I bought a 10 year old Ford Ka a month ago. It has 32,000 miles on the clock and looks great, no visible rust anywhere. I bought it in a private sale with 12 months MOT.

One month after buying it the power steering started cutting out and the steering has become quite heavy. I took the car to the garage and he had a look underneath and is saying that the o/s and n/s front chassis legs have had previous welding and he feels they are not structurally sound and that the car should not have passed it's MOT. On top of that , he says the power steering pipes are leaking and that the car needs a new steering rack.

The garage are saying that I should contact the MOT garage and have it out with them but I don't really know if that will get me anywhere. I am now in a position where I don't know whether to get the car welding strengthened if possible and get the steering rack and steering pipes replaced and try to get at least a year out of the car.

Does anyone have any advice ?

Has the garage that has inspected it put anything in writing? you need this as evidence should you wish to pursue anything further. (IE trading standards)

Is the garage where you bought the car from the same garage that issued the mot? that'll explain why it's got a new mot on it.

The garage WILL turn round and say, 'it was fully road worthy when it was sold and went though the mot in the correct manner' thats where the garage letter comes into play, if you get no joy from them just take it straight to the tradeing standards, note IF the garage accepts the 'error' then you must give them the opportunity to fix it.

Hope this helps

bugger, just reread your post, to be honest a private sale is in most cases sold as seen and to be honest going back a month later with a fault you will just get laughed at, you didnt mention how much you paid for the car?how much is it going to cost to get fixed up?.

The choice of fixing up is purely up to you, I will say the ka is a craking little run around and would say go ahead and fix it

If in doubt with regards to the mot the best thing to do is speak to VOSA. I would very much doubt that a garage will put what´s wrong in writing, i find they are usually reluctant to do this even if you know them - they will give you a quote for what needs doing probably.