Garage say it's a 'moral dilemma' whether to fix my car ?? what ??

[54isanopendoor]

I bouthg an old car a year ago.
1997 Ford Fiesta. 30K miles on the clock
(ex local elderly lady who'd kept it garaged, serviced & driven it to church 1 x wk)

I just took it for it's MOT. It failed, unsurprisingly, as it's old.
Apparantly:
Exhaust shield missing. Brake pipe leaking. Power steering pipe leaking.
Guy said that 'the brake pipe burst as I was examining it so couldn't test brakes - you must have been having problems'. I hadn't, at all.
suspension arm pin/bush worn both front sides & dust covers missing.
then lots of other minor things:
all 4 tires (2 replaced last year?), wiper blades, indicators 'slightly discoloured'.

So I asked the nice lad who'd done the MOT what the damage would be & if he could source used parts for me (have done before).
I've just had a call from the head of the Garage saying that it was
an ethical dilemma for hiim as to whether to offer to repair it or not as it would be very expensive. I had to ask 3 times how much & he said: £1K, 1.2K then 1.4K. He says the car is only worth £300 fixed & MOT'd.
He'd called my exH first apparantly (its MY car) & suggested £800.
He then tried to talk me into a Motability car.

In my experience anyone who says they are 'honest' 4 times in 10 mins isn't.
Does anyone know about cars please that could offer an opinion?
I am sure that it needs work, & may well not be worth repairing but I'd like another opinion. I dont' think I can drive it to another garage as the exhaust sheild is listed as a 'dangerous defect - do not drive' ?

I’m extremely involved in cars - family business is a large garage & sales business running for 40 years, I’ve been buying and selling cars myself for 24 years, I also co-host a motoring podcast and write motoring articles for a few websites. The car is worth much more than £300 all day long and the list of defects are for the most part, relatively minor. Cars of this age and mileage are appreciating and I agree that it would be a very appealing purchase for a modern classic enthusiast who wants to tinker at it themselves. I feel the garage owner is trying to pull a fast one.

Have a look at the Mot history for your car on Gov. UK. I would have expected some of those issues to be highlighted as 'advisories' and see if they are.

I knew of someone at a garage where they would say the car would fail, buy it cheaply and then fix themselves for little cost. Horrible git he was was too.

It's got no brakes. That's why it can't be driven.

Just showed DH who is a mechanic.

He said It doesn’t sound like it’s financially worthwhile to fix and unsafe bordering on illegal to drive if patched up.

He suggests you sell it for scrap - he just sold a clio for scrap for £400.

Can you afford to buy a more reliable car?

@Galaktoboureko

He should be able to see the book time on auto data to know the time it takes.
Plus experience.
Eg dh does many things in half the book Time but also sometimes he knows certain cars are a pig and will take longer.

Id say the guy doesn't want to do it.

Tyres you can get for around 45 each for budget. But most garages will charge far more on tje mark up so go somewhere like pro tyre or Micheldever tyres who supply to many places

This is bollocks, what is 'unsafe bordering on illegal' if a garage repairs it why would it be unsafe?
I agree with Doc

Completely agree.

Small cars, even ones 25 years old can fetch decent money, we've an old Peugeot, 27 years old, had offers around 600 and thats a car that wont start, 4 perished tyres, been stood for 8 years... and has two jammed doors, same era as your Fiesta.

The Garage is taking the p1ss, you had new tyres but he says you now need 4 new ones... riiiight....

Ask to see the burst brake pipe, very unusual.

I’d get it retested at a local government run site (often they have a long waiting time for appointments).

There also comes a point where even if you repair a car, odds are, something else just as expensive is going to break tomorrow. I’m all for driving cars into the ground, but it can go too far.

you could always have it towed to another mechanic if you don’t trust this person’s assessment.

Get motability car and yes you can get it at a reduced price at the end of the 3 years. We recently did that with our car. You won’t have to worry about repairs or anything either

I don’t necessarily think he’s trying to screw you over. We have had older cars that have failed and have then had open conversations with mechanics about whether it’s truly worth it. And a lot of the time they would tell us it wasn’t, a few times we ignored this advice.

We made the switch to a newer financed car last year and so far it has worked out about the same financially per year, but with a reliable car which doesn’t break down every 3 months. I’ll be totally honest, I used to think we were doing the right thing by having an older car and that people shouldn’t live ‘outside there means’ by driving a newer car. But that was nonsense. We had to fork out thousands a year to keep it running.

Just a little bit of information most people know but I just found out by chance the other day.
When buying a Car go on MOT checker online which lists all the advisories minor or major that are wrong with a Car. I am sure OP if you had this information most of the things listed on the Mot would have also showed up online. I am currently looking for another Car and so glad I have the MOT checker which has stopped me buying a Car with problems. Obviously I am aware a fault can occur at anytime.

He’s telling you it’s beyond economic repair. What’s difficult about that?
Get a second opinion if you don’t trust him. What can you buy for the cost of the repair?

I'd get a second opinion once I'd seen the MOT failure sheet. That sounds a lot of money for what he's saying. I'd be surprised if tyres have packed up after a year unless the trackings out.

A lot of it sounds like minor bits and bobs that take minutes to fix and the parts are not expensive. No mention of corrosion...
Another old Land Rover owner here, it's true - we do learn to spot a chancer mechanic at 100m and have learnt enough along the course of life with a Land Rover to argue the toss and not be taken for fools!

Oh and there's no way on earth that's only worth £300 with a new MOT on it. A quick skim of FB marketplace shows me a '99 fiesta manual with 60k on the clock for £950. They are having a laugh

I feel your pain - my 1998 Fiesta failed it’s MOT spectacularly a couple of months back, after years of being fine. Always MOT’ed at same place. Refused to give me a price but just said it would be thousands, partly based on availability of older parts.
I’m lucky that I can live without it (was a second car, just a runaround) so I sold it to webuyanycar. They quoted me £750 online but final price was £500, think that’s standard from them. So I’m sure you can get more than £300! Good luck!

we always drive old cars. my current one is 18 years old. we go to MOT places that don't do repairs themselves. the one we use does MOTs for trucks and busses etc. they're very honest as they have nothing to gain from specifying non necessary repairs. it's simply a pass / fail on the various MOT elements

I'm a motability customer, my car will be going back shortly, only 1000 miles, full service history, 3.5 years old. Cost to buy new £32k will probably only fetch £15k, still like new, not a mark on it, top of the range model. If you can find an ex motability Fiesta that has been returned at 4 or 5 years you could probably get one for £8k, many motability cars have very low mileage like mine.

Id say is just not worth fixing even if you only do the major defects

why would you spend more fixing a car than what its worth

Can you find a mechanic who does cash in hand work? I had a car years ago that a garage told me needed over £500 work of work doing to get it through the test, my brother got one of his friends who was an RAC man to do it for me & it only cost £200 including the test.

many motability cars have very low mileage like mine
Low mileage is not always a good thing. 1,000 miles in 3.5 years is likely lots of very short journeys running the engine cold, it's less than 10 miles a week.

My (genuinely honest) mechanic has advised my car isn't worth putting through its next MOT due to the cost of repairs, likely ongoing costs and value of the car and it's got a whole lot less wrong than yours. If he's just guessing atm there's a high chance it could be more. It's also very tricky sometimes to work on older cars so the labour costs will add up (one of mine is the issue the timing belt needs replaced as it's a very difficult job on the age/model of car). If he's ok for trade he's likely rely to spend all the time and effort on it

Can I just say a big Thank you to everyone who has replied - really unexpected.

There is a range of opinions. I can see that it's not worth throwing £ at an old car, but if I'd had £8K or so to invest in a more £ sensible option I would have done. Also, although a Motability car seems good, it's a big chunk of my sons DLA (which we need for heating & food costs too) & its only rented. There seems to be a big delay on getting a Motability car, plus we are a year into his current 3 year award so I don't know if that would even work?

What I did strongly feel was the the garage owner had overruled the mechanic who was pricing parts for me & just said 'not worth it'. Possibly not, but refusing to quote within a 33% margin (& quoting differently to ExH) made me worried. Plus he jumped on the fact I said I need a car for my kids as disabled (he'd been saying he couldnt' book the work for a month anyway) & just saw ££ signs that he could arrange a Motability contract I think?
He also put a bit of pressure on by saying I only have overnight to decide as he needs the forecourt space. I am often up at midnight seeing to my kids so I'm very tired & hate fast decisions. Oof.

I'd love to get another mechanic to look at it but now I'd have to get it towed. I am rural & there aren't many options. It seems a shame to get it scrapped as it's a lovely wee car in really nice condition & someone who knows their Fords might enjoy repairing it - it's not a showy 'Vintage' model but its a nice wee example.

A couple of folk have PM'd me. I will reply. Thank you x

Thanks to the poster who suggested I look it up on Gov website.

the MOT is on there & is the same info as I've been given.

I've had the car a year & done 13K in it
this is more than I thought ! & maybe means Motability wouldn't take us anyway?

The 2 years before I had it it had done 3k / yr.
Prior to that it had been garaged for a while I think.

I did'nt mean to imply that the Garage was less than honest.
It was a bit of a shock & I wasn't thrilled they'd been in touch with exH first but that's just one of those things.
I also felt a bit stuck that I can't take it elsewhere for a quote now the brakes are broken so really appreciate the opinions on here.

Because its less than buying anotherbca perhaps