goes back on the road then I'm not responsible for anything that happens.
I used one of the various "we scrap any car" type websites, got £185 for a 15 year old C-max with the front end smashed off.
Also got £175* for the alloy wheels (actually being able to park has its advantages), £40 for the stereo, £25 for some roof bars, £45 for the towbar. Not bad, £500 extra for a write-off the insurance had already paid out on!
*stuck some steels on with almost bald winter tyres, caveat of the scraping company is the car has to be on 4 wheels so they could get it on a transporter.
Nonsense about scrapping a car just because it's old.
18 years is very old
18 years is very old
Not particularly, my car and my van are both coming up to eighteen, neither seem to require scrapping or are inherently dangerous (99k on the car and 88k on the van)
18 years is very old
If your epstine maybe.
What is it and what's the failures.
I'd ebay or FB market it on.
18 years is very old
Not particularly, my car and my van are both coming up to eighteen, neither seem to require scrapping.
I'd say it's pretty unusual to see a car older than 15 years old on the roads. I mean it's not rare, but it's probably <1% of cars I see daily. My car is 14 years old and I have no plans to get rid, but it's far older than most cars on the roads. Which is a shame and an indictment of how well the motor industry manages to pump out unnecessary numbers of new cars.
Nonsense about scrapping a car just because it’s old.
Exactly. A 2007 Mondeo is still a modern car for me.
18 years is very old
My first car was 18 years old when I bought it in 2004. I'd still use it now if I had it.
Too little info from the OP. Is it an interesting vehicle that's worth saving and what's actually wrong with it?
My vans 1998 and the car 2009.
Anything petrol and post mid 90s is almost as clean as a modern car in the real world.
Disposable cars are not greener. Theres more energy and fuel used mining refining building and shipping a new car than you'll recoup by buying a slightly more efficient car every 4years
The 2007 mondeo had two unfixable leaks, had been crashed once and likely had something wrong with the chassis. Scrap. Only had 130000 miles too.
Regards the OPs car, if its 18years then it should have 180000-200000 miles with normal use. If it cant be repaired for MOT then it is scrap and should be scrapped. I wouldn't feel right knowing someone was potentially driving my Mondeo, it was unsafe.
dougiedogg
Free Member18 years is very old
Not really, people just don't value old cars very highly.
For all the talk about car's being deliberately obsolete, car's these days are pretty reliable and easy to fix when they go wrong. Just that most people would rather pay £300 a month for a new car than pay £300 once in a blue moon to fix an old one.
They don't even seem to rust anymore.
I’d say it’s pretty unusual to see a car older than 15 years old on the roads.
Depends where you are. Go to any local council estate that's a bit rough and you'll see loads of cars 15+, usually old barges but plenty of old Fiestas and Corsas. Thanks to lockdown exploring I actually know of 3 Volve 240's that re still in regular use in posher areas of Cardiff, se lots of Micras too. I know of one house that has two Bluebirds plus a G reg Micra, all just used as cars not garage queen's.
The British obsession with new cars baffles me, most other countries you'll see load sof older and well maintained vehicles a lot of the time.
I get it all the time my old saab needed a starter motor and everyone in work was like buy a new car it's more reliable..
300pcm for 3 years or 65quid and 40min to swap it over.....
Mmmmm
If it cant be repaired for MOT then it is scrap and should be scrapped
That's a bit of a stretch from the OP post.
Most things become.economically when you add in labour at a garage.
Cheap motoring for those of us who want/can/will .
Wife has a modern car as she adopts the turn the radio up attitude to faults much like the general populus.
I daily drive(although I don't drive daily) a 35 year old land rover and have a 15 year old camper I'd happily jump in to drive to the Alps
18 years is very old
Oh crap - I best scrap our new camper that has nothing wrong with it.
I had a van I paid £900 for it, five years later it fails the mot so I stuck it on eBay and got £835 for it, now that's what you call economy motoring.
@twinw4ll pah amateur, my dad bought a motorbike for £50 over 50yrs ago, it's now worth at least £60k 😉 and doesn't even have to have an mot either.
18 year old car here, coming upto 19. Had it all bar the first 10 months. You'd not know it was 18 other than the plate.
Unless it ever gets a major failure (it's not had one) then I'll keep it going. It's not actually getting used much now with Covid.
Someone might have the OP's car for parts.
if I had to pay someone else to fix it everytime it went wrong it would cost me way more than its worth, but as its 16years old I dont often need all the latest diagnostic tools etc to do so.
Id like something more comfortable,aircon, heating, quiet etc,like a clean old audi or merc, rather than a newer version of the same, but its not a priority yet.
Its just failed on a cracked headlamp, so another years motoring for under £50?
18 years is very old
Depends. The car in question is a Mere C-Class. We've had it from new. Engine still starts first time even after sitting unused for a month. And that's still the original battery. It still drives very well and actually feels quite modern.
If the MoT bill wasn't so huge (lots of suspension bits needing replaced) I'd happily keep it. However it's also our second car and we don't really need to be running two cars. In fact we would have gone down to one car a few years ago had the Merc not still been running so well and also the emotional attachment to it (the only car we ever have, and probably ever will, bought brand new).
Thanks for all the other replies though. Will maybe gibe FB Marketplace a try.
I'd be keeping that and doing the suspension work myself.
If you're anywhere near Sheffield I'll give you scrap value for it.
Silly question, but is that main dealer pricing or are you already at an independent garage?
My car failed its last MoT on suspension, and the main dealer wanted insane prices for even the parts, the local indy did parts and labour for not much more than I could get the parts for. Just had a look on ECP and pattern parts for your car are similar to mine in terms of price.
Ebay, 99p with the failure sheet, repeat until someone actually shows up. Don't change your plans for someone, they can come when you are in.
Facebook marketplace is FULL of morons who will waste your time.
Or fix it, better the devil you know and all that.
18 years is not an old car. As above we have a weird aversion to fixing cars in his country.
Serious suggestion, bear with me.....
Get a quote (not an estimate) from kwickfit for the suspension work (im assuming its bushings?). They do them for a fixed price and its not much more than buying the arms* from ECP/GSF.
*No one sensible replaces just the bushings these days, I took kwickfit the entire day of labour to get the old ones out.
From an MOT perspective leaking dampers are fixed by a thorough jet wash to remove the evidence.
Really doesnt sound like something that should be scrapped. If you really dont want to fix it then ebay it with a copy of the fault sheet. Soneone will gladly buy it.
I ebayed my last one- wasn't an MOT fail but was undrivable and beyond economic repair. Just stuck up a really good ad with photos and a brutally honest description, started the auction at the value of the diesel in the tank. I'd been offered something like £125 off we buy any car which was less than the wheels were worth, even before they turn up and start trying to knock it down further, I got IIRC £650.
18 years is very old
Steady there Garry Glitter!
(that's a joke of course).
I'd stick it on Gumtree, honest description, include the details of the MOT failure, even a pic of it. Providing the parts cost is below the value of it repaired, someone who like a bit of home mechanicing will likely buy it for something.
Is it an estate? thats what Im looking for
Are you looking at the items it actually failed on or are you including all the advisories as well?
Depends where you are. Go to any local council estate that’s a bit rough and you’ll see loads of cars 15+, usually old barges but plenty of old Fiestas and Corsas
That's the wrong way round in my experience. The council estates I see are full of brand new Nissan Qashquais and bottom-of-the-range Audis, presumably on finance at "only" £200 a month for a squillion years.
The British obsession with new cars baffles me, most other countries you’ll see load sof older and well maintained vehicles a lot of the time.
Agree with this though - noticeably more older cars around in mainland Europe, particularly in the south (perhaps due partly to climate, but certainly not careful driving).
They do them for a fixed price and its not much more than buying the arms* from ECP/GSF.
*No one sensible replaces just the bushings these days, I took kwickfit the entire day of labour to get the old ones out.
Unless you want to buy arms that you trust. I had a ford escort where those arms were consumables till I learned to stop replacing them with the factors cheapest.
Volve 240’s that re still in regular use in posher areas of Cardiff
Parked outside antiques shops?
Unless you want to buy arms that you trust. I had a ford escort where those arms were consumables till I learned to stop replacing them with the factors cheapest.
Buy cheap buy twice might be true a lot of the time, but with old cars you could have to factor in that it really might be uneconomical to repair for some other reason long before the cheap part fails.
Also depends on the level of faff. Unbolt a part and replace it, or spend the day trying to get the old bushings out?
I’d be keeping that and doing the suspension work myself.
I (genuinely) struggle with changing a tyre on my bike.
Silly question, but is that main dealer pricing or are you already at an independent garage?
It's an independent garage. They've been doing our cars for more than 20 years and I trust them 100%.
Serious suggestion, bear with me…..
Ta, good idea, but there are various other things as well.
Is it an estate? thats what Im looking for
It's a coupe I'm afraid.
Are you looking at the items it actually failed on or are you including all the advisories as well?
Just the failures. If there were no advisories I'd be tempted just to cough up and get it fixed, but it sounds like the next MoT could be a pricey one as well.
If you’re anywhere near Sheffield I’ll give you scrap value for it.
Scotland.
I'm doing a midlife rebuild on our Volvo V70, 16years old, 190k miles.
Putting ~£1500-£2000 of parts and a bit of paint into it. Should be good for another 190k.
Would only replace it with another or equivalent and doesn't seem right to scrap a perfectly good useable massive chunk of embedded energy.
eBay, 99p start with full description of all the faults you know, lots of pics and a list of all the failure issues on the MOT certificate. Sold my 20 year old A4 last year to an ex Rolls-Royce mechanic who was willing to do all the work himself.
Forgot to add that genuine (Volvo) parts are sensible priced for older cars and sometimes cheaper than EuroCarParts/Lemforder/OEM etc.
I get a decent discount for being a Volvo forum member, a friend used to run an old GWagen and again got a decent discount from MB main dealers for being in the Gwagen owners club.
Regards the OPs car, if its 18years then it should have 180000-200000 miles with normal use.
It’s not the 1980s anymore grandad. 200,000 isn’t a lot of miles. It’s middle aged at most. My current motor is on 260k. My last one had that many miles on when I bought it and then ran it for 8 years.
Are any of the failures classed as MAJOR? If so then advertising it make ssure the buyer knows this as any mot you thought you had remaining is automatically cancelled with a MAJOR fail. Hence any buyer would need to trailer or recover it away.
if I had to pay someone else to fix it everytime it went wrong it would cost me way more than its worth,
whether a repair costs more that the value of the vehicle is irrelevant. All that matters is where you’d get value out of the repair.
^ exactly.
Sounds like you've decided anyway, I'd go with Rusty and just be very honest and start with a realistic price. Tbh I'd be more worried about the advisories if you think it's going to be a bigger problem next year.
Charity scrappage is another option.
Or The local fire station will take them I think to practice accident rescues on.
local fire station will take them I think to practice accident rescues on.
For a car that could still give some service for someone willing to take it on? Doesn’t seem very green as others have said.
I got made redundant in Sep and lost a company car. A lucky new job meant I needed a car pronto and a friend had a car that was available. It’s 12 years old but is a damn sight better than the 7 year old car I had to buy for starting work 30 years ago.
It was originally bought as a stop gap but I’m tempted to keep it indefinitely- happy to pay a few hundred on repairs each year if needed rather than sell/scrap and pay that each month for something newer. It’s had a new cam belt as part of the purchase so even if I get 5 years out of it I’ll be happy.
I’d stick it on Gumtree, honest description, include the details of the MOT failure, even a pic of it. Providing the parts cost is below the value of it repaired, someone who like a bit of home mechanicing will likely buy it for something.
I did this with my old X Type estate. It failed MOT on corroded brakes lines, needed a pair of tyres and needed a clutch/DMF. For me to get all that done wasn’t really worth it so I put it on gumtree for £500 while I was at work.
By the time I arrived home there were a couple of guys standing on the drive looking around it, having recognised the house from the photo 😳
10 minutes later they handed me £450 and took it away.
Fixed it up and sold it a few weeks later.
[strong]naffa[/strong] wrote:
Are any of the failures classed as MAJOR? If so then advertising it make ssure the buyer knows this as any mot you thought you had remaining is automatically cancelled with a MAJOR fail. Hence any buyer would need to trailer or recover it away.
It's confusing, but nope.
There's now 4 categories. Dangerous, major, minor and advisory. It's only dangerous faults that you can't drive (bald tyres, faulty brakes, no brake lights etc). Most things are now Major faults which you can drive away and get repaired somewhere else as long as the old MOT is still in date.
https://www.gov.uk/getting-an-mot/after-the-test
On a side note, was a brake bulb not working never an MOT failure? I found out the other day that only >1/2 of the bulbs (i.e. 2 on most cars) have to work, one out is just a minor fault which wont get a fail.
As of may 2018 naffa is correct.
You still have the right to take it to a place of a repair but that doesn't make it right to buy and drive home.
A failed mot be automatically recorded and will flag on anpr.
If the major fault still exists you are not driving a roadworthy car.
The catch all is at the bottom of the linke Tina's provided
On a side note, was a brake bulb not working never an MOT failure? I found out the other day that only >1/2 of the bulbs (i.e. 2 on most cars) have to work, one out is just a minor fault which wont get a fail.
That's not what it says. It's if theres multiple sources of light ..ie a 5 led high level brake light...then 1/2 of it must work.
You can't just go around with 1 our of 2 brake lights. Lamp inoperative is a major fail.
your MOT is valid for a year (or up to 13 months if the test is early, or 18 months if covid, etc etc), regardless of what happens to the car. The car might become unroadworthy during that time for many reasons, and could fail its next MOT for that unroadworthiness, but you may drive it again once it is roadworthy without any issues - ie if I punt my car in for an MOT a month early and they say there's threads showing on the tyre (dangerous), if I get a tyre fitter to put new boots on, its legal to drive that moment, I don't need to get it retested (until the original MOT expires)
200,000 isn’t a lot of miles
it is a lot of miles. Its not so many a car might need to be scrapped, but its significantly higher than the average miles that cars are scrapped at, and for most cars, will mean its value is so small that fairly mundane jobs (of which there will be more, due to the milage) will cause it to not be worth bothering with. Cars average around 14 years before getting scrapped, and average ~7,500 miles per year, so that gives the average scrapped car a milage a smidge over 105,000 miles. a bunch of those would be writeoffs due to accident, but its still significantly less than 200,000.
As of may 2018 naffa is correct.
You still have the right to take it to a place of a repair but that doesn’t make it right to buy and drive home.
A failed mot be automatically recorded and will flag on anpr.
If the major fault still exists you are not driving a roadworthy car.
The catch all is at the bottom of the linke Tina’s provided
Nope, that says:
Driving a vehicle that’s failed
You can take your vehicle away if:your current MOT certificate is still valid
no ‘dangerous’ problems were listed in the MOT
Otherwise, you’ll need to get it repaired before you can drive.If you can take your vehicle away, it must still meet the minimum standards of roadworthiness at all times.
The Dangerous and Major categories cover different things. Otherwise whats the point? Major is anything that would fail it, but isn't imediately dangerous.
That’s not what it says. It’s if theres multiple sources of light ..ie a 5 led high level brake light…then 1/2 of it must work.
Id agree based on what the book says. But then kwickfits website says:
All vehicles manufactured since 1971 must have a minimum of 2 brake lights (or stop lights) at the rear of the vehicle. If a vehicle has three brakes lights and one is not functioning, the vehicle will receive a Minor defect on the MOT.
And goes onto say 2 out is a major and 3 dangerous.
The justification I was told is its not a fail if its not connected (as long as two work), and that the presumption has to be on the side of the presenter.
kwickfits website says:
All vehicles manufactured since 1971 must have a minimum of 2 brake lights (or stop lights) at the rear of the vehicle. If a vehicle has three brakes lights and one is not functioning, the vehicle will receive a Minor defect on the MOT.
And goes onto say 2 out is a major and 3 dangerous.
Which is different to your first post on the subject where only 1/2 have to work. At best your quote suggests 2/3 must work
Like wise the regs also state that if there are two stop lights they must be one on on each side....so technically your high level light could be unplugged if only 2 of 5 bulbs work. But if you leave it in its a major fail with 3 of 5 working it would be a minor.
Frankly I'd trust quackfits copy writer to have almost certainly never have had anything to do with an MOT.
Also you need to extend your partial quote further to the bit at the bottom.that is relevent. On your first point.
If the cars not in a safe condition then you can be fined up to 2500 .
if I get a tyre fitter to put new boots on, its legal to drive that moment,
Absolutely. The minute you put that new tire on the became roadworthy and you no longer fall fowl of the small print.
I regularly drive , 2 or 3 times a week, my grandad Toyota starlet from 1996. Passed its Mot last month with zero issues!
If you have the space and any desire to learn to do more than change your bike tyre, it could be worth advertising as breaking for parts - especially if you can find an owners club on Facebook. You can then scrap it once the requests for different bits start drying up. That's normally the highest return especially on something like a merc
Fine in principle but who wants a scrapyard on their drive? It's also a pain in the hole as most exterior/mechanical bits can't be posted through the usual couriers.
Which is different to your first post on the subject where only 1/2 have to work. At best your quote suggests 2/3 must work
Like wise the regs also state that if there are two stop lights they must be one on on each side….so technically your high level light could be unplugged if only 2 of 5 bulbs work. But if you leave it in its a major fail with 3 of 5 working it would be a minor.
Frankly I’d trust quackfits copy writer to have almost certainly never have had anything to do with an MOT.
I'd be inclined to agree on the copywriter, but that wasn't where I heard it originally, I wonder if something was issued in the guidance notes/bulletins or if it's been corrected. IK agree it should be a fail because if you're following a car with one brake light you don't know if it's a car or a motorbike.
Also you need to extend your partial quote further to the bit at the bottom.that is relevent. On your first point.
If the cars not in a safe condition then you can be fined up to 2500 .
Nope, you're still wrong if you're referring to the section on minimum roadworthyness.
A good example is brake lines.
Minor - 1.1.11( d) (i) inadequately clipped or supported
Major - 1.1.11 (c) Brake pipe damaged or excessively corroded
Dangerous - 1.1.11 (a) Brake pipe is at imminent risk of failure or fracture
Minor faults are not a fail
Major faults are a fail you can get fixed elsewhere
Dangerous faults are where you can't drive it and have to getit fixed there or trailer it.
So you absolutely can drive a car that has failed it's MOT as long as (I'm quoting the exact same thing again with the extra bits that aren't relevant to Major faults.)
Driving a vehicle that’s failed
You can take your vehicle away if:your current MOT certificate is still valid
no ‘dangerous’ problems were listed in the MOT
Otherwise, you’ll need to get it repaired before you can drive.If you can take your vehicle away, it must still meet the minimum standards of roadworthiness at all times.
Check your vehicle is safe to drive
You’re responsible for making sure your vehicle is always safe to drive (‘roadworthy’). It can be unsafe even if you have a current MOT certificate.You can be fined up to £2,500, be banned from driving and get 3 penalty points for driving a vehicle in a dangerous condition.
There are different rules for commercial vehicles.
Checks you should carry out
Every time you drive you should check:the windscreen, windows and mirrors are clean
all lights work
the brakes work
Your vehicle’s handbook will tell you how often to check the:engine oil
water level in the radiator or expansion tank
brake fluid level
battery
windscreen and rear window washer bottles - top up with windscreen washer fluid if necessary
tyres - they must have the correct tread depth and be free of cuts and defects
The handbook will also tell you when your vehicle needs to be serviced.Tyre tread
Tread must be a certain depth depending on the type of vehicle:cars, light vans and light trailers - 1.6 millimetres (mm)
motorcycles, large vehicles and passenger-carrying vehicles - 1mm
Mopeds only need to have visible tread.There must be tread across the middle three-quarters and around the entire tyre.