MOT every 2 years

[Dark green 90]

Hi

I read in a mag recently that a Lord ? is suggesting that vehicles MOT,s should be extended to cover 2 years and new cars have their 1st MOT after 4 years

these recommendations may be brought into force in 2007

Although the thought of only having to get my/your vehicle TOTALLY legal for one day every two years may sound good, does the fact that a good percentage of road users (me included) driving older vehicles have little or no tools/experience/blah/blah/blah to keep this vehicle safe for that period of time?

Will this mean more bangers on the road with a 2 year ticket?

I would like to hear your views

i apologise (for my spellinggggg) if this thread/topic has been already dealt with...

[white90]

I heard as people with older cars generally spend £200-£300 a year on repairs to get through MOTs in 2years those repairs totaling £500+ will mean more old bangers being scrapped as not worth the expenditure.

these were the thoughts of the MOT tester I visited recently

[simonb]

Hi

I read in a mag recently that a Lord ? is suggesting that vehicles MOT,s should be extended to cover 2 years and new cars have their 1st MOT after 4 years

these recommendations may be brought into force in 2007

Although the thought of only having to get my/your vehicle TOTALLY legal for one day every two years may sound good, does the fact that a good percentage of road users (me included) driving older vehicles have little or no tools/experience/blah/blah/blah to keep this vehicle safe for that period of time?

Will this mean more bangers on the road with a 2 year ticket?

I would like to hear your views

i apologise (for my spellinggggg) if this thread/topic has been already dealt with...

Thought the proposal was for new cars only, 1st test at 4 years then every 2. All other (current) vehicles would be tested annually. Personally i think its a cr*p idea. When those "new" cars are 10 years old they will be on maybe the 3rd owner and if they are only tested every 2 years they aren't going to get much maintenance. Things such as brakes and steering should be tested EVERY year

[GBMUD]

Many new cars are covering very high mileages in the first three years. IMHO MOTs should be from year one. My van did 150000 miles in the first 3 years. Sandbag's car is 10 years old this year and had just over half that many miles.

If your car is serviced correctly at the correct intervals then that should mean that wearing parts remain within MOT tolerances at all times. Only things like blown bulbs or cut tyres might cause it to fail.

Chris

[Dark green 90]

I heard as people with older cars generally spend £200-£300 a year on repairs to get through MOTs in 2years those repairs totaling £500+ will mean more old bangers being scrapped as not worth the expenditure.

these were the thoughts of the MOT testerI visited recently

i cant argue with that but what about the cars that would be scrapped after one year still being roadworthy for another!!!

[Dark green 90]

Many new cars are covering very high mileages in the first three years. IMHO MOTs should be from year one. My van did 150000 miles in the first 3 years. Sandbag's car is 10 years old this year and had just over half that many miles.

If your car is serviced correctly at the correct intervals then that should mean that wearing parts remain within MOT tolerances at all times. Only things like blown bulbs or cut tyres might cause it to fail.

Chris

people who buy cheap motors dont generally have them serviced.

[GBMUD]

That was really a reply to this:

Although the thought of only having to get my/your vehicle TOTALLY legal for one day every two years may sound good, does the fact that a good percentage of road users (me included) driving older vehicles have little or no tools/experience/blah/blah/blah to keep this vehicle safe for that period of time?

I agree with you about the servicing not happening on older cars. Cars should, of course, be kept totally legal at all times, not just for the MOT!

Chris

[Dark green 90]

That was really a reply to this:

I agree with you about the servicing not happening on older cars. Cars should, of course, be kept totally legal at all times, not just for the MOT!

Chris

point taken

[Dark green 90]

Question:

Will this put up the price of cheap/older cars?

you buy a banger for £300 to drive about for a year (at the moment)

If its got a 2 year ticket,will it be worth more or be a death trap in 18 months?

[ciderman]

2 Years MOT on cars what ever next , I personaly think its a ridiculous idea , most bangers on the road today wont be legal for 2 months after the Mot let alone 2 years , and I recon they should bring the rules in for new cars into the same scope as HGV`s to be tested every year from new , and if your car is stopped for a major defect such as a worn out tyre you should be made to rectify the fault and re-MOT the vehicle .

In the Safety orientated enviroment that we have to live in today it would be unsafe to let your car run for 2 years without a proper inspection .

Operators running HGV vehicles have to have thier trucks inspected by a maintainence engineer at an average of 6 week intervals . Why should cars and vans be different ?

[reads90]

Ok for my spin on it all.

I am in Queensland Australia. where we don't have MOT's or anything a year. When you buy a car it has to have a roadworthy (which is what they call an MOT) But that is a joke and takes about 5 mins and is no where near what we know as a MOT. When you tell them what they do in a MOT they think you are winding them up. Most say that if someone went under there car hitting it wilth a hammer and pooked it with a screw driver than they would lump them. Never mind when they stick a pipe up the cars bum and revs the nuts of it. This roadworthy is only for when you buy or sell a car. Like a bit of a check to make sure you are not buying a carp heap. But once you have the car, as long as you keep the rego (road tax that includes 3 rd party insurance) going, then you will never ever need to get another roadworth even if you have the car 30 +years. So if you buy a car new and never sell it and keep it for 30 years plus it will have never ever had a check

Now when i was coming here i thought great never need another MOT , non of the yearly pain in the back side with the hand brake bushes and other stuff.

But now i am here and you see the bits of sh*t driving around then you think that this is not such a good idea. My brother inlaws girlfriend had a toyota corola which was the bigest bit of carp and death trap know to man. I would go near it in the drive never mind get in the thing. I know they don't have a big problem with rust here. But still the other things go wrong and some of the cars you see on the road make you think Jeeesus. But if you get caught by the coppers with a car that is non road worth they will throw the book at you. Ie if you cause an accident by the fact that your car was dangerous then you had better leave the country

They do stop and check cars now and again and give you whats called a pink slip which basically means you have to take it to get what ever they told you to get check, and you can't drive it untill you get it check. But that is the same as in the UK.

So all in all i don't think it is a bad idea to have a MOT ever year.

But what they should copy from over here is the 3rd party as part of your tax. This means that everyone who has tax has at least 3rd party insurance. which has to be paid along with the tax and can't be cancelled. So unlike some in the uk can't get insurance to get tax and then a week later cancel the insurance because they can't afford it

But if you don't have tax here they just take your car and don't give it back, length and cost depends upon you and what you are like and up to

[Dark green 90]

i agree the insurance as part of your tax is a good idea

it might solve the" Hit by uninsured driver" **** too.

[reads90]

i agree the insurance as part of your tax is a good idea

it might solve the" Hit by uninsured driver" **** too.

Yeah that is the main/only reason why they do it here

[Dark green 90]

So, ship your MOT failures to OZ then!

[Andy]

considering how easy it is to get a dodgy MOT still i cant see it making much difference. i know two or three people currently who can get a car tested & passed with almost any fault (short of obviously falling apart) for 50% more than a standard test i cant see it making much difference to road safety.

insurance as part of roadtax would be a good idea, im sure it wouldnt need an increase in price either as they sure dont use road tax on the roads... (yes i know it aint road tax anymore)

[Orgasmic Farmer]

We had 2 year testing in Germany (I suspect this is another form of EU harmonisation) and it was never an issue. You never saw bangers on the road over there but then they have a taxation system that very strongly penalises older vehicles. Every time a new emissions band is created (first there was cats, then 3 way cats, then E4, E3, E2 etc) then the newest cars have low tax while the last group of cars falls down a group and gets much more expensive. So a 1 year old VW Lupo will be free for the firat couple of years but when something better comes along you end up oaying say £100 a year. A 3 litre diesel Mercedes from 15 years ago will cost about £600 or more (can't remember now and has proably changed anyway). Only when a car has become an old-timer (25 years?) do they againhave a sensible tax rate (Theory being they will be well looked after by enthusiasts). So this is all well and good and helps ensure there are few bangers on the roads (they all get sold to eastern Europe!), the German car industry remains bouyant (Germans still buy predominantly home produced cars!) and the country can be seen to be doing something about carbon emissions (another industry at which the germans are at the forefront!). Unfortunately due to social and cultural differences in a large part of the UKs population I fear thet same model will not be as effective in the UK!

[Guest MJG]

Could be as already said above part of EU harmonisation...

France has a similar system, just checked my copy of 'living and working in France' and it confirms a 4 year from new 'Technical inspection' (their version of an MOT) free period and then inspections every two years.

After 25 years these requirements are scaled down but they place restrictions on when and where such enthusiast's vehicles can be driven.

[Anglo-Frenchman]

MOT or Control Technique in France only every 2 years. I have to say that it works well and there are no great number of wrecks on the road - Oh yes, and just to cheer you all up, there no road tax either!!

[Andy]

i do seem to remember a previous thread on this saying that it was EU harmonisation. it wont happen will it, its not anti-car enough for the bunch of idiots everyone else (yes you the minority - wasnt it about 37%?) voted back in again

[Guest MJG]

i do seem to remember a previous thread on this saying that it was EU harmonisation. it wont happen will it, its not anti-car enough for the bunch of idiots everyone else (yes you the minority - wasnt it about 37%?) voted back in again

Have to admit it does seem if it is true a bit of a U - turn in terms of the current anti motorists onslaught we seem to be getting in Barmy Blair's Britain (Soon to be Barmy Brown's Britain - God help us!!) -

It could however just be a cunning plan - to offset the negativity and the inevitable dissatisfaction against road pricing using Big Brother in the sky - who know's.

[missingsid]

MOT or Control Technique in France only every 2 years. I have to say that it works well and there are no great number of wrecks on the road - Oh yes, and just to cheer you all up, there no road tax either!!

But IIR doesn't Europe ban cars over 15 years old?

[Guest MJG]

But IIR doesn't Europe ban cars over 15 years old?

Errr well certainly we don't and niether does France, as I say in my first post they relax the Tech inspections requirements after a vehicle is 25 years old. Though if you take advantage of this you are restricted on the types of road you can drive on.

This is if my understanding of the relevant section in the latest edition of 'Living and Working in France' by David Hampshire is correct.

Last time I looked France was still in Europe so it may be other parts you are thinking about.

[Turbocharger]

The idea scares me witless. We look at buses every 28 days, reducing to every 14 days for high-mileage vehicles (although that's arguable, since motorway coaches don't use the brakes, steering etc as often as an urban low-speed bus).

The LGV/PCV test is being tightened to stop operators using it as a 'fix list' by reporting failures, ie failure rates are reportable and we get more attention (our licence can be reviewed) if we get less than 90% pass rate, where a 'pass after rectification' counts as a fail in those stats. Think about getting a 90% rate on your LR - it pushes your maintenance standards up!

"Most people" who run cars rely on the MOT to spot problems (bulbs out, bald tyres, brake pads etc), especially if they've passed the point where servicing doesn't add value to the car - my Mum's MOT picked up a broken roadspring on her ten year old Volvo one year... If this inspection wasn't as often, people would die.