When to give up with a car?

[Lucio]

Ok, just put my car through it's MOT, it failed on it's handbrake cables being worn but I got them replaced.

Problem is, the MOT guy say "oh it's leaking some power steering fluid be careful", on the way back from the testing centre there was a loud bang and the gears went all crunchy. RAC guy says there's a large hole in the gearbox and it'll need replacing.

Question is, is it worth it? It's an R reg Vectra, 140,000 miles on the clock. Also, could the MOT guys or the guy who repaired the handbrake cables be responsible? Both were done in the last 48 hours.

[finlay666]

Personally I wouldn't say it's worth it as it's probably quite an expensive repair and given the age of the car/mileage it might be best picking up another car

No idea on the responsibility side though, depends on access needed to change the handbrake cables/perform the MOT

[peterb]

If ypou have got the facilities and skill, you could probably pick up[ a gearbox from a scrapyard and replace it.

But the bottom line is - what is the car worth as a runner - either to sell for something else, if if you wqanted to replace it (ie, buying or sellimng) and will a repair cost more than either of those figures? If the repair is less than buying a replacement - financially it may be - at least you know the history. If it is going to cost more thjan the car is worth as a runner (selling) it might still be worth it - depending on how much use you get out of it before something else goes. And that is unknown.

My guess is 'probably not' - but you need to do the sums.

[GoNz0]

call it a day unless you can get a scrap yard to do the work cheap.

[Guy]

Is that still the same car that you made it to/from the BP meet a while ago?
Iirc it was on its last legs then!

Parts shouldnt be the problem, they can be picked up v cheapy, breakers, ebay etc. Its just the labour that will be the killer. Personally I would say start looking for a cheap replacement, I cant see it being viable to keep it going in the longer term.

[Lucio]

Yeah, it's the same car I went to BP in, and I think reading this it's not worth repairing, if nothing else, it'd cost a fortune to get it to any of the cheaper mechanics I know.


Still can't believe that it was fine when I took it to the MOT testing centre, and then manages to "spring a leak" whilst it was on their grounds. Half wonder if they ****ed it over because I didn't get the repairs done with them.

[Rave]

A power steering fluid leak wouldn't cause your gearbox to explode. I can't think of a way in which a mechanic could sabotage your gearbox short of dropping a stone into it TBH. It's tempting to blame the garage I know- last year my mum's Clio came back from the testing station with a fresh MOT and an advisory that there was something wrong with the suspension. The strut had collapsed (it was fine when she took it in)- but then it had spent the last 18 months being bumped up and down the kerb outside my house every day. So it was almost certainly a coincidence; cost to fix it was about £45 in parts and £20 to buy a pair of spring compressors.

Vauxhall gearboxes are (almost literally) ten-a-penny, so a replacement should cost sod all, well under £50, possibly under £20. However as others have said it's getting it fitted which will be costly. Really it depends on how good the rest of the car is- it might be worth spending £200-300 to fix it up again especially as you now have a year's MOT on it.

Despite the scrappage scheme there are still loads of decent cheap cars around- you could get something newer and better than an R-Reg Vectra for well under a grand- but then something expensive could go wrong with that two months after you buy it. It's all a gamble really....part of the fun of driving old bangers I guess. I'm off to try and source a cheap steering rack for a P-Reg Clio now, mum's car's MOT is due again....

[[GSV]Trig]

The only time I've heard of an MOT station sabotaging a car was when the garage owners son wanted the car in question, the MOT guy failed it hugely and said it wasnt worth fixing, this was shortly after the owners son had shown a lot of interest in the car..
Car went to another garage and passed..

But either way, its a Vauxhall, not hard to work on, if the engines been looked after there will be miles left in it yet, what engine is it, I'll see if I can find out the box it needs and you can see if a local scrappy has any..

[Lucio]

Been having a think and the car isn't worth saving. It was rattling before the gearbox went (either the engine mangement system or the catalytic convertor), and the front tyres are due for replacement soon.

[Rave]

You should get a hundred or two for it on ebay, since it has a year's ticket. Someone who can replace the gearbox themselves could get a year of uber-cheap motoring out of it.

[Mblaster]

I'm in a similar position with my car, just failed it's MOT with a long list of issues. Quotes for the repair are about £750 to fix it properly, or about £500 to just get it through the MOT. Plus, it's got a big service due for the drive belt to be replaced. The car is only a Y reg Seat Ibiza with 145k miles.

A few of the things wrong with it: Radiator leaking, worn rear tyre, broken spring in front suspension, hole in exhaust, minor oil leak, corroded brake cables, and some others I've forgotten. The leaks are only minor, since I've only had to top up the coolant once in the last 6 months, and he says it's leaking oil because he can see it on some exterior parts of the engine, but it's not leaving any oil on the ground below when parked.

Luckily, don't need the car for commuting so may end up getting rid of it, as it's only worth about £1000 in working condition, so with the repairs + service it's getting pretty close to, if not over, that value.

[Lucio]

You should get a hundred or two for it on ebay, since it has a year's ticket. Someone who can replace the gearbox themselves could get a year of uber-cheap motoring out of it.

Might be an idea since I've got a bit of time with it (it's taxed till August), though it'd mean leaving it to occupy an already chock-a-block street until someone took an interest

[jimbouk]

I'm not sure I'm even going to bother MOTing mine again. Bumpers are all cracked now due to the mobile library hitting every car on the road (just wish I'd seen it once and I would be on the phone to the police) so the resale value will be quite low as it looks very tatty. Given up on servicing, just running down the tank of fuel and away she goes. Got screwed over by a garage for £450 for work for the last MOT - probably needed doing but I would've scrapped her then if I'd known how much it would be in total (don't ask, I've just learnt not to trust anyone who you pay).

Maybe look for another car and hope I get lucky with a good one. It's a big gamble though on low value cars, they could fall apart and cost more in repairs in the first month than it cost to buy if you're unlucky.

[GoNz0]

ring round the local main dealers and see what they took for partx as you may find one an old guys had with full service history

[Rave]

Might be an idea since I've got a bit of time with it (it's taxed till August), though it'd mean leaving it to occupy an already chock-a-block street until someone took an interest

If you've definitely decided to give up on it, strike while the iron is hot. Phone a couple of scrappies and ask them what they'd give you for it. Then put it on ebay with the higher quote as your start price (plus the surrender value of the tax, which I guess is probably about 15-30 quid?). List all the faults honestly, mention prominently that it has a year's MOT and tax till August, say that it just needs a new gearbox, and if no-one buys it then you've only lost the ebay listing fee, which isn't much on a car starting at, say, £99 IIRC.

I'm not sure I'm even going to bother MOTing mine again. Bumpers are all cracked now due to the mobile library hitting every car on the road (just wish I'd seen it once and I would be on the phone to the police) so the resale value will be quite low as it looks very tatty. Given up on servicing, just running down the tank of fuel and away she goes. Got screwed over by a garage for £450 for work for the last MOT - probably needed doing but I would've scrapped her then if I'd known how much it would be in total (don't ask, I've just learnt not to trust anyone who you pay).

What car is it?

A few of the things wrong with it: Radiator leaking,

You could probably fix that with some of that stuff that you just pour in to the tank TBH, if it's only a minor leak anyway.

worn rear tyre, broken spring in front suspension,

Tyre £40-ish fitted, spring is about £37 according to Euro Car Parts, 2-4 hours labour to fit (or probably more like 1-2 for a competent mechanic).

hole in exhaust

Probably easy to bodge with a beer can or a MIG welder....

minor oil leak

Unless it's dripping off the car I don't think this is an MOT failure? Where's Jiff when you need him?

corroded brake cables

Hmm yes. Not such an easy job apparently. But equally the tester might be being over-zealous.

At the end of the day £500 odd is a lot of money for someone on a low-average income- it certainly is for me. But equally if you bought a 5-6 year old car for, say, £2k it would probably lose more than that in depreciation over the year, and it still might have stuff wrong with it. So it's not always foolhardy to spend money keeping a banger on the road, if you think it's basically sound.

[Mblaster]

At the end of the day £500 odd is a lot of money for someone on a low-average income- it certainly is for me. But equally if you bought a 5-6 year old car for, say, £2k it would probably lose more than that in depreciation over the year, and it still might have stuff wrong with it. So it's not always foolhardy to spend money keeping a banger on the road, if you think it's basically sound.

Unfortunatly I'm not really going to be able to do any of this work my self, as the car is currently parked up at my dads house ~250 miles away, and I don't think I'll have much luck convincing him to spend his weekends fixing my car.

The main thing making me lean towards getting rid of it is that while I want a car, I don't actually need one at the moment. So I could sell/scrap it now and have a look at replacing it in the new year when I've had a chance to save some money.