I think your mech guy is right - get the fix list but one month ahead of date ( the 13month thing) . Me though-as a petrol head- perfect excuse to buy something else ( with a new mot) to play with for the next year .sod it, life’s too short blah blah
Chuck it through and go from there, anything north of £500 and it’s curtains as you could get £250 for scrap, Iris will be getting a rack soon and rear brakes which will be about £300, admittedly there’s no labour to pay but the way I look at it is I’m about a grand in including buying it from you and I’ve had 44k/2 years out of it, people pay 500 a month for financed cars don’t forget!
Hi Rick I would put the Focus through the MOT and see what the fix list would be, then assess the cost , if reasonable then get it done. If its excessive you got to think could get another motor for the combined cost of the car, glow plugs and MOT if so then scrap it and start again , but then factor in the hassle of scrapping the car and finding a new one, hope that helps
Exactly. That’s the dilemma I mentioned. May end up with a non mot’d car sat on the driveway but unfortunately it’s not saleable as is so I’m stuck for now
It doesn't take much to put the bang in bangernomics. Could you get a pre MOT inspection done to see what needs doing? If you like the car, then it could be worthwhile. The cost of any car these days is crazy.
A pre mot is much the same as a real mot on the day I guess… the only sensible option is to run it until the actual mot is out as the car is pretty much worthless without one and it’s only got 2 months left anyway so not exactly saleable now…
@@AgathaAndAnything Is the old MoT no longer valid if you take it for a test before it runs out? It would not make sense to take it more than a month before expiry anyway.
Morning Rick,get the focus looked over by someone who knows what they are doing and then work out with your man what it will cost,you like the focus enough to have spent money on decent tyres ,well done it's a good engine and reasonable mpg ,it has a very good ride and handles nicely so allowing for your initial outlay your on a winner,it's a bummer about the screen but sh1t happens with your original amount to spend that's still reasonable motoring for another year And after all as I so often tell my customers Cheap Motoring was never meant to be glamorous good luck.
I've bought cars for £250 which needed tyres for mot and others for £1500 that needed much more. My last £650 car has kept me going for 3 yrs and not needed much for mot. Spent maybe another £650 in total for servicing, parts etc in 3yrs. I find owning 2 cheap cars better as you always have one to fall back on when the other is off the road and you get a change every few days/weeks. Get the mot done and assess the costs. You can have the same issues with a £8k car.
Sacrifice a weekend or drop it local to work and put it in a month before the MOT and see what it needs, if too much then scrap it but keep the wheels and tyres for the next Focus. I have a really good local garage that have known me for years and I prep our cars well for test which they always comment on but they are also fair with me because I've been testing 3-5 cars a year with them. Cheers K.
Keep it, you like it, it drives ok and even if £500 is what it costs it's a better motor than risking someone else's potential MOT failure. I do speak as someone who holds onto a car forever. Our other car is a Fiesta ST with 152,000 on original clutch, we bought it 10 years ago with 40,000 on clock and has cost us only servicing (myself usually) tyres, brakes and other consumables. If clutch did go our local chap says he can do it for about £400 and where can we get a run around for that money in 2024. Anyway, my Focus ST mechanically is great and our go to transport for going out and about. It is obscenely expensive to run but it's a keeper. Stick with Focus, you know you like it. Whoosh ...............
As I say the £500 limit is there and hopefully achievable but the screen has put a bit of a spanner in the works, definitely means I have to put it in for a mot to get a fail sheet…
I guess one way of thinking could be to think how much would it cost to buy a car like yours with a full MOT and no issues? And if it comes to what it’s worth and no more and your intention is to keep it afterwards then it may just be worth fixing it. On the other hand if you don’t intend to keep it and you spent the money getting it through the MOT, would you get your money back? It’s a dilemma most people have who drive old cars or any vehicle. I’ve only kept my bike because I do the work on it plus I like it and haven’t got the heart to sell. And the Focus has given you minimal trouble over the last year hasn’t it? You decide, up to you mate.
I have had my 2008 Chevrolet Spark for 12 years now and I want to keep it going as long as possible as it has been super reliable. It was fairly new when I bought it but for the same money now I could only get something quite old so there's no point. I did get a new screen on mine that got cracked when I was transporting a long piece of furniture. I normally do my own repairs but I did take it to a specialist for the screen. I live in Croatia where used car prices are higher than in UK.
I was £2000 for an exhaust for a 6litre XJ40 when the car was worth about the same. However it was worth it for me to keep the car on the road. Drive a new car off the forecourt and you lose more than that in seconds.
Very interesting take on using bangers. My daily is a 58 reg Honda Jazz which I paid £3000 for and it does everything I need it to do. It just shows that motoring on a budget doesn’t need to be scary and I would argue that something from MG Rover (like you did) is a good option for a cheap daily because they’re not losing value and there’s a strong enthusiast following, meaning that there would probably be strong demand for even a broken one, even if it’s simply for spares. Plus modern cars are way too over engineered, hence why I always prefer something from the noughties as a daily.
@@AgathaAndAnything I’m not convinced that most of the new cars we see today will make it to 20 years old. There’s so much technology on them so if something does go wrong then chances are it will be a complex and expensive repair. I was given a new hybrid as a hire car for a few weeks and absolutely hated it. Getting in the Jazz was a blessing.
It depends on how much knowledge you have of said car how much your willing to maintain it and of course financially. I run cars before 2007 because anything after that is just expensive featureless mobile tablets. I maintain and repair all my cars and it saves a fortune if your willing to learn and get your hands dirty anyone can learn at any age
Need to buy a toolkit and a pair of ramps if your running an older car and do the work yourself to make running an older car viable. Man up and get your own hands dirty or make pcp payments and drive a grey box. The phrase I think is 'penny wise pound foolish. Older cars need more maintainance you can't run them on a shoestring only doing emergency repairs. Focus needed a proper service including the body that needs an annual coat of underbody wax
i try to buy at below we buy any car prices, my last one was £220 and we buy any car was £240, it had a full mot and it has 267k and i kept it for 4 years and did 21k miles (i had another car) i scrapped it for £192 (with 284k, as gearbox broke and not worth fixing) so a very good buy for £28 plus repairs, it always passed the mot juts advisories list got longer. i had a few repairs maybe £325 in total but i was happy and would do the same again. my current car was bought for £850 in mind in 2016 and still going well If we buy any car still says its worth £500. so will keep with it until the mot repair cost is £350. otherwise, i will keep it going on the road as after loads of years i do like this car a lot. the cheapest cars are the best price of car divide by the number of days of mot and compare all cars like this, then add the road tax and mpg estimates to then decide which one to buy next.
As you said at the beginning of your video Rick, better the devil you know I think on this one as the focus is such a safe bet. As you know you can spend 3-4k on a used car and it can have nasty surprises in store.
Can the windscreen be covered through your insurance or can you claim from the council where the pothole was? The rest should become obvious on a pre MOT. It's a balancing act that I think has been upset by the windscreen problem. Here in Northern Ireland the MOT is from government test centres. No mates deal here.
Doubtful I could claim that from the council the insurance excess is £150 so I’ll have to pay…. There are still dodgy mot’s to be had here especially if the selling garage do them…
I hit a pothole years ago in my Mini 1275 GT. It then developed a weird grumbling noise as I cornered, I contacted the Dept of Environment who were responsible for the roads, this may be different where you are. They sent out a bloke from the test centre who assessed the fault as a worn brake pad that had died. No charge thankfully, but he did tell me that if the problem could have been connected to the pothole I could have been compensated. Worth a try? Good luck with your decision, I think your car looks great and it's a fast disappearing classic. I've got a 1987 XR3i cabby.@@AgathaAndAnything
Get the Mot done, see what it fails on, if it's just the things you know about then fix it and you should have another 12 months use. If it fails on other things, then weigh up what it will cost to do against what you can get for the money you will have to spend on the mot. You know the focus and you say you like it, so spending a bit on a car you know is much better than risking it a car you don't...................until next year, but that's another story........
You look too deep in to it all cars cost money to keep on the road,dearer cars are not necessarily any better,if the focus doesn't fail on body corrosion and it still drives well i would see what the mot says and go from there,i run two old cars a 52 plate focus estate and a pug 406 estate which i inherited from my late father,i just fix them when they wrong. Having had a brand new astra in 2017 and the problems it gave me and ultimately having to let it go due to issues vauxhall were not interested in fixing i lost 6000 in 18 months so i see a few hundred quid here an there on an old car far better value for money than spending a lot more on something newer that is no better than both older cars. Plus it's a link to my old dad!
Hi you no the car is reliable I would get it sorted and have another year from it the focus is a good car I got a MK3 Mondeo run it for 8 years it doesn't miss a beat I can't replace it with something I no is going to be reliable so I will give mine another year
@@AgathaAndAnything yes, always. Bought my TDCi estate for £1500 back in Jan last year. Sank another £1500 over the year including the mot and then the oil seal on the turbo started leaking and gave out, wrecking the turbo. Turbo and manifold is £400 and labor £400, that was my limit. I loved that car, but had to emotionally let go. I only got £500 back for the car. I have now paid £800 for a mk2 Mondeo in Jan and already had to spend £350. See what the test brings up. Get under the car and wire brush the corrosion, treat and stone chip. Will be good video content if you want it. Get the rear liners off and check for rust there too where it meets the boot floor. Same with front liners. Clean and treat and then clear dynax spray. Clean liners and re fit. The front sub frame also gets a bit frilly on the lower arms and cross member. Same process, brush off, treat and chip. Won’t cost the earth. You know the car, see what it needs
I think your mech guy is right - get the fix list but one month ahead of date ( the 13month thing) . Me though-as a petrol head- perfect excuse to buy something else ( with a new mot) to play with for the next year .sod it, life’s too short blah blah
Yeah finally a non sensible person like me! 🤣
You know it makes sense, there’s so many cars out there-so little time..🤦🏻♂😂@@AgathaAndAnything
@andyblake1849 oh I’m pinning this comment 🤣
Chuck it through and go from there, anything north of £500 and it’s curtains as you could get £250 for scrap, Iris will be getting a rack soon and rear brakes which will be about £300, admittedly there’s no labour to pay but the way I look at it is I’m about a grand in including buying it from you and I’ve had 44k/2 years out of it, people pay 500 a month for financed cars don’t forget!
Yep 100% what I have to do just the screen really put a spanner in it…
Hi Rick I would put the Focus through the MOT and see what the fix list would be, then assess the cost , if reasonable then get it done. If its excessive you got to think could get another motor for the combined cost of the car, glow plugs and MOT if so then scrap it and start again , but then factor in the hassle of scrapping the car and finding a new one, hope that helps
Exactly. That’s the dilemma I mentioned. May end up with a non mot’d car sat on the driveway but unfortunately it’s not saleable as is so I’m stuck for now
It doesn't take much to put the bang in bangernomics. Could you get a pre MOT inspection done to see what needs doing? If you like the car, then it could be worthwhile. The cost of any car these days is crazy.
A pre mot is much the same as a real mot on the day I guess… the only sensible option is to run it until the actual mot is out as the car is pretty much worthless without one and it’s only got 2 months left anyway so not exactly saleable now…
@@AgathaAndAnything Is the old MoT no longer valid if you take it for a test before it runs out? It would not make sense to take it more than a month before expiry anyway.
@Phiyedough if it fails that becomes the latest test… therefore running until May 31st is the safest option…
Morning Rick,get the focus looked over by someone who knows what they are doing and then work out with your man what it will cost,you like the focus enough to have spent money on decent tyres ,well done it's a good engine and reasonable mpg ,it has a very good ride and handles nicely so allowing for your initial outlay your on a winner,it's a bummer about the screen but sh1t happens with your original amount to spend that's still reasonable motoring for another year
And after all as I so often tell my customers
Cheap Motoring was never meant to be glamorous good luck.
Yep I think that’s the only option for now as it’s not saleable as is….
I've bought cars for £250 which needed tyres for mot and others for £1500 that needed much more. My last £650 car has kept me going for 3 yrs and not needed much for mot. Spent maybe another £650 in total for servicing, parts etc in 3yrs. I find owning 2 cheap cars better as you always have one to fall back on when the other is off the road and you get a change every few days/weeks. Get the mot done and assess the costs. You can have the same issues with a £8k car.
Very true and wise thanks!
Sacrifice a weekend or drop it local to work and put it in a month before the MOT and see what it needs, if too much then scrap it but keep the wheels and tyres for the next Focus. I have a really good local garage that have known me for years and I prep our cars well for test which they always comment on but they are also fair with me because I've been testing 3-5 cars a year with them. Cheers K.
I cannot offer you advice on this one. Judith springs to mind. 😂 How deep are your pockets and patience.
Not as big as yours mate! 😂
😂
Another point, if you scrap it it’ll owe you what, £900? What car will you buy for that with new glow plugs and 4 new decent tyres….
It’s a point, a boring one but…. 😂
@@AgathaAndAnything you just like getting new cars don’t you lol
I’ve had over 60….
Keep it, you like it, it drives ok and even if £500 is what it costs it's a better motor than risking someone else's potential MOT failure. I do speak as someone who holds onto a car forever. Our other car is a Fiesta ST with 152,000 on original clutch, we bought it 10 years ago with 40,000 on clock and has cost us only servicing (myself usually) tyres, brakes and other consumables. If clutch did go our local chap says he can do it for about £400 and where can we get a run around for that money in 2024. Anyway, my Focus ST mechanically is great and our go to transport for going out and about. It is obscenely expensive to run but it's a keeper. Stick with Focus, you know you like it. Whoosh ...............
As I say the £500 limit is there and hopefully achievable but the screen has put a bit of a spanner in the works, definitely means I have to put it in for a mot to get a fail sheet…
Yes that is a bugger, not easy to get second hand and then do it yourself. Good luck, I await enthusiastically x@@AgathaAndAnything
I guess one way of thinking could be to think how much would it cost to buy a car like yours with a full MOT and no issues?
And if it comes to what it’s worth and no more and your intention is to keep it afterwards then it may just be worth fixing it.
On the other hand if you don’t intend to keep it and you spent the money getting it through the MOT, would you get your money back?
It’s a dilemma most people have who drive old cars or any vehicle.
I’ve only kept my bike because I do the work on it plus I like it and haven’t got the heart to sell.
And the Focus has given you minimal trouble over the last year hasn’t it? You decide, up to you mate.
I don’t think I’d ever get my money back but I suppose it’s worth investing in as it’s been fine for 10 months
@@AgathaAndAnything It’s a case of “Better the Devil you know” sometimes.
Inner and outer sills, rear suspension mounting points watch out for,these are what puts a lot of mk 1 and mk2 focus in the scrappers.
Yep hence my comment on not knowing how good the last mot was….
I have had my 2008 Chevrolet Spark for 12 years now and I want to keep it going as long as possible as it has been super reliable. It was fairly new when I bought it but for the same money now I could only get something quite old so there's no point. I did get a new screen on mine that got cracked when I was transporting a long piece of furniture. I normally do my own repairs but I did take it to a specialist for the screen. I live in Croatia where used car prices are higher than in UK.
That’s some good going there. I get bored easily but I don’t want to change the car until I decide…
I was £2000 for an exhaust for a 6litre XJ40 when the car was worth about the same. However it was worth it for me to keep the car on the road. Drive a new car off the forecourt and you lose more than that in seconds.
True but as I said a cheaper car has a lower % repair budget in my opinion
I'd stick with the Focus, and get it through another MOT, and then look for another car before winter arrives.
That was the initial plan to sell on with 6 months mot… still depends on how much it will now cost though. There has to be a cut off point
Very interesting take on using bangers. My daily is a 58 reg Honda Jazz which I paid £3000 for and it does everything I need it to do. It just shows that motoring on a budget doesn’t need to be scary and I would argue that something from MG Rover (like you did) is a good option for a cheap daily because they’re not losing value and there’s a strong enthusiast following, meaning that there would probably be strong demand for even a broken one, even if it’s simply for spares. Plus modern cars are way too over engineered, hence why I always prefer something from the noughties as a daily.
Definitely agree on 20 year old cars over new…. Guess we’ll see…
@@AgathaAndAnything I’m not convinced that most of the new cars we see today will make it to 20 years old. There’s so much technology on them so if something does go wrong then chances are it will be a complex and expensive repair. I was given a new hybrid as a hire car for a few weeks and absolutely hated it. Getting in the Jazz was a blessing.
@thtmotoring I think you are right there
It depends on how much knowledge you have of said car how much your willing to maintain it and of course financially. I run cars before 2007 because anything after that is just expensive featureless mobile tablets. I maintain and repair all my cars and it saves a fortune if your willing to learn and get your hands dirty anyone can learn at any age
I’m capable but don’t have time but agreed on older cars are less electrical reliable 😊
Need to buy a toolkit and a pair of ramps if your running an older car and do the work yourself to make running an older car viable. Man up and get your own hands dirty or make pcp payments and drive a grey box. The phrase I think is 'penny wise pound foolish. Older cars need more maintainance you can't run them on a shoestring only doing emergency repairs. Focus needed a proper service including the body that needs an annual coat of underbody wax
4:33 What a good topic. It's always head vs heart I find.
Cheers. I’m trying to be sensible 😂
@@AgathaAndAnything Good luck! Lol
i try to buy at below we buy any car prices, my last one was £220 and we buy any car was £240, it had a full mot and it has 267k and i kept it for 4 years and did 21k miles (i had another car) i scrapped it for £192 (with 284k, as gearbox broke and not worth fixing) so a very good buy for £28 plus repairs, it always passed the mot juts advisories list got longer. i had a few repairs maybe £325 in total but i was happy and would do the same again. my current car was bought for £850 in mind in 2016 and still going well If we buy any car still says its worth £500. so will keep with it until the mot repair cost is £350. otherwise, i will keep it going on the road as after loads of years i do like this car a lot. the cheapest cars are the best price of car divide by the number of days of mot and compare all cars like this, then add the road tax and mpg estimates to then decide which one to buy next.
That’s proper bangernomics right there! Well done sir!
As you said at the beginning of your video Rick, better the devil you know I think on this one as the focus is such a safe bet. As you know you can spend 3-4k on a used car and it can have nasty surprises in store.
Stop being so sensible 🤣
@AgathaAndAnything you're very like me, any excuse to try another motor 🤣., sensible hat off now...how about a volvo V50 estate nice motors.
@@paulsyarduk2045 I’ve never had a Volvo….
if you got that windscreen i just posted ya, get a friendly windscreen fitter to do it on the cheap.
What do you mean posted? And I don’t know any fitters anyway
I can fix my car for the price of the parts. Most things you can do at home. Xx
I don’t have time and interest as much now though
New windscreen and get it fixed up as at the minute all cars are over priced. Handbrake isn't rocket science....🤗👍🇮🇪
Agreed in principle but as I said there could be other issues unknown so that needs to be addressed.
Can the windscreen be covered through your insurance or can you claim from the council where the pothole was? The rest should become obvious on a pre MOT. It's a balancing act that I think has been upset by the windscreen problem. Here in Northern Ireland the MOT is from government test centres. No mates deal here.
Doubtful I could claim that from the council the insurance excess is £150 so I’ll have to pay…. There are still dodgy mot’s to be had here especially if the selling garage do them…
I hit a pothole years ago in my Mini 1275 GT. It then developed a weird grumbling noise as I cornered, I contacted the Dept of Environment who were responsible for the roads, this may be different where you are. They sent out a bloke from the test centre who assessed the fault as a worn brake pad that had died. No charge thankfully, but he did tell me that if the problem could have been connected to the pothole I could have been compensated. Worth a try? Good luck with your decision, I think your car looks great and it's a fast disappearing classic. I've got a 1987 XR3i cabby.@@AgathaAndAnything
I think if you throw a few quid at it might do 2 or 3 years, makes sense money wise.
That’s the plan but there’s a limit…
If it’s only the screen, breakers yard will take one out and a screen man would fit for cash beer tokens…🤔
I think we’ll see what happens but yeah fair point
Get the Mot done, see what it fails on, if it's just the things you know about then fix it and you should have another 12 months use. If it fails on other things, then weigh up what it will cost to do against what you can get for the money you will have to spend on the mot. You know the focus and you say you like it, so spending a bit on a car you know is much better than risking it a car you don't...................until next year, but that's another story........
Agreed. Pretty much what I’ve got to do really, just means a bit more faffing when you put it in just to get a fail sheet.
You look too deep in to it all cars cost money to keep on the road,dearer cars are not necessarily any better,if the focus doesn't fail on body corrosion and it still drives well i would see what the mot says and go from there,i run two old cars a 52 plate focus estate and a pug 406 estate which i inherited from my late father,i just fix them when they wrong. Having had a brand new astra in 2017 and the problems it gave me and ultimately having to let it go due to issues vauxhall were not interested in fixing i lost 6000 in 18 months so i see a few hundred quid here an there on an old car far better value for money than spending a lot more on something newer that is no better than both older cars. Plus it's a link to my old dad!
Those are wise words mate.
Hi you no the car is reliable I would get it sorted and have another year from it the focus is a good car I got a MK3 Mondeo run it for 8 years it doesn't miss a beat I can't replace it with something I no is going to be reliable so I will give mine another year
Yeah I think it’s got to be done if the mot isn’t terrible
Cars are like women mate, if you got one you like its worth spending a few bob on , good luck what ever you do.
Tits or tyres….. both cost you everything
First 😊
Watch it 1st 😂
If you like the car have it MOT for 12 months at at least know the car
I will if it passes in budget
take for mot 1st nowt to lose
Yep that’s the way forward
If you love the car, spend the money. If you don’t love it, pass it on to someone who will and can
There has to be a limit though!
@@AgathaAndAnything yes, always. Bought my TDCi estate for £1500 back in Jan last year. Sank another £1500 over the year including the mot and then the oil seal on the turbo started leaking and gave out, wrecking the turbo. Turbo and manifold is £400 and labor £400, that was my limit. I loved that car, but had to emotionally let go. I only got £500 back for the car. I have now paid £800 for a mk2 Mondeo in Jan and already had to spend £350. See what the test brings up. Get under the car and wire brush the corrosion, treat and stone chip. Will be good video content if you want it. Get the rear liners off and check for rust there too where it meets the boot floor. Same with front liners. Clean and treat and then clear dynax spray. Clean liners and re fit. The front sub frame also gets a bit frilly on the lower arms and cross member. Same process, brush off, treat and chip. Won’t cost the earth. You know the car, see what it needs