My 15yr old Focus passed MOT again

DXP55

DXP55

DXP55

Soldato
Joined
5 Aug 2013
Posts
6,937
Location
Shropshire
Quite happy as the car has passed every MOT since I have had it.
Just 2 advisories -front roll bar link's -Easy- and front suspension links so booked it in and asked them to check front pads and change brake fluid.

Used to do this myself but it's a big pain in legs/back/knees/arms etc.

I am happy.:cry:
 
I had a 2001 Fiesta and I often had to do little jobs to get it to pass

I sold it when it was about 13 years old due to rotting in both rear arches and general rust getting worse
 
Our 207 automatic is on its last legs

Its a 58 plate (17 years old?) and sounds so rough I don't know how it's going! :D

I love it though. I can throw my kayaking, surfing whatever in there, sand and all. And I just don't really care as it's so old.

My e-bike. Is probably worth more than the car now!
 
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I've got a 2018 car that's about to cost me a chunk of cash for suspension, my son's got a battered old 2009 Honda that's probably worth 50p and never costs a penny outside of consumables.
I think I'm doing it wrong. My next car will probably be a bit of a banger.
 
Uther said:
I've got a 2018 car that's about to cost me a chunk of cash for suspension, my son's got a battered old 2009 Honda that's probably worth 50p and never costs a penny outside of consumables.
I think I'm doing it wrong. My next car will probably be a bit of a banger.
Click to expand...

I really don't know what to do for next car. It's coming soon I think. But cost of finance cars is just horrifying when you're not used to it.

But good bangers are hard to find.

Would love an EV but still seems too expensive
 
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We had to scrap our 2003 Focus earlier this year! Was sad watching it get taken away on a truck. It had done over 160K and just too many things kept needing money chucked at it. I kept it going on life support for about 5 years before we decided enough was enough.
 
413x said:
I really don't know what to do for next car. It's coming soon I think. But cost of finance cars is just horrifying when you're not used to it.

But good bangers are hard to find.

Would love an EV but still seems too expensive
Click to expand...

They aren't that hard to find. This used car salesman on YouTube could help you out, he seems like a very genuine guy:

www.youtube.com

High Peak Autos

Welcome to High Peak Autos! My name is Matt and I am a car enthusiast and used car dealer based near Manchester, England. I'm always interested in finding used bargains so I tend to film with used cars, mostly. Follow me on instagram and twitter and make sure you subscribe - I've got plenty of...
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com

Re an EV, then generally they are expensive, but Jonny Smith from the Late Brake Show just bought a used Tesla Model S P90D at auction for £5k plus free recharging for life:

 
Is it that hard to pass an MOT? If you keep up with the service, tyres, brakes, do garages go into that much depth? A friend recently bought a 10 yr old Insignia, 'full' MOT, yet needed over a thousand spending on pads, disks, tyres etc. :D
 
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We have a 2008 Yaris which someone is learning to drive in. Clean MOT history all along except for things like wipers and brake advisories. Apart from the exhaust which may need doing soon, it's so rust free underneath you'd think it was only a few years old. No rattles or knocks anywhere either. In contrast to a newer Kia "workhorse" we had previously. Knocked and rattled since the day I got it, ended up being scrapped at only 80k miles as the front subframe rusted through and the steering rack went. Apparently it's normal for Kias...

There are some cars from the 00s generation which just last.
 
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Andybtsn said:
Is it that hard to pass an MOT? If you keep up with the service, tyres, brakes, do garages go into that much depth? A friend recently bought a 10 yr old Insignia, 'full' MOT, yet needed over a thousand spending on pads, disks, tyres etc. :D
Click to expand...

Yes, most stuff that gets checked is fairly obvious. Definitely worth asking to see the advisories when buying a car even with a new MOT. I think if you have the registration you can look up that information online now.

The big difference is probably whether you are talking about replacing consumables (which is to be expected, especially if you do a lot of miles) or the car developing other serious issues that are not economic to repair.

Nasher said:
We have a 2008 Yaris which someone is learning to drive in. Clean MOT history all along except for things like wipers and brake advisories. Apart from the exhaust it's so rust free underneath you'd think it was only a few years old. Not even any rattles or knocks at all. In contrast to a newer Kia we had previously. Knocked since the day I got it, ended up being scrapped at only 80k miles because the front subframe rusted through and the steering rack went.

There are some cars from the 00s generation which just last.
Click to expand...

I had a Toyota Avensis for many years and it was always good at getting through MOTs. Although aging it was still running fine, but I had to get rid of it due to the introduction of a clean air zone. Despite having a petrol engine it was still deemed too old an engine classification (Euro 2?) to qualify.
 
Uther said:
I've got a 2018 car that's about to cost me a chunk of cash for suspension, my son's got a battered old 2009 Honda that's probably worth 50p and never costs a penny outside of consumables.
I think I'm doing it wrong. My next car will probably be a bit of a banger.
Click to expand...

My Nissans (not that old) have cost me way too much - sadly an indictment of the Renault side of things. Albeit some of that is on me and/or related to my usage i.e. the Navara likes to eat things like ball joints if used off-road much.

Personally think we need to start holding the manufactures more to account for common failures - the Qashqai has a known oil leak issue with the R9M engine but if I hadn't by luck been able to have most of the work done under warranty I'd have been looking at a £3850 bill by the time it was finally fixed as the proscribed method for fixing it doesn't actually work (which the dealer should really know by now).

The Navara had the turbo intercooler split at 100K miles which is again a known issue which is quite a big bill even with the dealer being quite helpful and actually sourcing a cheaper but same quality non-OE part and giving me a discount on the labour rate as a regular customer.

Ultimately the Nissan Renault pairing has done Nissan no favours in the long run, which is difficult for me as the late 2010s Nissans I feel most at home in with the Tekna (or above) trim level and the approach to control implementation - I like the minimal but not basic approach and how they are driver focussed while still having a good range of features with the controls (mostly) where I expect to find them - far too many vehicles leave me wondering what kind of idiot designed them.
 
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Mr Badger said:
Yes, most stuff that gets checked is fairly obvious. Definitely worth asking to see the advisories when buying a car even with a new MOT. I think if you have the registration you can look up that information online now.

The big difference is probably whether you are talking about replacing consumables (which is to be expected, especially if you do a lot of miles) or the car developing other serious issues that are not economic to repair.



I had a Toyota Avensis for many years and it was always good at getting through MOTs. Although aging it was still running fine, but I had to get rid of it due to the introduction of a clean air zone. Despite having a petrol engine it was still deemed too old an engine classification (Euro 2?) to qualify.
Click to expand...

Guy at work had an ancient Avensis. Was still going fine until someone rear ended it at traffic lights. Replaced it with a reletively new Passat, which broke down at least twice since he got it lol
 
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Andybtsn said:
Is it that hard to pass an MOT? If you keep up with the service, tyres, brakes, do garages go into that much depth? A friend recently bought a 10 yr old Insignia, 'full' MOT, yet needed over a thousand spending on pads, disks, tyres etc. :D
Click to expand...

Bit hit and miss how much any tester goes into it and/or spots things in my experience - one of my vehicles gets "Nearside Front Lower Suspension arm pin or bush worn but not resulting in excessive movement rear bush. (5.3.4 (a) (i))" every other MOT but it isn't enough to sort yet.
 
My 17 YO Bimmer passed it's MOT last week with the same advisory about bushing/pin... I put it in to have it looked at on Tuesday... asked them to have a look at noisy (above 50mph) wheel bearing too.

So far it's needed two new wheel bearings, an entire new set of brake discs and pads, new ball joint and some heat shield thing that's gonna require something being cut off and something rewelding... Oh joy...
 
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Compared to my Ford Zodiac 1962 reg this 2010 Focus has done well - I scrapped the Zodiac when it was 8 yrs old - Both front strut suspension things rotted through. It was such a nice car.
I have had this Focus since dec 2010 and it had 2.5k miles on it - I did less than 10k miles per year -Had it serviced by Ford dealer every 12k but did my own service at 6k between dealers --Any thing that needed doing I sorted -brakes-link's and that was about it -Had auto box serviced every 35k miles.
Things changed in 2019 when covid came along and yearly milage went down to around 2-3k per year. the car is now on 96k.
It is showing rust spots on front of the sill's but MOT bloke says they are not bad yet.
I haven't had any problems with the DPF - before covid I did a good run on Sundays which helped keep it clean and now go out on odd Sunday morning giving it a Italian tune up.
I am hoping it will out last me and the wife but I am not holding my breath.
My next car could be a mobility scooter.:)
 
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