The question usually arrives with a bill. A garage quote, an MOT that failed on something expensive, or a run of advisories starting to look like a trend. This page walks through how to decide, using facts about this car rather than a feeling about it.
- Where is the car heading? Is the MOT record getting worse, holding steady, or clearing up?
- What will it cost to keep? Not this bill. The next three years of fuel, tax, servicing, wear and the repairs the record suggests are coming.
- What would a replacement cost, and would it be any better? A different car brings its own record and its own bills.
Each one has an honest answer in the data. The sections below show where to find it.
Run the car through a free MOT history check and look past the pass or fail at the pattern:
- Repeat failures on the same part suggest a fault that keeps being patched. Those tend to keep costing.
- Advisories that never clear are jobs still waiting to be done. They rarely get cheaper.
- Faults getting worse, from advisory to minor to major, show the direction of travel.
- Structural rust (the MOT says corrosion) is the one to take most seriously. It’s hard to fix well, and the record often shows it coming back at a later test.
- A clean run of passes with light advisories is a car that’s holding up. That changes the sums.
The MOT Wise report reads all of this for you. It gives the car a risk rating from Very Low to Very High, with the reasons listed. A rating at the high end says the record is working against you. It doesn’t say the car is finished.
The report’s running costs add up fuel, road tax, servicing, and wear on tyres and brakes. They add a repair allowance shaped by this car’s own MOT patterns. They leave out insurance and loss of value. They show ranges, not single figures, because nobody can price the next three years to the pound.
Put the bill in front of you next to that range. Say the quote is a large share of what the car is worth, and the forecast is already climbing. That’s one kind of answer. The same quote on a car whose record is otherwise steady is a different one.
A repair isn’t wasted money
Paying to fix a car you keep is only a loss if the car then lets you down anyway. The MOT record is the best public clue to whether it will.
A newer car isn’t automatically a better one. On the compare page you can put your car next to one you’re considering, up to four at a time. You’ll see each car’s condition today and how it’s likely to hold up over the next few years. You’ll also see what each is likely to cost to run and repair. Every figure comes from DVSA’s MOT records and other public data. Costs are shown as ranges, not single numbers.
Haven’t chosen the replacement model yet? The car reliability pages show how each model tends to do at its MOT as it ages.
- One big bill on an otherwise clean record is a different case from the same bill on a car that keeps failing. A clean record is the best public sign that the car will hold up after the repair.
- A bill for the same part that failed last year is a different matter. Ask what was done the first time.
- Rust advisories that appear at more than one test deserve a proper look underneath before you spend elsewhere. The report points out rust that’s getting worse.
- Say the forecast running cost is close to what a sounder car of the same type would cost. Then the change may pay for itself. If it isn’t, it may not.
None of these are rules
They’re starting points. Your mileage, how long you plan to keep the car, and what you can afford to be without it all matter. The data can’t see any of them.
- Check the car’s MOT history and note the risk rating and the reasons behind it.
- Read the running costs, including what the car is likely to need in the next 12 months.
- Get the current bill itemised, and ask whether any of it repeats work from a previous MOT.
- Compare the car with one or two you might replace it with.
- Decide with the numbers in front of you, then sleep on it.