My 2003 fiat punto failed it's Mot due to excessive corrosion on the floor of the seat belt anchorage prescribed area (front and rear): and
Excessive corrosion on the floor of both the rear and nearside subframe mounting prescribed areas.
I've been quoted £465 for welding work.
Any views on whether the work is worth doing?? I bought the car 4 years ago for £1300.

Will1973 said:

My 2003 fiat punto failed it's Mot due to excessive corrosion on the floor of the seat belt anchorage prescribed area (front and rear): and
Excessive corrosion on the floor of both the rear and nearside subframe mounting prescribed areas.
I've been quoted £465 for welding work.
Any views on whether the work is worth doing?? I bought the car 4 years ago for £1300.

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You need to reduce the price. If you remove the carpets and most of the seats yourself and get other quotes the repairer will have a better idea of the work required and have less work to do. You can also find out for yourself where the work is needed.

The problem for the MOT is you are not allowed to have rust holes 'near' the seat belt anchors and with it being a small car you don't get many areas that are not 'near' the anchors. (rust in prescribed areas). Likewise the subframe mounting areas.

I can tell you that my car has no rust at all on the floor. It is like new under the carpets, but there is rust developing between the floors and the outside of the car in the door sills - the long boxes under the doors. I can only imagine if the floors have holes then the sills must be in a bad way too.

I think most people focus their attention on what they can see - which is natural but once you get to holes in the floors the whole thing must be in a bad way I think. If it were me I would take all the carpets out and find out for myself.

A car is a luxury item that will get consumed by rust. If you can delay the day or reckoning then it can be worth it to you to keep on going for more years. Better the devil you know than some other consumable with unknown problems!

Will1973 said:

My 2003 fiat punto failed it's Mot due to excessive corrosion on the floor of the seat belt anchorage prescribed area (front and rear): and
Excessive corrosion on the floor of both the rear and nearside subframe mounting prescribed areas.
I've been quoted £465 for welding work.
Any views on whether the work is worth doing?? I bought the car 4 years ago for £1300.

Click to expand...

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Thanks for your reply. I haven't noticed any excessive rust on the door sills. Just a couple of spots where it looks like rust is just emerging. But the car has been mainly parked up for the last 8 months except for a small run once a week. Is it worth getting different quotes then??? Thank you.

flisko said:

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The car is still at the garage so I haven't seen the extent of the corrosion myself. But I'm assuming it's possibly corroded so much in the last year due it's immobility over the last 8 months?! It was a bit of a suprise to be told it is corroded so much.

My daughter had a 02 MK2, this failed one year due to rust near the front seat belt mount on one side, the following year it failed on the rear seat belt mount other side. Pretty common. Luckily enough my brother is a welder and he did it for free!
Took about 2 hours each repair. It can be fiddly under there, the metal isn't nice and flat, it has bends and curves in strange ways.
It all depends on what the car is worth to you. If it's £465 to get it back on the road, how much would it be to buy another one?

Aye,as said there are steps you can do to minimise the cost by sripping out the car for welding if you want to keep the car. I used to be a welder & apart from this you could cut out all rust affected areas ready for welding. It's easy for me to say it's not difficult, you just need the right premises & the right equipment.

Best of luck.

Ultimately all the rusty stuff can be cut out and replaced on any car, at the end of the day it all comes down to Money. Is it worth it to You to have it repaired at £465 or do you cut your losses and buy another car? Although for the same cost as the welding you aint gonna get much.
And of course with any replacement vehicle you may well get a whole new set of problems...even Brand new cars sometimes come with problems, some Brand new cars even come with rust (They tend to sit around in fields or storage areas for a while before they get delivered to the showrooms to be sold)

on this year its usually sozzled with floor to sill corrosion that you start chasing once you get started with the mig or better with the oxy acetelene
so
its down to where you see your finances 12 months hence
scrap it and buy something newer hopefully with a good warranty in case something fails
or
you know your car and £465 for another years motoring and throw it away next year

roll the dice

Thanks for all your replies. They've all been really useful.