BANGERNOMICS (sub3k) of the week/day Part 7

Yeah when it attempts to regen the oil dilutes with diesel. Also EGR issues, oil pressure issues and timing chain issues I think. Just a terrible engine altogether but I’d say a remap would do them a world of good

Nice looking car. Parkers give it 4.5 stars.

If it passes (which it probably will) someone will buy it from you, and you'll probably make a profit or at least break even!

I'm desperately in need of a car that will do me for 6months, with an NCT

If the electrical problems are actually small but it's mechanically sound I'd definitely talk to you about buying it?

Even bangernomics cars these days are mainly out of my budget 😩

And emissions I’d say. Hopefully neither.

Did they ever sort them or are they all junk? I couldn't find out by googling when I was looking at cars earlier this year.

Just out of curiosity. I acquired an A6, so that's me done with cars for at least a couple of years.

Will do. The guy I bought it from bought it in a job lot of 8 old cars from a main dealer. Apparently the previous owner traded it in against a brand new 40 grand car. I have the fail sheet from the NCT done at the end of September and the two things it failed on are handbrake effectiveness and secondary structural corrosion. The rust was the rear offside sill and weirdly it has been fixed. Not particularly well but definitely more than enough to pass an NCT.

The handbrake is a cable working on the rear discs and there is a slight squeak from the rear brakes so that might not have been put right yet. On the other hand, the handbrake seems to be working perfectly, no excessive travel, strong bite point, no problem holding on steep slopes etc and since the rust was fixed maybe that has been too.

All that leads me to believe exactly what you said. It's probably been through another NCT after those items were fixed and it then failed on something else and the guy gave up and just traded it and then someone along the line strategically removed that second NCT fail sheet.

Guess I'll find out tomorrow!

I'd love to know this too. Neighbour has a 2015 one from new and he swears by it. Reckons it gets near 70mpg on a long run. From what I can see 90% of his driving is very short trips. If he's having any consequences from that he hasn't said so.

Looks great in red imo

What year was the Corolla? They didn't suffer terribly with rust in general. Do you live near the sea?

2005, and not near the sea, but our roads get salted at the whiff of frost

The owner before me wasn't v good to wash the car

Rust in mounting points as kermitpwee said there, along with boot, sills, etc etc

I'd be very surprised if your CU requires you to save before lending ? Nearly all have a "Join & Borrow" policy now. Once you have a clean record and can show "ability to repay" you should be good to go.

@manatoo how did the NCT go yesterday for your Mazda6 ?

Well, it failed.... But not as expected. Both of the previous fail items (sill corrosion and handbrake efficacy) passed so I guess the guy wasn't full of sh1t. The mystery as to why anyone would fail an NCT, get pretty major repairs done and then not bother running it through the retest continues.

Two fail items - a wiper blade and the dust cover on the front nearside ball joint. Otherwise he said it's in good order.

From memory on previous ncts on other cars a ball joint is about 80 quid and id probably have to pay the same again in labour. Does that sound about right?

Not sure what to do now. Obviously it's not a high cost repair but every penny counts on a €450 spare car, especially since the tax is out in a few days. The safe bet is still to scrap it for €325 but it would be nice to think it would get another run on the road given it's so close

Get the NCT done but don’t tax it, would be my advice.

Thanks for letting us know how you got on. My advice would be the same as the other posters have suggested. Get the NCT, don't bother with the tax and then advertise it for resale. You might make a few quid.

Sorry to hijack OP, just in a similar situation. Have an 08 Avensis that I've spent a fair few quid on, since I got 4 years ago. Bushings, rear drop links, brakes fully redone last year & more I can't think of!

Failed it's NCT on a CV boot (whatever that is) & a rear light bulb. (the boot needs new seals- I think) Bought something else so now it's just sitting there

Think I'll just leave as is until I'm able to get it to pass the test,then move on.