To worry about

[harrisaar]

DP borrowing an old car from a relative?
Odd worry to have, but DP has the kind offer to borrow a car from a relative while his is being fixed. Relative not had it long so don’t know about vehicles history. It has over 100k+ miles on the clock and is 20 years old.
A quick check on gov website says every MOT it has had over the past few years has failed for some reason or another. *edit obviously it’s then been repaired after this, but doesn’t seem to stop it having more issues the next time.

AIBU to think it might not be safe or am I just being silly? We’d prob only need it for a couple of journeys, like 50 miles in total.

I think it’s almost worse not knowing the history and how many owners

Have you never driven an older car? One of my first cars cost 150, it had a tyre that constantly deflated, didn't lock, had no heating, and had a choke that you needed a peg for. It lasted about 9 months til the next MOT then was scrapped 😂

It'll be fine if it's been done up to get through an MOT

50 miles is really nothing

I don't understand what the worry is. My car is 19 years old and has getting on for 200k miles on the clock. I don't know much about the previous owners. Why does the age and mileage concern you? If it passes the MOT after necessary repairs then it's still roadworthy. My car often needs something done at the MOT, it still drives around absolutely fine in between. I drive around 15,000 miles a year in it and it's only ever broken down once away from home. It needs some things replacing every few years (e.g. battery), but there's nothing that falls off week by week!

I honestly don't understand what you're worried about. You never know the full history of a vehicle before you've owned it, but you get it serviced and they tell you if there's anything wrong with it.

We had many, many old cars before we finally got a half-decent one, and even now we tend to keep our cars until they become more trouble than they are worth, when they go to auction or as a trade-in. We expected a reasonable bill at every MOT.

Our worst car of all had a terrible gearbox that wouldn't always give you the gear you expected, a boot that would crash down on your head, a tape deck (it was a long time ago) that mangled a lot of our tapes and to cap it all the suspension was shot to shit. We still regularly took it on 50m round trips.

You'll be fine.

I should say, there are various things that have fallen off over the years, but I could have paid to get them replaced if I was bothered about it. So, for example, the rear view mirror I did replace, the stick that props up the bonnet I didn't, I just live without one.

I much prefer it to a swish new car. I have to drive various other cars for work and I hate ones that have loads of bells and whistles like cameras and guide lines to help you reverse park, heated seats, screens to read out your WhatsApp messages etc. I like a car that just gets me from A to B without being pretentious about it. I don't know why I think some cars are pretentious, as though they have a personality, but I do. They just seem so try hard. Just drive, that's what you're for!

It wouldn’t occur to me to check the mot details for a car I’m borrowing short term, you’re being very overly anxious about this, cars that age are driven about every single day.

Also, 100k is quite a low mileage for a car that age, that's only 5000 a year. I definitely wouldn't worry about a car that had done so little (although I've already indicated that I wouldn't worry at all anyway).

It’s impossible for anyone to say unless they’ve inspected the vehicle but nothing that you’ve said would cause me any concern. If anything I’d be thankful of the offer.

Goodness, you're borrowing a car, not adopting a dog 😁

As long as he drives sensibly and takes notice of any issues - warning lights, things feeling strange, etc, I can't see the problem.

This is a total non-issue - it’ll be fine.

Why did you check the history? Do you overthink most things?

What difference would it make knowing how many owners it has had?

I have a twenty year old car that’s done well over 100k miles. It needs work every year to get it through its MOT but it’s totally roadworthy.

Are you prone to anxiety??