OK, a VW 6N Polo 97 is going for say.. £700. It's got 50,000 miles on it, really solid bodywork with no rust, engine is a good runner with a bit of service history to back up bla bla bla.

It's head gasket goes.. from a £700 car, what is it now worth with a blown head gasket? Is it worth it's £700 less the value or HG, bolts etc, or is it worth the £700 less the value of parts PLUS garage labour to get it back on the road?

It has 6 months MOT so once fixed, may be used again immediately..

Is this just decided by whoever is interested in buying it?

Would be interested in different views on this, I'm sure the general idea would apply to any car..

Knock a few hundred off... personally i wouldn't pay more than £200 for what you've described, but then it's a 6n so I wouldn't even bother.

I'd agree, scrap value.

But i suppose the MOT adds abit value.

Not if you can't just get in the car and drive it without worrying about the headgasket...

£700value minus the cost of garage repair and then devide the remainder by 2 and you would probably have a maximum value. There again as others are saying its only worth what someone will pay. You often find a crap first offer on something like this is your best offer and hassle ended

OK cool thanks for the advice.

Gary, would you divide the remainder by 2 because if the HG has gone once, there is always the worry/risk of it going again? (As MartinB said)

Costs about £350 at most garages, take that off + £££ for the effort the buyer has to go through to sort it.

i'm with kerry on this, imo it's worth more than scrap value just due to the fact it still has a good amount of test. to any one that has the ability to fix it themselves it could be a good investment for a cheap run around or to fix and sell on for a bit of profit.

say the car is worth 700 and it cost around 350 for a garage to fix leaves you at 350, i'd put it up for that and see if there's any takers. it's only gonna cost the a diy mechanic about 80 quid (?) to fix so they are getting a running car with 6 months mot for 430. your other option is to pay the 350 to get it fixed then still only sell it for 700 plus the pissing about getting it sorted.

i know that prices change all the time but on average you'll struggle to get 150 for for a mk4 polo in scrap.

Edited 6 January, 201115 yr by McLOVIN

OK cool thanks for the advice.

Gary, would you divide the remainder by 2 because if the HG has gone once, there is always the worry/risk of it going again? (As MartinB said)

there is no real science to the equation i have posted, it just gives the buyer a potential gain for his/her efforts to repair the car

As to the worry/riskof it going again, its not your problem,its sold

I