I reckon the bare minimum you'll spend getting a fresh MOT will be £250 (£150 to replace the two flat tyres which will almost certainly be cracked and useless, £50 for a new battery, £45 for the MOT test), and that's if the car actually fires up and runs with the new battery.

It's likely to be much more than that as you may need to replace all 4 tyres, possibly replace corroded brake discs / unstick calipers, plus anything else the MOT highlights, as well as having a service done. You could spend £700 - £800 or more before you've advertised the car, plus the effort of co-ordinating it all.

Alternatively, you could find out what the s c r a p value is, and then advertise the car as a non-runner for spares or repair at the s c r a p value plus a couple of hundred quid, lots of people look for cars such as yours which they can fix up themselves at trade prices and sell on. The advantage there is less trouble for you.

If the flat tyres have been flat for most of the 3 years, they are probably goosed. If not, they may just need pumped up. The battery may also simply need recharged.

I also wouldn't assume the fuel and oil need changed. I'm no kind of mechanic, but I can't imagine why 3 years sat unmoved would render the oil unusable. The fuel?, maybe through water contamination because of condensation(?), but as I said, I wouldn't assume it to be "off".

Sadly, because of the time factor, it doesn't have a current MOT, so, assuming you get it insured and taxed, you can only legally drive it to a garage for the MOT. Otherwise, I'd suggest putting air in the tyres, charging the battery and simply taking it for a run to see how it drives and feels.

The fact that it has been in a garage is most likely better than having been left outside, but unless said garage is properly dry and ventilated, it could still have caused or exacerbated any rust issues. So if poss, get underneath to check for any obvious problems.

But ultimately, unless you know what you are looking for (or know someone who does), you are not going to find out what the car needs without taking it to a garage.

Edited by badbusdriver on 26/10/2023 at 10:06

Will probably depend on how damp the garage was.

Change the brake fluid

Put some air in the tyres, and some electrons in the battery. See if they stay there for a while.

Not much point in speculation without investigation, unless you simply cant be bothered

Fuel system cleaning/dewatering additive perhaps worth considering, but I dunno about brands. In a similar situation, with older, less fragile vehicles I've used ethanol and/or drained the fuel, but most modern cars dont have drain plugs