So I've told this story before. I will recap quickly
Guy wants my Capri in 1999. Offers a ropey X1/9 with a fresh MOT. I accept. My Capri was damn solid, black 1.6LS with the 2.8 7-spokes, looked lovely.
On the way home the X1/9 runs like curse word, the indicators don't work - nothing adds up. So I take it to my friends' garage. We put it on ramps, find the floor is entirely fibreglassed and the rear offside rear lower arm mount has 2 inches of metal missing above it, totally lethal.
Now, I know back then people forge MOTs. So my first call is to the garage. "Lost my MOT, can you do a duplicate?"
This confirms they actually tested it. I pop in to collect the duplicate, look around the place, ask the tester if he remembers seeing the car.
Get home. Call the garage. "Right, so you tested this and these things are wrong. I gave a damn nice Capri for it, partly on the strength of it having just passed an MOT. It's not fit for anything; I am selling it for spares or repairs and don't have time to call VOSA until after the weekend. Know anyone who might want it?"
"How much?"
"About the value of my Capri. £1000".
They sent a chap over to look it over. He offered me £700 cash right away. I gave him a receipt and said I'd be down for the balance later. When I went to get the remaining £300 they weren't waiting with baseball bats at all - the garage owner stood to lose a significant turnover for his tester doing a mate a favour, and he actually gave me a really nice deal swapping my blue automatic Scirocco for a grey manual GTX instead of the cash.
There is no excuse for selling a dangerous car, but I tell you what - these new electronic MOTs - hands up who has actually been presented with a paper one and gone online to verify it? I haven't, to be honest. Now I've only traded with people I trust or on cars I don't care about the MOT on lately - but you know... they're not hard to make a convincing forgery and at the age, value and level of cars we're buying these days, who bothers to check if the two or three months is genuine?
This is probably partly why the DVLA changed the rules, Tax that car before you drive home and the false MOT will be shown instantly!
Guy wants my Capri in 1999. Offers a ropey X1/9 with a fresh MOT. I accept. My Capri was damn solid, black 1.6LS with the 2.8 7-spokes, looked lovely.
On the way home the X1/9 runs like curse word, the indicators don't work - nothing adds up. So I take it to my friends' garage. We put it on ramps, find the floor is entirely fibreglassed and the rear offside rear lower arm mount has 2 inches of metal missing above it, totally lethal.
Now, I know back then people forge MOTs. So my first call is to the garage. "Lost my MOT, can you do a duplicate?"
This confirms they actually tested it. I pop in to collect the duplicate, look around the place, ask the tester if he remembers seeing the car.
Get home. Call the garage. "Right, so you tested this and these things are wrong. I gave a damn nice Capri for it, partly on the strength of it having just passed an MOT. It's not fit for anything; I am selling it for spares or repairs and don't have time to call VOSA until after the weekend. Know anyone who might want it?"
"How much?"
"About the value of my Capri. £1000".
They sent a chap over to look it over. He offered me £700 cash right away. I gave him a receipt and said I'd be down for the balance later. When I went to get the remaining £300 they weren't waiting with baseball bats at all - the garage owner stood to lose a significant turnover for his tester doing a mate a favour, and he actually gave me a really nice deal swapping my blue automatic Scirocco for a grey manual GTX instead of the cash.
There is no excuse for selling a dangerous car, but I tell you what - these new electronic MOTs - hands up who has actually been presented with a paper one and gone online to verify it? I haven't, to be honest. Now I've only traded with people I trust or on cars I don't care about the MOT on lately - but you know... they're not hard to make a convincing forgery and at the age, value and level of cars we're buying these days, who bothers to check if the two or three months is genuine?
This is probably partly why the DVLA changed the rules, Tax that car before you drive home and the false MOT will be shown instantly!