No MOT car for sale?

[Borealis]

Hi All

If I seen a used car for sale in local town in good price, but seller says No MOT with the car, then what does it imply?

The car seems in good condition done about 80+k miles, about 15 years old small petrol engine car, but no MOT?
Would it be OK to buy car with No MOT?

I mean how could you even drive it home even if you paid for it?
It is No MOT, so no TAXed and not insured.

Why sell cars with No MOT?

[aaron_2000]

The way I always see it is if the car was any good, surely they'd pay £30 or so for an MOT and sell it for a lot more. You could book an MOT and drive it back, that way if you get pulled you can say you're on your way to an MOT. From experience, I wouldn't bother.

[Ziplobb]

it means nothing other than you should be able to get it much cheaper
bought a Seicento sporting last week with no mot - needed a jubille clip, cv boot and headlights adjustingpaid £100 for it

[aaron_2000]

Why would you wanna buy it with no MOT and risk it? If it's a dealer then you have to assume they've looked over the car, so why wouldn't they stick an MOT on it at their friendly local slap and pass and then sell it for more? Whatever it is, it's probably cheap for a reason.

[boobles]

I had tried selling one of my cars without an MOT recently very cheap but didn't get any interest. I now have it booked in for an MOT & will sell it for a lot more. Having spent a small fortune on getting it "right" I came across another 4x4 that I simply couldn't turn down hence the other one being sold.

[DuraAce]

Borealis said:

Why sell cars with No MOT?

Because they can't afford the required repairs to get an mot.

If you don't know what your are doing/looking at then you WILL get done over buying something without an mot. If you've got mechanical skills then you can pick up bargain.

If looks too good to be true then it's a scam.

[GreenV8S]

Borealis said:

seller says No MOT with the car, then what does it imply?

Either the seller is a fool, or the car can't pass an MOT so will need some repairs before it can be used on the road. By buying without an MOT you're taking on liability for whatever problems the car has - which the seller probably knows better than you. Given that the seller has decided not to fix them, this suggests that the repairs are not economically viable.

[b9boy]

There is another potential reason and that's simply convenience and hassle.

Two scenarios I was faced with recently:

1 - I recently sold a car for my step daughter. Luckily there was still a couple of months of MOT left when she decided to just get rid. If the car had needed a new MOT then that would have involved re-insuring it and me dragging it around. she didn't want to max out the money from it - just wanted it gone.

It's the same argument for 'why would you PX a car at a dealers when you know you could get more advertising it for sale....'

2: I also had another car (modern classic) in storage, but it wasn't old enough to put onto my classic car policy. So I advertised it as no MOT - it had done no mileage since it's last MOT so the buyer could guess what would be needed from the last advisories. In the end I decided to MOT the car (trailer job) and got the grand total of £200 more for it with a new ticket than I was offered without (having spend £££ getting it up to scratch). Should have just taken the no MOT offer.

Having said that it was a rare-ish car so was desirable to a collector or enthusiast.

I agree with the general sentiment though, and my default position when I see no MOT is 'if you car is good enough to pass why wouldnt you spend £40 on a test..'? Just saying there could be other factors.

[phillpot]

Can you not search the MOT history?

That should show up if it recently failed on anything major/expensive?

https://www.check-mot.service.gov.uk/?_ga=2.202738...


Generally I would say if you are inexperienced enough to ask the question you probably should not be looking to buy a car with no MOT.

And while an MOT is no gaurantee of a "good car" it helps, a bit

[Monkeylegend]

Borealis said:

Hi All

If I seen a used car for sale in local town in good price, but seller says No MOT with the car, then what does it imply?

The car seems in good condition done about 80+k miles, about 15 years old small petrol engine car, but no MOT?
Would it be OK to buy car with No MOT?

I mean how could you even drive it home even if you paid for it?
It is No MOT, so no TAXed and not insured.

Why sell cars with No MOT?

You don't need an MOT to insure a car.

[Borealis]

Wow. Great info and advice. Thank you.

I was able to check the car's MOT history, and it looks not too bad.
But still, it seems not a good idea driving a car with no MOT and no tax even for 5 - 10 minutes, because anything can happen.

I was under impression that to insure a car, you need MOT certificate and TAX, but maybe I was misinformed in that.

[Monkeylegend]

Borealis said:

Wow. Great info and advice. Thank you.

I was able to check the car's MOT history, and it looks not too bad.
But still, it seems not a good idea driving a car with no MOT and no tax even for 5 - 10 minutes, because anything can happen.

I was under impression that to insure a car, you need MOT certificate and TAX, but maybe I was misinformed in that.

To tax a car you need a valid MOT and Insurance.

[b9boy]

Driving without tax is just a fine though. Without insurance is a whole different matter.

Trailer is best way or have it picked up but doesn’t sound like it’s worth enough to warrant all that so one to leave and move on to something else?

[Hammer67]

Seller probably thinks it is worth more with an expired MOT than with a massive fail against it.

He could well be right.

[b9boy]

OP- have you talked to the seller and weighed him/her up?

Have you asked why the MOT has expired and why they haven’t renewed?

Replies here seem to centre around it being a monetary thing but your judgement on their reading, tone and character is worth something. Could you see yourself not renewing the ticket in the same position?

Ps what is the car? That could have a baring on things..

[Monkeylegend]

I would ask for them to put an MOT on it and offer to add the £45 test fee onto the asking price or whatever price you can agree. They have no reason to say no then unless..........................................

[Piersman2]

phillpot said:

Generally I would say if you are inexperienced enough to ask the question you probably should not be looking to buy a car with no MOT.

And while an MOT is no gaurantee of a "good car" it helps, a bit

^This is what I was going to say.

The fact the car has no MOT means there's likely to be issues with the car, it's cheap because of them. Unless you identify the issues and fix the car yourself the chances of it being a 'bargain' by the time you have got it MOT'd are remote.

Generally cheap cars are cheap for a reason (or two, or three ), unless you're good with the spanners or welding kit, move on.

[227bhp]

OP you need a bike, cars are way too complex for you.

[Borealis]

227bhp said:

OP you need a bike, cars are way too complex for you.

Sorry if I offended you. Always have been driving fleet cars, and never had to worry about mot, tax or insurance before.

Now trying buy a beater car for me to learn how cars work and run around in town.

[227bhp]

Borealis said:

227bhp said:

OP you need a bike, cars are way too complex for you.

Sorry if I offended you. Always have been driving fleet cars, and never had to worry about mot, tax or insurance before.

Now trying buy a beater car for me to learn how cars work and run around in town.

Offended isn't the word I would use to describe my feelings. In addition to the advice given above I would urge you to hit Google with such terms as ''What is a vehicle MOT test?" Etc and get reading.

Edited by 227bhp on Monday 25th February 12:51