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

[Cantbloodyrememberthenameonthread]

My car broke down a couple of weeks ago. My aunt has a car that has sat on her driveway for a number of years, unused. It is nearly 30 years old, high mileage, aesthetically damaged (moss, dents, inside leathers damaged etc). Obviously no MOT etc but she said it would pass with flying colours.

my aunt offered me to use it until I sorted a new car. I asked how much she’d want for it and she just said “nothing just sort yourself out” I said I wasn’t going to use it permanently but would borrow for a couple of weeks (was happy to pay for a couple of weeks usage) and then return it.

It failed the mot. And I spent around £500 to get it through. I didn’t say, but I was a bit irked at having to pay £500 to repair a car I wasn’t keeping, but took it as a gesture of payment for letting me use the car. Around this time, my aunt said to my brother that she wanted me to pay £1000 for the car “as a favour”. When I checked the value the car was worth £1100 in mint condition on auto trader. This was never communicated to me at all and I was shocked. Shortly after, the car has broken down completely and had to be towed.

My aunt has expressed that she’s very much put out by the fact it’s broken down and has expressed she still wants the money for it, again this isn’t to me. I’m really annoyed. I feel the £500 I paid on the mot is more than fair, and if I’d have known she wanted 1k for it I’d have declined. Not least because it’s not worth that, but because I’d have bought another run around for that amount. My aunt is now sort of talking to other family saying it’s the last time she’ll do a favour for family.

I have sent her a message about all this but she never replied

AIBU here or is she?

Exaclty. She accepted a car no one would have accepted, took it for an MOT everyone else would know it’d never pass and then spent £500 to fix a car she didn’t even plan to use for a long time. Absolute mug.

You paid 500 for the work cos it felt awkward to say no to the mechanic/friend?

Call it a wet lettuce fee.

You message your aunt:

"Dear Aunty CF. Thank you for offering the loan of your car until mine was repaired. Unfortunately I had to spend £500 to get it through the MOT to make it roadworthy, but as it had been unused for so long, it has now broken down. As the car is only worth £XXX (look the actual value up) and will likely cost far more than this to repair, then I suggest the sensible option is to have it scrapped which will pay out £100 which I will deduct from the MOT repairs. If you wish to keep the car, please arrange to have it towed from my driveway. There is no need to pay me back the £500 I paid for the MOT. "

Not your fault the car was broken and then broke down! Your aunt is taking the pee. Don't pay anything else.

Quick question OP.
What is your aunt's financial situation?

Wow
What a judgemental, insensitive post

Snap

Only certain models / years. And in mint condition. Unlikely the OPs aunts car is worth much at all.

If you can afford a 3 year old Rangey, why on earth couldn't you afford to just hire something decent?

An MOT does not guarantee a car will not break down 🤣

It's spot on, though.

OP made lots of silly decisions and is now £500 down without a working car.

A Range Rover is guaranteed to break and you’re lucky it lasted 3 years. Often even landrover can’t fix them. My husband had 5 ..in a line round the courtyard …and they were all broken down and he was driving mostly an Audi A4 estate with over 200,000 miles on the clock. And he’s a motor engineer with 2 sheds with ramps and every bit of equipment you can imagine, to even make new panels. His friend and father have a fad for RR too, but even brand new, they were back under warranty every month. They are notoriously unreliable.

Why you thought a car that has been sitting on a driveway long enough to go green is going to be a working car without a whole lot of remedial work and preparation is beyond me. You can’t just start an engine after that time and expect everything to work. Things seize with lack of use, rubber perishes, oil in the engine must be replaced, and so on.
Shes no worse off than before you took the car, once its on her drive, but you do need to return it. Why didn’t you have it towed back to hers in the first place?

lol exactly - if this thread has taught me anything it's that very few people seem to know what an MOT entails!

This ^^

The MOT is just a check list of various parts and components at that moment in time. As soon as you drive away, clutching your Pass certificate, any part could fail and it wouldn't be the MOT station's fault.

Just get it retuned back to your aunt and write the £500 off as money you would have spent on a rental car and move on from it.

I'm honestly not being rude but what on earth were you thinking getting yourself in this position anyway?

I'd love to see Judge Judy lay into the cheeky fucker aunt.

Take her to small claims court for the £500 OP.

What would small claims court achieve? Nobody forced OP to spend the money.

I also think JJ would tell OP that she was absolutely ridiculous for spending £500 on a moss covered banger 😉

I would get it back to her then write her a polite note saying you appreciate her trying to help you. Tell her it has all been a bit unlucky as it cost you £500 on repairs to get through the MOT then broke down and cost you more. But you appreciate her kindness and cars are always a gamble. Write off the cost for the sake of peace and make sure all the friends and family she communicates through know how much this has all cost you. Then do your homework properly next time and buy a decent car.

MOT looks at road worthiness - it’s not really about the actual workings of the car. It’s quite feasible that a car is roadworthy ie decent tyres, wipers and lights work etc but then breaks down owing to mechanical failure or a part breaking.

From the description the OP has given it doesn't actually sound like the car was road worthy to be honest.

God there are some really horrible people posting on this thread. You must all have really sad miserable lives to get this much enjoyment from kicking the OP when she’s already feeling crap. Maybe put a bit more effort into building yourselves up rather than trying to knock the OP down.

Just because a 3 year old car breaks down doesn't mean a 30 year old car left neglected will pass it's MOT. In fact surely the opposite is more likely - if a newer car broke down, what chance has a decade old car that's been left to rot?

Your Aunt can’t force you to buy the car though?
Did you tell her you paid £500 for the MOT?

I only had 200 deposit held on my credit card but was 1700 excess if I crashed it. Would def have been cheaper to hire a car. I had to do this the other week when my car broke down. Think I only paid £120 for the week. I chose cheapest car but was upgraded on pick up with no charge.

30 years old with no MOT it was scrap to start with

But beyond that - aunt offered the car if you sorted it out, you did. Thats your obligation done. Her telling your brother wanted £1000 when it was 30 years old and SORN after the fact is CF and unreasonable