Quick warning RE buying a car with dodgy MOT's

[Deleted]

Mar 19, 2015 20:40:50 GMT v0c said:

*I had a good look around the front end and discovered the front crossmember had split in four places. We had a good look and the crossmember had a 1mm plate across it stuck down with black silicone covering a crossmember that had NO steel just rust. How it had stayed in one piece for the ride home was beyond belief.


*He lied to us about his reasons for sale saying he only wanted the car for the number plate. We spoke to the previous owners who had a certificate of destruction for the vehicle AND the plate on retention. 


*He's been buying rotters and putting them on the road MOT'ing them himself and leaving it 90 days, after discussing it on local forums we've discovered he's done this before and is know for putting write offs/rotbox's back on the road.

  Not doubting any of this but,  As you have named and shamed, in the internet age, reputation can be destroyed by storys such as this, So could we see said damage to crossmember?

and

*I don't get what you mean regarding the plate being on retention and the car scrapped?  
The previous owner scrapped the car, Put the plate on retention, The mot tester then tested the "scrapped" car to get the plate off that isnt even on it... ?

*what other forums have mentioned this guy?  links to the discussion?

[kevfromwales]

I bought my 318 off one of their chaps, and he's straight as a die.(the chap I bought from I mean)

Pays to be careful looking over cars, or buy cheap and bin it if its rubbish I guess.

Although I'd have thought you'd be unable to pull a reg off after a COD has been issued?

Are you local to me then v0c?

kfw

[kevfromwales]

Eek, I actually know which car you mean, little grey mk1 fiesta? Cant comment on the condition, but have seen it about

[kevfromwales]

Cool, dunno if ive seen you about, but deffo remember seeing the grey mk1 about, even chatting to the guy about it, he mentioned buying it for the plate to me too

[domowen19]

www.flickr.com/photos/131263335@N08/ photo's are here

[Mercdan68]

I hope the mods don't lock or delete this thread, people doing this sort of thing should be named, to prevent others suffering the same fate, I hope your lad sorts himself another car soon

[skylinedave]

I have taken my car for a MOT to a local place , knowing stuff was wrong with it . It was in and out in 15 minutes , and it needed ' new rear brake pads ' , which i knew it didnt , and they missed that a drop link was missing and it had the exhaust blowing a little amongst other things .

It seemed that ' new rear pads ' is/was a way of letting peoples car go through when they think its not , so they just pay for the imaginary pads . I never went back , cowboys .

[bigal1978]

Just finished 40 hours of welding on a van with mot of here that should never have passed
There's Hawks every were

[MonzaPhil]

Late last year someone I know was having a bit of a rough time and wanted to take a bit of a break. He needed some cash and I can re home Land Rovers so we made a deal on his Discovery.

It had 10 months mot from a local car dealer (main agent type)

Off side front hub hanging off, 3 borderline tyres, chassis utterly rotten front to rear both sides including previous mot failure crayon markings.

No advisories on its 8 week old mot.

When I say chassis rotten, I mean what you'd expect on a 40 year old Land Rover that had been sat in wet clag for .... well 40 years.

Scrapped now to avoid it ever seeing the road again.


I have another vehicle they motd at the moment which is much better.



Sent from my back hurts using proboards

[kevfromwales]

Mar 19, 2015 21:15:25 GMT v0c said:

I know the MOT guy's working on an old Datsun currently to bodge and put back up for sale so I thought I'd post up here. Mainly after speaking to another guy in Llandudno today with an RR sticker on his MX5 I realised that one of our community could be ripped by this lad.


Any local members want to come and view it, you're more than welcome I'll supply a brew and we can kick some tyres:)

that'd be carl with the mx5, and yeah the datsun he has is a 240zed which came out of a garden in colwyn bay

[rmad]

Naming and shaming is a difficult area on forums. Even with pictures, you could be making whole thing up. You've also effectively 'shamed' a business, even though (I think) you're only aiming it at one particular person.

Please be specific and careful with what you say. Even then there's no guarantee this thread will stay.

[Deleted]

totally understand this feeling, I bought my Datsun from a young bloke who said it had a full MoT on it yet after owning for a few months now there is no way it would have passed the MoT originally. I've having to replace all the suspension arms and the main fact that the brakes are next to useless.

Dodgy MoT's really need to be nipped in the bud as it seems anyone who's mates with an MoT tester can just get a bent MoT for any car they wish.

[domowen19]

Will upload pictures of his own sons sills which he apparently fixed for an MOT. Completely rotten also.

[optimusprime2]

A few years back ,when i thought i knew it all . I purchased this Jaguar 3.8 .On driveing home it felt as if the brakes were pulling it over to one side.This was sold with 12 months MOT .You know how you are with a new toy ,the next day i went out to clean it.Looking back a few yards how you do , to look at the work you have done. I could see the spinner on the wire wheel on the one side ,but not from the other .I removed the back seat to find a top of a buiscuit tin fixed in this hole about 5 inches with weld that had broken through the thin metal of the lid.All the back axle was floating . I right away contacted my local Citizens Advice . To cut the story short, he was taken to court,i had nothing back but i keept the JAGUAR from front of the bonnet,this i still have. Push this futher and get satisfaction.

[carlb1970]

Ahaaaa.... Yep... Was me with the Mazda , Sorry to hear its all gone so bad. Was good to meet ya both the other day... If ya passing again and doors open .. Pop ya head in And I'll get kettle on.
Good to see ya on here again kev ... We gotta catch up soon too

[DaveEdge]

Wow.

Remind's me when a late mate of mine took his car to a local guy who was "decent" with a welder... He had a bit of rot on his sill, when Mick got it back, we curse word ourselve's because it had a bigger hole than the one he was supposed to be repairing... Apparently his wire was "dodgy", well it certainly looked like he used bird curse word alright... Was that bad it was funny but a guy doing that kind of standard who actually MOT's car's and sell's on car's that have been "scrapped" and you're paying money for it, well that's a different level of bodge artistry.

Although surely with any older car now, checking the underneath and structural integrity is imperative, especially if the bodywork isn't in the best condition?

I'm not blaming anyone but Steptoe who's carried out the repair's, but if he's that much of a bodge artist then weren't there more tell tale sign's/warning signal's that buying a car from him could end badly?

Have you asked for your money back?

[ChasR]

Damn, I thought I had been stung in the past! I have had my fair share of MOT failure cars mind you :

The first one was an MG Midget which should never have been MOT. It had a cracked floorpan (it had bee jacked up wrong), the other floor merely tacked in in addition to the rear boot corners (which are within 30cm of the rear spring hangers) being made of underseal and polyfiller. The guy prior to me bought it purely for the plate ( 6 GYE for anyone wondering), and MOT'd it until it ran out of an MOT. I was silly enough to persevere with the car mind you. At £300 even 10 years ago I guess it was something to expect.

The second iffy MOT I have had on a car was my white MGB. A year prior to me buying it the car failed an MOT on a rotten castle section, and shot TREs. Suffice to say it passed but those items had never been changed (because I changed them!). To be fair it was simple work to put them right.

My Stag was laughable here. Now we shouldn't speak ill of the dead but the car was owned by a respected club member, with me buying the car with a month's worth of MOT. If I told you that the brakes did not work (I probably have never had brakes that terrible in a car ever bar maybe having a hose blow off on a car due to age), the headlamp aim was non existant (it had 4 main beam sealed beams fitted) you would have laughed. People refused to believe me... 3 Months later with a replacement brake servo, brake lines all round (one of them was completely blocked), rear cylinders (one was completely seized, the other leaky) along with new headlights and the car could finally see an MOT. Unsurprisingly the engine ran better (the servo being shot created a vacuum leak) and it stopped better with the now working brakes.

I felt a little sorry for Tepper mind you. When I got his Mercedes off him which he was very open about to his credit that car had a cracked windscreen and a diesel leak from the fuel filler cap, with the adverts showing this. He bought it with 12 months MOT, which as he will say was laughable. This was sold by a garage who had used to the car for years. Thankfully the car is now fighting fit in great hands. It wasn't that bad a car to be honest.

[duncanmartin]

I had a FIAT X1/9 once where the floorpan was held in by pop rivets (and disguised by sealant and then painted over with underseal). I had it for 6 months and took it for an MOT where they told me this, so it had clearly been MOTed like it previously. No idea how many MOTs had been like that though, and I bought it from a private individual, so it wasn't apparent where the dodginess had been.
Cheers
Duncan

[Deleted]

There is plenty you can do even after the 90 days as he is a tester VOSA and trading standards will be interested in him.
On the VOSA side of things if the rust is that bad and has been plated as you say it will be obvious that it was like it when it was tested especially as he done the work.
As for MOTing a car that that has been issued with a COD the scrap yard shouldn't have sold it and you cant tax it if the reg no longer belongs to that car, he shouldn't have had the V5c for the car so that needs reporting to DVLA.

[domowen19]

the COD was actually a handwritten letter off the recovery driver saying he wouldn't put it back on the road etc. so abit of a sly trick on their part conning an old lady but it's legally allowed back on the road so not all bad for me! the guys payed for a new cross-member but i'll have to pay for the fitting and the new wing, so it's not too bad. I think he realized how bad he'd been with what he'd done!

DaveEdge, we had checked underneath and it looked perfectly solid as he'd put the plate over the complete cross-member so evidence of all the rust was hidden and then stone-chipped over so when the car was stationary and on ramps it looked completely solid but i guess it's a lesson learned in classic cars.

Carlb will do mate, that mx5 was awesome haha!