UKC

So it looks like tomorrow I'm buying a new car, the issue is what to do with the old one?
It's a 14 year old ford focus 1.6 with 133,000 on the clock, MOT until september 26th.

Anyone know if I can leave a vehicle taxed but uninsured on the road outside?

we buy any car offers £125 which I'm guessing is scrap value (is this right?) and it seems a shame to just scrap this car as it' still going and despite not being pretty has done me well, but keeping it insured for any length of time is likely to cost me more than the car is worth and more than I'd recover from selling it.
Any suggestions?
Anyone in South Wales want a car for £150

In reply to gethin_allen:



I've got a feeling that if it's on a public highway it has to be insured.

What if it suddenly collided with a passing vehicle?

In reply to Trangia:

It just seems so wasteful to scrap it, if the car I'm buying wasn't such a good deal I'd be keeping hold of it and sorting the MOT issues.

In reply to gethin_allen:

I was semi jesting, but last year I had a skip delivered into the road outside my house. Within 10 mins a van ran into it. The driver was really indignant saying it was the skip's fault, because it hadn't been there half an hour earlier when he drove down the road!

In reply to gethin_allen:

If it's on the road it's got to be insured.

In reply to Trangia:


I did get it.

Those bloody skips are always jumping out on people, I had a Mancunian railway bridge jump out at me when I was driving my old car. luckily the damage to both the bridge and the car was minimal.

In reply to Dax H:

In fact, even if it's physically off the road it has to be insured unless it is officially declared as off-road for tax purposes (SORN).

In reply to gethin_allen:

Put an ad in the local rag. We have sold a few old bangers that way. You should get a couple hundred quid for it. We even sold an MOT mega fail for £200 through the paper. They were after the alloy wheels. It takes all sorts but the best thing is they take it away for you.

Good luck!

In reply to gethin_allen:
If your thinking of selling, it used to be that some insurance companies would cover both vehicles for a week or so if you could show you were actively selling. May have changed in recent years but could be worth checking.

Otherwise, hand it to a car dealer who will take it to auction and sell it for youfor a fixed commission? I paid £50 to a local dealer to do that - simple, effective and he got more for it that I could have done so quickly. Also, his trade insurance covered it from the moment it left my driveway.

In reply to gethin_allen:



But will it pass another MOT?


No.


A bit more than scrap value but not much.


If you can get it MOTed without spending anything on it then it's worth doing so and selling it privately, otherwise just scrap it.

In reply to Climbing Pieman:


I asked my current insurance company about it and they said if I was transferring the policy over they would cover both vehicles for 24 hrs but otherwise I'd have to pay for short term cover which would start at £35 a day to £100 for a week or £180 for a month.

And if I didn't shift it then I'd still only get £100 for it.

In reply to gethin_allen:
Auction it. It can be surprising what you can get. I once got offered £100 for an old banger for trade-in from a garage, decided to auction it and trousered £205 (it sold for £250, auction company took their cut). I had quite a good night out on the difference!

In reply to gethin_allen:

Thought it would have changed, but £35 a day, etc. Wow. I'm clearly out of touch up here in Scotland - my yearly insurance is only two x month rate!! Would a yearly policy, even with a cancellation fee be cheaper.

In reply to gethin_allen:
The 'buy any car' people will give you £125 for it and sell it on to a small dealer for a small profit, The dealer will do the bare minimum to get it past a full years MOT and then flog it for £600 ish! That seems to be the rate around here for that type of car.

In reply to gethin_allen:

"Getting rid of a old car"

Has anyone said "an" old car...yet?

In reply to gethin_allen:

Look at the thread earlier poster needing to hire a car for a week or 2.... could sort you both out!

In reply to ThunderCat:



Does this help with my situation?

In reply to gethin_allen:

You could stick it on ebay as "spares or repair". Do it as an auction so there's a deadline by which it will sell. Start bids at say £150 so after your ebay fees you should get at least as much as we buy any car offered you.

In reply to gethin_allen:
We put our last car on EBay. 'We buy any car' offered us £80, but within an hour of the advert going on eBay we had 3 offers of £500, and accepted the first offer.
From putting the advert up to having cash in our pocket was about 2.5 hours. The guys who came to pick it up were very professional and turned up with a flat bed lorry.
The car was a complete non-runner, would go into idle mode pretty much every day, no spare tyre, loads of electrical faults, and to top it off I had filled the tank with Petrol (it's a diesel).

Your car sounds like a perfect 'first car' and at least on EBay you're likely to get closer to what it's actually worth if you have no idea of its value

In reply to psychobabble:


I don't know - what's your situation?

In reply to gethin_allen:

Stick it on Gumtree for £150 and they'll be biting your hand off for it. We posted our old Focus as an MOT fail saying it needed £1000+ worth of work, the phone was ringing off the hook and we got £300 for it.

In reply to gethin_allen:

Second putting it on ebay. You'll get more than £125 and someone will get a bargain.

In reply to gethin_allen:

My 'not employed' next door neighbour speciaises in acquiring old bangers, tarting them up, and making a few bob on the deal. He's in Lancashire - but I'm sure you will be able to find someone with similar 'skills' in your area.

In reply to gethin_allen:

Keep it in a garage and lovingly restore it to mint condition over a period of many years. In 30 years time drive it to a vintage car show whilst wearing 90s clothes.

In reply to doz generale:

Or don't, and rent the garage out for the same 30 years to make more £.

In reply to gethin_allen:

The new car is here so the old one is going whether I like it or not.

One last ditch attempt anyone wan a car for £100 ONO?

In reply to gethin_allen:

Stick it on Gumtree £500ono, just tell everyone about the good bits about it and put on what it needs to get it through its next MOT.

No fees and it will be gone within the week!

In reply to gethin_allen:

Realistically, what's the chance of it getting through its next MOT? If its above "abysmal" I may well be interested in taking it off your hands...

In reply to gethin_allen:

Just put it on eBay with an honest and slightly humerous description. Job done.

http://metro.co.uk/2016/05/24/this-is-probably-the-most-honest-and-worst-eb...

In reply to ianstevens:

It went to the scrapper this morning sorry.
In MOT would probably have cost you £200 -300 for some new tyres and possibly a front lower suspension swingarm.

In reply to gethin_allen:

Not to worry!

In reply to gethin_allen:





I am struggling to understand what the issue is.

In reply to psychobabble:


I'm still struggling to understand who psychobabble is...