Woes of Rust and Garage Trust

[Shane Flannery]

I bought a silver cap from a private seller found through the website in the August of 99. I had looked at a couple prior to purchase and, as I have no idea about mechanical matters, had the AA do a check on the car which was a 94 L plate with 70,000 miles.

The check came back with a few niggles, including "have to push clutch all way for clean gear change" - but all in all the assessor said it was a tidy car with a full suzuki service history and the mileage was not excessive for a car of this age and he would have bought it. It was priced low for the amount of history it had but the guy seemed to have a good explanation for pricing it to sell. I bought and rejoiced for 6 months. :D

At the time the local suzuki garage i used was in the score register.

Christmas 99 and the car started to have problems in starting. It transpired that the exhaust manifold was cracked and compression was down in one of the cylinders. Also the garage said that the gear box was catching on change of every gear and all the insides needed to be replaced. £3,000 later I had, i thought, got over the worst of it. The garage were good enough to present me with a box of the knackered bits and explained why they needed replacing. I felt confident with the service and happy with the job, if completely broke. They also told me they had waxoiled the car during the work.

I have the car serviced every six months. After one service they noted that there was the dreaded rust under the rear o/s wheelarch that we all know about. They sorted the anti-perforation warranty bit and did the job of replacing the panel. Again i was happy.

In september 01 the car was due for MOT and service at the same time. The car failed the MOT on 20th September for rust: N/S and O/S centre floor corroded and holed near belt mounts; N/S and O/S rear floors all corroded and holed; N/S and O/S front inner wings and N/S and O/S front bulkhead near subframe all corroded and holed.

I was alarmed at the amount of things wrong but got the welding done, and the car passed the MOT. I could not afford to also have the 6 month service but thought I would have the bigger 24 month one in six months time as the car would be two years after all the work done on it.

I took the car in for this service on 6th March and received a report that the rear suspension subframe and front mounting points N/S and O/S are badly corroded and require major welding such that the subframe will need dropping down. Bloody hell!

Is an MOT inspection there to make sure that your car will be safe for the next 12 months? Should they have picked up these potential problems then which, 6 months later, now make my car "unsafe to drive"?

The garage have told me that they need to make a more thorough inspection to see just what needs to be done and to be able to give me a price. The car goes in on Monday (11th) for this. I am thinking the worst. I can not help feeling, however, that there has been cock up and this was missed. Can matters get this bad in just 6 months?

Sorry this rambles but it might be cathartic. Any comment, even if it is that i have been cursed with some bad car voodoo and will just have to grin and pay, would be gratefully accepted.

Thanks in advance,

Shane :cry:

[Paul Sanders]

Sorry to hear about your problems, but it does sound like youve got a real humdinger there.
w.r.t an MOT, I would say that its only an inspection of the cars road-worthiness on that day, since the garage cant anticipate what you will put the car through for the next 12 months. This is why, in the eyes of the law YOU are responsible for a cars road worthiness (you cant sue an MOT station for the MOT it did, say 6 months earlier for not spotting a problem which has occured now).
w.r.t mileage, 70,000 miles is not average mileage for a 5 year old car (as it was when you bought it).
w.r.t AA inspections. My personal experience was that they missed the key things to look for on a Cappo (rust, rust and rust) and were expensive. Its better to get someone who knows cappos to help you.
w.r.t Priced to sell. This usually means "the cars a dog and I'm desperate to get rid of it". Any deal which seems "too good to be true"....IS.
When looking to buy a cappo about a year ago, I put 2000 miles on my other car travelling the country to see cars which were described as 'immaculate' and turned out to be rust buckets. I saw one in Bradford which was at a dealership and described as "a lovely example"..........I could poke my car key through the rust holes in the bottom of the sills and they wanted £8000 !!. This car had only done 37000 miles and I dread to think what the rest of the underside looked like. The real worry is that someone is driving this dog around and has paid good money for it.
I eventually found a very low mileage '95 car (5000 miles......definately below average), pumped her full of waxoyl and only drive her in the dry (i'm absolutely paranoid about rust).
I absolutely love my cappo and hope to keep it indefinately, however my personal advice to anyone who is not mechanically minded, is wanting to run a sports car on a budget or is not paranoid about keeping on top of protecting their car from rust shouldnt bother with a cappo and should perhaps invest in something else (mx5 perhaps).
Not helpful I know, but ....................

[Thomas Waterhouse]

My suggestion is to move to a country with real weather and stop worrying about rust

ok, sorry, not very helpful, but i hear so much about rust, rust, rust in caps and haven't seen a hint of it in mine - actually, except for the metal ring around the gear lever underneath the leather surround which was very rusted - very strange! Fortunately not that important and very easy to fix myself.

[Paul Sanders]

Not THE gear lever metal ring rust problem....................oh no. The car disolves within 1000miles and all youre left with is the tyres, a few rubber bushes and some o-rings. These can be used as spare parts on youre next cappo though. :lol:

[Paul Sanders]

Also, you dont have weather, you have a 'climate'..................we have 'weather' (usually grey & wet)..................