MOT advisories on approved used car
Discussion
Hi again all.
I purchased an approved used Leon a couple of weeks ago. First issue was that it wasn't serviced as was advised but they have agreed to do this at their cost. All good apart from having to take time off work for it.
However I have just got the MOT from offline. Yes I suppose I should have checked it first but I fell into the trap of thinking nothing may be wrong with the car as it had just been MOTd and I was buying approved used etc.
All 4 tyres are advisories for cracking/perishing (I don't know much about tyres tbh apart from checking tread depth). Looking at them I can see some cracking.
Also, both front shocks have light misting/limited damping effect. I suppose its possible that they may have replaced them but I somehow doubt it!
As advisories should these have been picked up by the dealer as part of the 100 odd point check? Do I have any comeback on this?
Car had 15K on the clock and is 3 yrs old. I am 2 weeks and 500 odd miles into the 30 day exchange period.
I purchased an approved used Leon a couple of weeks ago. First issue was that it wasn't serviced as was advised but they have agreed to do this at their cost. All good apart from having to take time off work for it.
However I have just got the MOT from offline. Yes I suppose I should have checked it first but I fell into the trap of thinking nothing may be wrong with the car as it had just been MOTd and I was buying approved used etc.
All 4 tyres are advisories for cracking/perishing (I don't know much about tyres tbh apart from checking tread depth). Looking at them I can see some cracking.
Also, both front shocks have light misting/limited damping effect. I suppose its possible that they may have replaced them but I somehow doubt it!
As advisories should these have been picked up by the dealer as part of the 100 odd point check? Do I have any comeback on this?
Car had 15K on the clock and is 3 yrs old. I am 2 weeks and 500 odd miles into the 30 day exchange period.
Edited by AlecEiffel on Thursday 22 July 18:47
I am losing confidence unfortunately yes!
The 15K miles I do believe. Service done after 2 yrs had nearly 12K on it and with covid I can believe only a few thou being done in the last 12 months.
The initial issue with not servicing prior to sale was bad enough (2 separate people told me it had been) but they were understanding of it when I contacted them and apologised and immediately agreed to sort it.
They didn't MOT though (was done month before) and didn't have a cert, I had to wait for the V5 to get it online.
Tyres are 0918 so late Feb/Mar 18.
The 15K miles I do believe. Service done after 2 yrs had nearly 12K on it and with covid I can believe only a few thou being done in the last 12 months.
The initial issue with not servicing prior to sale was bad enough (2 separate people told me it had been) but they were understanding of it when I contacted them and apologised and immediately agreed to sort it.
They didn't MOT though (was done month before) and didn't have a cert, I had to wait for the V5 to get it online.
Tyres are 0918 so late Feb/Mar 18.
Edited by AlecEiffel on Thursday 22 July 19:01
Portofoni said:
You could have checked the MOT history online before you had even bought it , don't need a V5 to do online checks .
Oh. Thats a lesson for me. When I asked them they told me I needed a V5. Sorry I'm coming across as really green here. Only bought a few cars before and all been fine. They are only advisories not a fail. The car still passed its mot. Without getting under and checking the shocks you wont know. You may get several more years out of them before they start squeeking.
Tyres your on a hiding to nothing. If its on its original tyres. 15000 out of the driven axle is pretty average and depending on how its been driven the other sxle could be the same.
Its a secondhand car. The previous owner got rid of it for a reason. It would appear because it needed 4 tyres and possibly 2 new shocks. £500 topx should have you a perfectly useable car.
The dealership will give you nothing as they are all consumable bits.
Tyres your on a hiding to nothing. If its on its original tyres. 15000 out of the driven axle is pretty average and depending on how its been driven the other sxle could be the same.
Its a secondhand car. The previous owner got rid of it for a reason. It would appear because it needed 4 tyres and possibly 2 new shocks. £500 topx should have you a perfectly useable car.
The dealership will give you nothing as they are all consumable bits.
AlecEiffel said:
I did check that it was MOT'd, I just didn't know you could get details other than date of test.
There's 2 separate sections of the .GOV website for MOTs , first to tell if the car is taxed or SORN and if it has a valid MOT ,second part will show entire online MOT history , since about 2006 for older cars , including all advisories .
The misting shocks thing for Leon’s and other VAG cars seems to be the normal. The internet is awash with discussions about them, generally it doesn’t seem to be an issue (unless they start leaking and then it would be a fail) and appears as advisories on huge numbers of vag cars.
Example: https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=18...
I don’t think you’ve got much to worry about to be honest and don’t think they’ve done anything wrong excluding the missed service.
Example: https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=18...
I don’t think you’ve got much to worry about to be honest and don’t think they’ve done anything wrong excluding the missed service.
Thanks for for replies everyone.
The shocks I see are a common VAG thing, may appear on MOT after MOT, may have to do them, may not.
Guess I'll budget for tyres sooner rather than later though.
I'm not a "why isn't my used car exactly like a brand new one?" kinda guy, I knew there'd be wear and tear, just wasn't anticipating MOT advisories on an approved used car I guess. But I live n learn.
Cheers all!!
The shocks I see are a common VAG thing, may appear on MOT after MOT, may have to do them, may not.
Guess I'll budget for tyres sooner rather than later though.
I'm not a "why isn't my used car exactly like a brand new one?" kinda guy, I knew there'd be wear and tear, just wasn't anticipating MOT advisories on an approved used car I guess. But I live n learn.
Cheers all!!
A lot of the time the cracking is just superficial - tyres are pretty robustly constructed.
That said, we had a SEAT Ibiza with Dunlop tyres that were mentioned as cracking at its first MOT (done at the dealer). Was dismissed as not an issue, but on looking closely into the still deep tread grooves on the rears it had pretty horrendous looking open cracks. Got them changed straight away.
That said, we had a SEAT Ibiza with Dunlop tyres that were mentioned as cracking at its first MOT (done at the dealer). Was dismissed as not an issue, but on looking closely into the still deep tread grooves on the rears it had pretty horrendous looking open cracks. Got them changed straight away.
I bought an approved used Audi from an Audi main dealer. A few weeks later I noticed a few things I wasn’t happy about and then noticed they’d been picked up on the 100 point check.
I spoke to the dealer and they told me that the 100 point check was literally just a check, they wouldn’t necessarily fix anything off the back of it, it was up to me to check the checklist and raise anything I wasn’t happy about before I bought the car. That’s not what I thought that the 100 point check meant and not really how they market it.
I spoke to the dealer and they told me that the 100 point check was literally just a check, they wouldn’t necessarily fix anything off the back of it, it was up to me to check the checklist and raise anything I wasn’t happy about before I bought the car. That’s not what I thought that the 100 point check meant and not really how they market it.
Dr G said:
Here you go:
There is a film of oil on the shaft of the damper; over time a small amount of this can find its way onto the body of said damper.
An MOT tester could advise this unnecesarily or in an extreme case someone on the scrounge for easy work would tell you it's a fault.
Sorry for the delay in replying. That’s very interesting, thank you for sharing it! Not a disaster, will just see how it goes and prep for possibly changing them at some point. There is a film of oil on the shaft of the damper; over time a small amount of this can find its way onto the body of said damper.
An MOT tester could advise this unnecesarily or in an extreme case someone on the scrounge for easy work would tell you it's a fault.
ThunderSpook said:
I bought an approved used Audi from an Audi main dealer. A few weeks later I noticed a few things I wasn’t happy about and then noticed they’d been picked up on the 100 point check.
I spoke to the dealer and they told me that the 100 point check was literally just a check, they wouldn’t necessarily fix anything off the back of it, it was up to me to check the checklist and raise anything I wasn’t happy about before I bought the car. That’s not what I thought that the 100 point check meant and not really how they market it.
Yeah they market it quite differently. Its a bit galling considering the premium paid! I guess as pointed out in other posts approved used are not necessarily better/cleaner than any other (and are still used at the end of the day). I spoke to the dealer and they told me that the 100 point check was literally just a check, they wouldn’t necessarily fix anything off the back of it, it was up to me to check the checklist and raise anything I wasn’t happy about before I bought the car. That’s not what I thought that the 100 point check meant and not really how they market it.
Portofoni said:
There's 2 separate sections of the .GOV website for MOTs , first to tell if the car is taxed or SORN and if it has a valid MOT ,
second part will show entire online MOT history , since about 2006 for older cars , including all advisories .
Or simply:second part will show entire online MOT history , since about 2006 for older cars , including all advisories .
https://regisearch.co.uk/
ThunderSpook said:
I bought an approved used Audi from an Audi main dealer. A few weeks later I noticed a few things I wasn’t happy about and then noticed they’d been picked up on the 100 point check.
I spoke to the dealer and they told me that the 100 point check was literally just a check, they wouldn’t necessarily fix anything off the back of it, it was up to me to check the checklist and raise anything I wasn’t happy about before I bought the car. That’s not what I thought that the 100 point check meant and not really how they market it.
I'm trying to buy used car. I'm in talks to two Audi dealers. I spoke to the dealer and they told me that the 100 point check was literally just a check, they wouldn’t necessarily fix anything off the back of it, it was up to me to check the checklist and raise anything I wasn’t happy about before I bought the car. That’s not what I thought that the 100 point check meant and not really how they market it.
One started talking about this 149 points check. I asked him to see detailed service sheet and check list. Service sheet has a lot of useful information, like tyres condition and thread, brakes condition, etc. Cars itself has a lot of body damage, they just got it as part exchange and didn't do any work on it yet. Also, there's small crack on windscreen, so I would expect them to replace it, before selling the car.
Second dealer can't find service records at all. Car has 45K miles on the clock, it's 4 years old. They said, they did inspection service at 44K in July, but no sign of anything else. So I asked them, how can this be approved used, if it doesn't even have service history. And if they did inspection service, why not oil? I'm still waiting for more info. This one has MOT advisory on damaged windscreen, so it's probably similar to the above.
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