306 people please read

[Misty1980]

Hiya
can someone who knows a lot about buying/selling and mechanical stuff about a 306 please advise. We have been ripped off with one and want someone who will tell us honestly how much parts etc will go for or should we just sell as spares/repairs.
We were told it had 90k on the clock(1996 p reg) yet the last MOT cert says 99,786(or something similar) and the one before that says 205,??? and this was a failed MOT cert only 2 months before the one that says 99,??? on it.
We know weve probably been idiots and will learn from this, but would like to at least try and get some of our money back.
Im not good with car stuff, so dont knwo what you would need to know? but if you can post here what you need i can try and find out and post for you.
My partner believes the wheels/alloys will be worth something?
sorry its so sketchy but my partner is at work until 11pm tonight so i have had to post.
thanks to anyone reading/posting

[JazzJPH]

Looks like the car has had either an engine replacement or somebody has clocked it from 205k miles back down to 99k.

Have you checked to make sure the MOT certs match up to your motor? I don't mean to question your intelligence but there's the possibility the person who sold it to you has a few cars and accidentally mixed up the MOT certs.

Also, did you buy from a dealer? And how long ago? You can easily flash your rights about if you got it from a dealer.

Does the car not start and drive well? When I had a 306 D turbo (1.9l engine) i took it to 146,000 miles without any bother. I spent around £500 in 3 years of owning the vehicle. The most expensive work was the clutch (around £175 all in if you shop about)

As for the parts, you could sell the radio, alloys, etc.

Check Ebay, see how much a 306, same age, model, mileage, engine size etc. goes for on there.

Then see how much the alloys go for, and the radio.

Do a search for "306 breaking" as there are a lot of places on ebay that dismantle the cars and sell the bits on. You could get a few quid out of the lights, interior trim, bumpers etc.

by selling the parts and "breaking" the vehicle you'll be spending a lot more time on it, and could potentially be more stressful so just weigh out in your own minds which way would be most beneficial

Hope this helped, and hope it was easy to understand.

[Misty1980]

Hiya, thank you for replying
yeah we got 1.9 turbo diesel and it was a private sale yesterday.
ive checked all MOT certs and theyre all for this car and have also checked the online site which is on the back of them.
we paid £450 which i know may not be much to some people but its all we had.
My partner drove it home one a 2.5hr journey last night and he got it home, but its that i dont trust putting the kids in it you see. I think if it were just me and him i'd be ok on short journeys around town etc, but we need a car for school runs etc too.

[john_h]

since it was private sale, chances of getting all or some of you money back is well...nill.

as for the milage thing...i would check the vosa website to see what it failed for with the milage recorded at 205,000. i would also look in the past as it will list all the MOT's and will tell you what it failed on.

but to me by the sounds of it a failed MOT at 205,000 followed by a 2 month wait for a Pass MOT at 99,000 suggests to me there was a critical failure so an engine rebuild was necessary. was it the same garage that failed then passed it on MOT? if it was, it may be beneficial to contact the garage direct as they may have a reason for the milage anomoly and they could of carried out the work.

in my personal opinion if i was that worried i'd be really jack and palm it off to someone or part ex at local dealer for a little more than i paid for it and get a better car...but thats me.

[Misty1980]

oh we know we wont get any money from the seller, i mean for parts etc
ive looked on that website and seen all the past MOT's

it was a different garage that passed it from the one that failed it but..............................the garage that passed it had also failed it on the same day(i assume done the work and then pass it later on)?

i want to palm it off one someone if im honest, but then that would make me as bad as the (insert explative) that sold it us.
thanks for your reply

[bettyswollocks]

Can you take it to the garage that passed it or any garage and get them to retest it to make sure its safe and if so then drive away at it , i know a lot of cars that have engines replaced (which you can easily check) and are great cars ,the 306 is a very good car and if things were down right you might end up with a mint wee car.

[Misty1980]

its a 2 hour drive away unfortunately, if i were to ring the garage would they still have details of it? the last MOT done in august 2010

[bettyswollocks]

Try one nearer good use of £30 to be sure and yes they should have records , if you`re going to one nearer you explain what happened and they might just give it a check for a bit cheaper.

[Misty1980]

i rang one today, which i trust and they said they could MOT it to check it over, but they charge £54 for MOT so going to have to wait til friday. Ive messaged the person and asked if they would consider refunding some of it, am waiting on a reply(although i'll not hold my breath)

[JazzJPH]

Originally Posted by cck2k9

but to me by the sounds of it a failed MOT at 205,000 followed by a 2 month wait for a Pass MOT at 99,000 suggests to me there was a critical failure so an engine rebuild was necessary. was it the same garage that failed then passed it on MOT? if it was, it may be beneficial to contact the garage direct as they may have a reason for the milage anomoly and they could of carried out the work.

In this case though, doesn't the mile counter just carry on?

For example: If an engine goes up to 100k and fails, gets replaced etc. doesn't the mile counter just carry on from there? So if a new engine with 50k comes in, it's still recorded on the counter as 100k. So from there, the miles add up? (so the newer engine does another 10k wouldn't the counter show 110k, despite the fact the newer engine has really done 60k at this point?)


I hope I haven't lost you here mate


And isnt vosa one of the stricted organisations in the UK? So something like this 205k miles down to 99k miles on MOT's within 2 months must have started the alarm bells straight away?

Maybe, just maybe, as Betty says, this could all be legit, and actually a really really nice motor.

Why don't you try contacting the seller, not for a refund, but a bit of insight on the history of the motor?