How do I get rid of a car that has failed its MOT?
Posted by Leader_Bee@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 55 comments
Got an MOT tomorrow but my car is getting on a bit and it might be time to get a new one.
If my current car fails its MOT and i deem it too expensive to repair, i'm not allowed to drive the thing to a dealership to trade it in or whatever; How do you get rid of a car you can't drive?
ClintonLewinsky@reddit
When does your MOT run out? So long as it is not dangerous you can still drive it as it has a valid MOT
But yes, ebay/marketplace - list it with it's faults and MOT failure and someone will come for it - scrap value is probably a couple of hundred quid
if you have space to store it, do a bit of ebay research and see if the wheels/panels etc are worth it - for a while I bought MOT failulres, for pennies, strippedthe doors/windscreen/wiper motors/wheels/tyres/headlikghts and occasionally engine to ebay, then phoned a chap i knew with a crane cab - he took the rest for free. I could probably have sold the rest but he came when I asked and was reliable.
made £500-£1000 per car easy
Leader_Bee@reddit (OP)
MOT expires 17th feb, but, if i have one tomorrow and it fails, will that not be the new date of my MOT??
highrouleur@reddit
No, as long as its not a dangerous fault (in which case the garage won't let you drive it away) you can drive it until 17th Feb
Leader_Bee@reddit (OP)
Its likely to fail on the exhaust I've been told by my mechanic (its not falling off or anything but its really loud), ive been driving it for almost a year without even noticing the difference! So it's probably not dangerous per se? Maybe itll fail on emissions or something?
Rocky-bar@reddit
Unless the cars an absolute heap of shit, it's best to just get a new exhaust fitted if that's the only thing wrong with it. Of course they may find other stuff wrong once they do the test though.
Sir_Edna_Bucket@reddit
Not a direct answer to your question, but I'm curious what the issue is? If it's got a hole somewhere along the exhaust after the cat, it is possible to fail the emissions test as it sucks in fresh air and makes the lambda readings appear incorrect. The annoying thing is that the engine/exhaust are working fine, it's just the fresh air bleeding in that cocks up the reading on the machine.
However, you can get various pastes and bandages for less than a tenner from most car repair shops that you can wrap/smear over a hole and the exhaust will pass MOT. Depends how desperate you are to keep the car? Seems a shame to right it off for an easy fix though.
I'd always urge getting a second opinion on things like this. Do you trust the garage? Is your mechanic also the person doing the MOT? Or are you taking it somewhere else? If it's the first option, could they be trying to diddle you and offer to buy the car off you at a cheap price after they've failed it, with the intention to weld up the exhaust at the cost of a few pence and sell it on for a decent profit?
Personally speaking, I'd never scrap an otherwise fine car for an exhaust issue, they're consumables, same as brake pads and discs to me. If it starts to split or crack, I buy a new bit from eBay/autodoc/Euro car parts etc and swap them over. Exhausts are surprisingly cheap if you just get an OEM copy. They come out of eastern Europe and you often get a whole system, minus cat, for £100 or so for run of the mill cars.
highrouleur@reddit
Could possibly be cracks causing leaks from the exhaust. Small holes will pass but if it's leaking too much it'll fail for that. Unless it's broken in half and hanging off you should be able to drive it until your current mot expires
V65Pilot@reddit
You can have it tested up to 29 days before its due date and not affect the expiration/renewal date.
No_Calligrapher9732@reddit
Dump it down a side road, remove the number plates and you're done.
d_smogh@reddit
Drive it to a scrapyard. They will give you more money than if you get them to collect it. Remove any bit you want to keep for the new car.
BruceyP@reddit
Bonus stage, street fighter II.
Leader_Bee@reddit (OP)
😂😂
Give it the E Honda 100 hand slap?
BruceyP@reddit
😂🤣
Leader_Bee@reddit (OP)
Hut Hui!
Bison was always my guy though
BruceyP@reddit
I agree he was good. I ended up really liking Vega in the end. Would switch between those two mostly.
westcabiria@reddit
google CarTakeBack, you stick your reg in and they come pick it up and pay you X amount of money so long as you don’t live in a very rural location (highlands, etc). Not sure why people believe you have to pay the scrapman to lift your motor rather than being paid considering how much they’re worth in scrap metal.
CoffeeIgnoramus@reddit
Wait, people don't know the scrapman pays you?
sihasihasi@reddit
It very much depends on scrap prices. 30 years ago when I was getting rid of my old escort, it cost £25 to take it to the scrappy.
Tuarangi@reddit
Varies when I think, I got rid of my old Mazda to a local scrap place in the early 2000s, drop off but nothing back. My Peugeot (had a damaged and leaking radiator after an ice skid) I got paid £90 and the scrappy took it away on a low loader from the garage in 2014
PigHillJimster@reddit
Back in the late 1990s at one point if you had a really old car and they had to pick it up from your location, yes, the total scrap value of the car might have been less than the cost it would cost the scrapper dealer to come and collect it and remove the battery/tyres for separate waste streams.
I know two people during this period who had to pay to dispose of their vehicles.
The value of scrap and anything salvageable does fluctuate so what was the case then may not be the case now.
westcabiria@reddit
First response to this post was someone telling OP to pay the scrapman to remove their car, not the first time I’ve seen people claim you, for some reason, need to pay them to take away a valuable item
R2-Scotia@reddit
About 20 years ago the payment for pickup was down to zero
CoffeeIgnoramus@reddit
Those users' scrapmen must be laughing every time they leave with even more money than they came with!
fletch3059@reddit
A few years ago scrap metal prices were so low that you did have to pay. Luckily prices have gone up again so they now pay you.
ledow@reddit
Last 3 cars I scrapped cost money to scrap because the price of metal dropped through the floor (and the compliance regs for legally disposing of them got very expensive).
I spent 15 years buying old cars for £200-300, driving them until they broke or wouldn't be legal / safe / MOTd, and then scrapping them and buying another.
There was a point at which scrapping them turned from profit to payment.
PM-me-your-cuppa-tea@reddit
Or, if OP lives in the Midlands he can sell his car to Tanks Alot and they'll collect it and some stag do will get to crush it with a tank next weekend. They used to guarantee beating the scrapman on price (because they then sell onto the scrap man post crushing)
Bit niche but thought I'd add as another alternative to the other comments saying about paying the scrap man to collect
fuggerdug@reddit
You are probably too near the MOT date for this, but worth a try: get an online quote from WeBuyAnyCar, be honest about condition etc, and if it's acceptable take it to them today. You will very likely get less than the online quote once they've seen the car, but it's a really quick and easy process.
Plenty_Suspect_3446@reddit
Don't use webuyanycar. They are scammers.
Tao626@reddit
Yea, but if you're trying to get rid of a car that isn't worth much, you're pretty sure will fail its MOT and will cost too much in repairs, fobbing it off with somewhere like that is convenient. Just check the scrap value before you do.
Especially so as often with places like these (I've not dealt with webuyanycar specifically), the person "buying" the car is just some sales rep that knows fuck all about cars mechanically and assumes it's fine because you drove it there. If they find out about major issues, you've done the paperwork and fucked off with the money by then.
Dodgy places are great because they'll buy dodgy products from dodgy people. Just don't buy from them.
Plenty_Suspect_3446@reddit
No, webuyanycars business model is to scam people. They will offer less than scrap value and then they will scrap the car for a profit. Use https://www.scrapcarnetwork.org/ instead. They offer above scrap value to get cars off the road.
Tao626@reddit
Plenty_Suspect_3446@reddit
webuyanycars pay less than scrap
scrapcarnetwork pay above scrap value
I don't know what you fail to understand about that but you are giving bad advice and being rude about it.
darth-_-homer@reddit
My Mums car failed its MOT, we expected it to so I googled in advance a load of companies that buy scrap cars. I then picked the one who offered the most (She got £450 for a 24 year old toyota), they came and picked it up on a low loader and money was in the bank before he'd finished loading. Apologies bit I can't find the name of the company she used but there were loads to choose from.
Leader_Bee@reddit (OP)
No problem, thanks a lot 👌
darth-_-homer@reddit
And yes if the original MOT is still valid and the car isn't a dangerous fail then you can drive it until original MOT expires.
UberMushroom@reddit
Sell it to a scrappy who will come and pick it up and give you money for it. Google "Scrap cars for cash" and check the reviews.
Make sure you do the V5 paperwork and get the correct documents from them, so you can fully dissociate from it
InspectionWild6100@reddit
I got rid of my car recently. Called the local car breakers who came and picked it up for free and gave me £330 for it. They pay based on scrap weight. Look up car breakers on the internet, some may have a page where you can enter the reg and they will give you a quote.
ClayDenton@reddit
Word of warning - once you get a failed MOT, it's on the cars record and you either need to fix it or scrap it. If you think it might fail, consider selling it to WeBuyAnyCar. Wish I had before I did the MOT and got the repair bill...
spattzzz@reddit
Local breakers yard will give you a price and come with a recovery van and some pound notes.
blainy-o@reddit
Scrap it
PurpWippleM3@reddit
Ring scrap yards, use online scrap broker, sell on eBay with no reserve, sell on FaceGram. Whatever suits.
Ok-Statistician-8930@reddit
Redcorn very good price wise for scrapping. Paid same day.
Jack_202@reddit
I phoned the scrapyard and said you can have it for free. He came and got it.
Tumeni1959@reddit
I've left MoT failures with the garage. They don't charge for the MoT, I get my belongings from the car, leave it with them, they get the scrapper to pick it up, and presumably get a few pounds from them to cover the MoT cost.
Academic_Guard_4233@reddit
Scrap man will pick it up and give you a cheque.
Plenty_Suspect_3446@reddit
I used these to scrap a car. https://www.scrapcarnetwork.org/ Got a good price and they collected it.
skybluepink77@reddit
You can get a scrap metal dealer to collect it for free, and usually you'll get a bit of money, depending on the usefulness of its tyres etc. Probably about £300 if you're lucky.
namtabmai@reddit
Flog it on ebay/autotrader as an MOT failure an hope someone comes and collects it?
Otherwise you can pay scrap people to come take it.
Crafty_Birdie@reddit
The scapman pays you.
Leader_Bee@reddit (OP)
If i try flogging on AT or whatever, i should SORN it then?
This is my first car so im not really sure about how to deal with all the bits and pieces of replacing it
Cute_Ad_9730@reddit
If you SORN it it can’t be parked on the road but then obviously you don’t have to pay road tax or insurance.
namtabmai@reddit
Yes, and it does need to be off road. e.g. your driveway or a garage. Not parked up on the street.
Crafty_Birdie@reddit
Either sell as 'spares or repair' on Ebay or Gumtree, amount depending on the car and what needs doing, or phone your local scrapyard to collect - they usually pay £100-200.
rog987@reddit
I used ScrapCarComparison.co.uk and they put me in touch with a local salvage company who made an offer based on the condition and photos etc. All very straightforward and went smoothly.
Obviously you'd maybe get more selling privately but that's a lot more hassle as people tend to want a near-perfect used car these days!
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