CATERHAM SEVEN2002 · 1.8L PETROL

This 2002 Caterham Seven last passed an MOT on 9 July 2017 at 181,618 miles, meaning it has not been tested for nearly nine years. That alone is a significant concern because the vehicle's current roadworthiness is completely unknown. A car can legally be kept off-road without an MOT, but a gap of this length on a lightweight, exposed-chassis vehicle raises serious questions about corrosion, rubber deterioration, and general decay, particularly if it has been stored in anything less than ideal conditions. The most important recurring pattern in this MOT history is corrosion to the offside front chassis or subframe area. It was first flagged in 2012 with a note that it had been repaired, then reappeared as an advisory in 2013 and 2014 with descriptions of corrosion and scale. In 2015 it was flagged again, this time noting that the area had been repaired with corrosion inhibitor applied. For a Caterham, which uses a lightweight spaceframe chassis, any structural corrosion is a much more serious matter than on a conventional monocoque car. The chassis is the car. The fact that this area was repeatedly flagged over four consecutive years, even after a noted repair, suggests the underlying problem was persistent and difficult to fully resolve. Whether it has progressed further during the long MOT-free period is impossible to know without a thorough inspection.