Am I a cf or is my aunt? Is £500 enough?

Why didn't you just hire a car? It's pretty obvious and old cat that's not been used for a few years isn't going to pass it's MOT. What a waste of money.

Your aunt’s living in cloud cuckoo land.

An old car that hasn’t been driven on the road in a few years won’t be remotely roadworthy as the brakes will need work for a start!

It sounds like no one in your family has much of an understanding about cars if they actually think an old jalopy would fetch £1k.

Honestly, you’ve had to waste £500 to learn a valuable lesson about family here!

Just say no. That she said she didn’t want anything and you wouldn’t have taken it if she said she wanted money. That you’ve already spent £500 and it’s still broken so it’s worthless.

If she kicks off just ask her why she’s acting like an entitled snowflake over a lemon. Tell the rest of the family she offered it for free but then wanted £1000 after it broke. Spread shit right back.

your aunt thought the car was in the same nic as when she last used it.
no.
Cars sit and rust. rubber starts to perish. things start to weaken.

Then you get some bits replaced by perfectly working new parts and this can cause the parts next to them to subsequently fail as they aren't used to it.

id suggest an un-mot’d car is worth very little. She was incredibly lucky that you paid for a mot and repairs. after it lying so long unloved.

if anything i’d suggest your aunt should be paying YOU money and be mortified her car she thinks is in good condition clearly is not. the fact it’s died proves that.

id give her it back wirh the receipts proving how much i’d spent should she wish to reimburse you. and leave it at that.

it’s got an mot now. it’s worth more than before. youve done her a solid.

family can be weird about money. that’s why i’d walk. it’s not worth falling out over. join a local car club cooperative and hire theirs wjem you need one. ours hires by the hour. they send a code to let you open the door. it’s my plan next time i need one!

If thats the kind of 'favour' she does be grateful she is keeping them to herself from now on. Its completely irresponsible to lend a car to anyone that cant pass an MOT. That means its dangerous, let alone roadworthy. Id be asking for my £500 back given her promise it would pass and it didnt. And tell her to remove her rubbish from your property as a matter of urgency or you will have to have it towed to the scrap yard.

Yes - and you can easily spend £500 on MOT advisories without even touching the serious stuff - new tyres alone would be nearly £200. Then when you add in things like brakes (pads and discs), spark plugs, an aux belt etc. the money soon adds up.

None of that takes into account anything like batteries, gears or the engine istelf.

This isn’t about a car, it’s about your aunt rewriting the terms after the fact and trying to save face by painting herself as the wronged party.

She offered you the car for free. Her words were clear: “Nothing, just sort yourself out.” That’s a gift or a loan, not a sale.

You paid £500 to make her unused, deteriorating car roadworthy. That’s more than fair. In fact, it’s generous. Had the car not broken down, it would have been a win/win for you both. You got to use the car and she got the MOT paid for which she clearly had no intention of doing herself.

She then told other people she wanted £1,000 but never told you. That’s the key point. She didn’t communicate it to you because she knew it wouldn’t fly.

The car then broke down anyway so the £500 you spent didn’t even buy you reliability, it bought her a repaired car she hadn’t touched in years.

She’s now telling the family she’s “done a favour” and you’ve wronged her. This is classic reputation‑management: She’s embarrassed the car was a wreck and is trying to reframe the story so she’s the victim.

Are you being unreasonable? No. Not even slightly. You:

• asked upfront what she wanted
• were told “nothing”
• paid for repairs
• used it briefly
• dealt with it breaking down
• communicated directly
• got ignored

• offered it for free
• didn’t disclose she wanted money
• inflated the value
• complained to others instead of you
• ignored your message
• is now rewriting history

A 30‑year‑old, moss‑covered, dented, unused car with no MOT and damaged interior is not worth £1,000. It’s barely worth the scrap value.
You effectively:

• paid for her MOT
• paid for her repairs
• paid to resurrect a car she abandoned
• and then it still died

This is the part you’ll recognise from your own family patterns:

• She offered generosity impulsively
• Regretted it
• Felt foolish when the car failed
• Didn’t want to admit she’d given you a dud
• So she reframed it as “I did a favour and they didn’t appreciate it”

You’ve already messaged her. She ignored it. That’s your answer. Your position is: “I paid £500 to get the car through its MOT and used it briefly before it broke down. I was told it was free to borrow. I’m not paying £1,000 for a car that’s now undriveable.”

If I was feeling exceptionally generous, I might ask if she wants it scrapping or towed on to her drive. And then you step back. No arguing. No defending. No JADE (justify, argue, defend, explain). Let her tell whatever story she needs to tell. You know the truth. Anyone sensible will see the truth.

No it does not. Particularly when you say she said nothing, just sort yourself out.

If i were you, id be stressing she said nothing, just sort yourself out not just sort yourself out.

But they obviously did work to it based on the fact she paid so much to get it through the MOT. It doesn't sound like the car was road worthy upon leaving the garage.

Why should she? MOT's only check the very basics - they don't look at gearboxes or engines or even oil levels.

You say you want to scrap it, but it's her car so that is not your choice to make.

You made a bad choice to pay out a lot of money on a 30 year old car, but that money is gone now. Pay for it to be towed back to her then you can forget about it.

Id tell her and the rest of the family that she told you at the time you borrowed it that she didn't want any money and she cant decide now that she does. Quote her words to them all.

Maintain that.

I've seen a few people say this but MOT's don't check everything - even basic things like gearbox, clutch and oil levels. If you want all that looked at, you need a service, not an MOT.

Take it back to the garage who charged you £500 to get it through the MOT.if you no longer have the car then just ignore your aunt's calls for money-it's a scam and almost certainly she knows it.

You greed (desire to get a baaargain) got you trapped. You should have rented a car from a reputable car dealer for these couple of weeks. But you thought you would get a better deal (or a freebie) using your aunt's car.

I never get involved with relatives/friends/colleagues if I need anything. I found it is cheaper, always, to use independent services.

I just cannot fathom why you would offer so much (take car for a mot, pay for all the required works etc) all for the use of a car for a couple of weeks. And as for now somehow being required to buy it - ridiculous. You never agreed to buy it, you agreed to borrow it. Your aunt saw you coming is all I can say.

I'm still confused as to why you've not been back to the garage. It clearly wasn't in a fit state to pass it's MoT regardless of the drama with your aunt.

Your aunt is taking advantage of you when you’re in a tough spot. I would have the car towed back to her drive and then cut all ties with her indefinitely. There will be some fallout potentially with your family, she is trying to make you look bad and chances are she’s pretty good at this stuff and well versed in manipulation.

You’ve done nothing wrong.

She’s a CF, but your choices were totally silly, it was obvious it would cost a lot of money to get it through the MOT and I think it was pretty obvious it’d break down soon after too as it’s not been run in ages and an MOT isn’t enough to fix that, also you asked her how much she wanted for the car so invited the request. Do some research and make better informed choices next time

Enterprise holds a fixed £200 deposit as long as you have the car on hire.

Opting for a car "covered in moss" and then paying a small fortune to get it through the MOT is just bonkers, but then you know that now. Do not give your aunt any more money at all. Get yourself to Enterprise and rent something new and safe.

Anything that has moving parts needs to be used/moved or they deteriorate. You were naive to assume an unused 30yr old car would be okay and your aunt is deluded if she thinks it’s worth much more than scrap value. Take it back and don’t give her a penny, you’ve already spent too much on it.