Mot help, legal advice

[Dave.]

My mate bought a Corsa GSI around 2 months ago from a chap many miles away down south, we drove all the way down south to pick up said vehicle, did the deal and drove it back upto Widnes, Only to find their was no speedo, The car had 10mths Mot on it with no advisories issued... i wasnt really arsed about checking it because hed done it apparently

Now where the help comes in, after afew days we noticed a large rust hole in the boot, Mot fail which got us abit worried, and also wondered about it passing a Mot without a speedo... two days later the drivers rear strut fell through inside the car due to rot, so we dug a little deeper and what we found was quite frankly... horrific

As the car was advertised... possibley an old picture... as youll agree quite tidy

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h80/x_novadose_x/315030_10150794463285323_595355322_20231432_156119 5500_n.jpg

We removed all the plastic trims, which justified removing interior trims, and eventually turned into stripping it for scrap, and this is what we found... bearing in mind this car was issued with a 12month mot 60 days ago

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h80/x_novadose_x/2011-10-14181705.jpg

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h80/x_novadose_x/2011-10-14181717.jpg

Rear panel, by far not the worst part of rot

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h80/x_novadose_x/2011-10-14181730.jpg

Both arches had very evry poor metal plates pidgeon **** welded on, both sills have rotted through behind the skirts, the front panel is also heavily rotten, their is a 6x6 inch hole on the drivers side rear turret inside, the drivers seat has rotted through the floor and is sitting through the floorpan on the right hand side, and the n/s/f suspension appears bent and bodged into some sort of driveable shape

What can we do? clearly this car in an absoloute shed and should never ever of passed an MOT, would Vosa do anything about this? He feels liek hes been done over and cant do anythign about it... any help appreciated :(

[Peanut_119]

vosa would take action on this as the rust couldn't of happened in the last 60 days, i don't know how you would go about it all, but vosa would definitely take action.

perhaps a phone call to the number on the back of the MOT slip, (which also state the Testers name and MOT station number)
or a e-mail?

sorry if not much help

[christurboo]

for some reason this doesnt add up for me....dont know why?

[mowgli]

you should have kept it in one piece & called in vosa. now, its not worth doing anything, cos the car isn't in the condition that you bought it....

someone did a bent mot, nothing more....maybe showing vosa these photos will get someone a reprimand, but as i've already said, it won't go thru a test lane now...

how come this rust wasn't found before any money changed hands?

[vauxluva]

As mowgli stated did you not give her the once over?.sorry for the loss mind

[Saloony]

Lets remember here, most of this is covered by plastics, which you arent able to remove during an mot. The holes in the boot, same places as were a nova goes by chance? out of perscribed area unless its enlarged up towards the front of the vehicle. All behind the arches arent structual and again covered. Speedo isnt an mot requirement. Sorry, but buying a car blind, pair of you are berks.

[Southie]

Dave as Mowgli says really it definitely would have been better to notify Vosa before stripping it down, just send off the pictures though to them with a good written letter regarding all the facts.

Surprisingly though it "does" look like you can polish a turd lol

[Jon_nova1]

id put it back together and ring Vosa, the rear is completely legal, it has to be within 30CM of the main structure?? well something like that, and speedo well aslong as you have means to estimate your current speed thats legal too, which has always been vague lol

[Andy]

That would have passed as all the rot is covered over by plastic trim so not able to perform a proper check on it,speedo could have stopped working anytime really.

[mk1nova_rich]

Shock horror...you bought an old Vauxhall and its rusty

I bought my first Nova with similar MOT...2 days later the tie bar detached itself from the crossmember and half the wing fell out. I learnt my lesson and won't buy from random sellers ever again

[L14MNP]

Surley your mate Ray Charles has enough money to buy another. lol

You got what you deserved by not checking the car over. As said, sounds like the majority of that would pass an MoT anyway.

Your mate can be thankful that he hasn't laid out that much money on it, I have heard of people losing a considerable amount on what appeared to be decent looking cars!

Four words you may want to consider next time; Look before you leap!

[L33 LEG]

Could you not just of welded it instead of stripping it? lol Seems to me that this guy didnt really want the car and is looking for excuses to get some money back, which he has no chance.

As said, the rust may not of been visable and the speedo is not only not tested but a pathetic excuse to get a mot station checked over. Doesnt help that the evidence has also been destroyed/scrapped.

[Adam]

Rust not visible without removing parts of the body work, speedo isnt tested in a mot(car never moves in the test) and doesnt need to work, and a "dodgy" mot tester.
Are you main issues there......

I think the whole legal thing you are trying to go for is to help with the fact that you mate bought a shed that you should of had a proper look at before you parted with cash.

[Asa-James]

the only possible area trhat it should have at least been advised on would be the drivers strut, can be checked from underneath the vehicle. if you look on the back of the pass sheet you'll notice that for corrosion issues you have up to 6 months to contact vosa iif your not happy, but for vosa to do anyting you cannot correct any issues and the car would have to be tested again (at your expense), and as youve already stripped it down, theres pretty much nothing you can do as theres nothing vosa can do.

sorry pal, take it on the chin and better luck next time

[RJM25R]

Vosa only wanna know if its cut and dried, open and shut. One dodgy MOT is unlikely to be of interest. However if a few people had complained about several cars, maybe there's a case....

Take it on the chin and move on. Worse things happen in life pal....