I’ve just bought a 2009 (59) plate 1.2 auto in red. It has 136,000 miles on it. No damage just a bonnet with the lacquer peeling. Bought it to break for parts but I’m wondering whether to stick it through an MoT and see what happens.

I only paid £900 + fees totalling £1020. Worth a punt?

Mot it then decide I'm tempted to say sell if it all works ?

John202020 said:

Mot it then decide I'm tempted to say sell if it all works ?

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Yeah that’s my thoughts. I’ll plug it into MES see what that says and for the sake of £26 I guess it’s worth it. Would be a very cheap first car for someone if I can get it through the MoT without spending any money on it. With that sort of mileage though, it could be a ticking time bomb of bits waiting to fail.

Looked at the MoT history and it hasn’t failed on much in the past.

typecastboy said:

Yeah that’s my thoughts. I’ll plug it into MES see what that says and for the sake of £26 I guess it’s worth it. Would be a very cheap first car for someone if I can get it through the MoT without spending any money on it. With that sort of mileage though, it could be a ticking time bomb of bits waiting to fail.

Looked at the MoT history and it hasn’t failed on much in the past.

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Quick look on Autotrader has only 4 cars at under £2000 so if its OK sell for £1400(say) and its a quick small profit you might get more?

John202020 said:

Quick look on Autotrader has only 4 cars at under £2000 so if its OK sell for £1400(say) and its a quick small profit you might get more?

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Yeah I was thinking nearer £1500 but even at that its a mega cheap entry into a 500 especially for someone who specifically wants an auto.

Major service and change gearbox oil. If gets you to work and back couple of times ask £1700 with cambelt advise in the ad?

IMO it's worth a punt but don't be greedy. Any other small car of similar age and condition and you'd be lucky to get your money back.

Nobody ever went broke taking a profit.

I've read you buy them salvage, repair them and use/sell them on?

If there's a bigger profit in the one you're already running, sell that and run this one yourself until it dies. Once it's dead, break it.

You should turn a bigger profit and I am sure your next one wouldn't be far away.

On the question of something expensive about to fail, with that gearbox I suspect it may already have and been repaired, same with quite a few other things if you're lucky, it might be good for years.

Its done 15k a year, above average, if that was on the motorway you're fine if its been all round town which is possible suspension and clutch? Think Typecastboy drives a 500x?

John202020 said:

Its done 15k a year, above average, if that was on the motorway you're fine if its been all round town which is possible suspension and clutch? Think Typecastboy drives a 500x?

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I do now and it’s still full of dented doors. Got new doors in wrong colour so am in the process of taking everything off for painting. A lot more difficult than to little 500

If if comes with no service history then I’ll try to track that down. Getting it delivered next week.

I got the car yesterday. Totally flat battery so charged up overnight and it fired into life today.!engine sounds sweet, gearbox seems ok. Did a full diagnostic with MES on every system. There were a few errors which cleared and didn’t co me back. But . . . I have the engine light flashing when the engine is running. No messages on the dash and nothing g in MES? I’m confused. Anyone got any ideas why that could be?

No errors messages showing up on the screen of the car on via mes only thing I could think of is electrical fault either wiring or cluster

Does it come on as you as your start the engine or when you turn the key?

chris3234 said:

No errors messages showing up on the screen of the car on via mes only thing I could think of is electrical fault either wiring or cluster

Does it come on as you as your start the engine or when you turn the key?

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It’s on solid when the ignition is on as the other warning lights as normal but when you start the engine it comes on straight away and just flashes on and off.

Is it possible that there is something that MES is not detecting?

typecastboy said:

It’s on solid when the ignition is on as the other warning lights as normal but when you start the engine it comes on straight away and just flashes on and off.

Is it possible that there is something that MES is not detecting?

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Possible but I of thought it would show anything bringing bthe engine light on

typecastboy said:

Is it possible that there is something that MES is not detecting?

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Possibly a wiring fault; is MES able to connect to all the usual modules correctly?

typecastboy said:

Did a full diagnostic with MES on every system. There were a few errors which cleared and didn’t co me back. But . . . I have the engine light flashing when the engine is running. No messages on the dash and nothing g in MES? I’m confused. Anyone got any ideas why that could be?View attachment 195272

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Flashing EML is often a warning the cat's fubar.
Were any of these errors related to a misfire?

Goudrons said:

Flashing EML is often a warning the cat's fubar.
Were any of these errors related to a misfire?

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No, they were all voltage related to a duff battery. Tested both lambda sensors which were ok. Wouldn’t at least the post cat throw up an error?

Could pick up a cat for next to nothing if it is that but wondering if it’s worth the hassle. Although it wasn’t a write off they clearly offloaded it for salvage for a reason I guess.

If it wouldn't pass an MOT due to the flashing dash icon, think you now have your answer. Nothing lasts forever.

How much have you run it since the new battery? Had a Panda which had been left for a few months with a totally flat battery.
Put new one on and all fault lights disappeared, but the EML came back on randomly for about a week. Then it went off and stayed off.
I just figured it was sulking...