103 replies to this topic

[Jordie]

Not seen posted on here but previously if you failed an mot and your old mot was still valid you could continue to drive your car.

But a recent change now means that when you fail your mot any previous mots are no longer valid. You are allowed to drive to a pre booked test or place of repair.

This must have been really recent as i had this discussion with someone last month and gave link to the gov website which still stated you could drive the car (note: see below changes occurred around 18th sept 2015).

Gov website now shows the new rule so don't get caught out.

Jordie

 

https://www.gov.uk/g.../after-the-test

 

Driving a vehicle that’s failed

You must not drive the vehicle on the road if it fails the test, even if the MOT hasn’t run out, except to:

• have the failed defects fixed
• a pre-arranged MOT test appointment

You can be fined up to £2,500, be banned from driving and get 3 penalty points for driving a vehicle in a dangerous condition.

[Jordie]

Motoring websites are reporting the story and changes around 18th September 2015.

 

https://www.tradex.c...ed-mot-vehicles

[Anthony30]

[Jordie]

Bit pants really in my opinion. Mot can become invalid within 5mins of your test, so you could be driving an unroadworthy car for the 12months, yet the guidelines now state you cant drive your car if it fails a test and you have remaining mot left (less than a month).

[megamini_jb]

I've always thought it was like that before anyway.

[Jordie]

Previously it said only if your mot expired, implying that you could drive until your current mot expiry date. However this has never been black and white, but it was true, you could MOT your car and it fail, but continue to drive until the mot expired on your current certificate.

 

Heres a cached version of the gov website showing the old info.

 

 oldmotinfo.jpg   32.21K   18 downloads

 

Like I said, your car is only mot pass worthy at the time of the test, you could damage/break something immediately after the test and be driving an unroadworthy car for the rest of the 12months.

[nicklouse]

that is totally daft and poorly thought out.

cant think of another country that strict.

most give you a few months during when you need to be tested and even if it fails you can continue to use it.

in some countries you can fail it once a month every month of the year and still use it (OK it costs a fair amount for the tests)unless it is a serious defect.

[megamini_jb]

Yeah it does seem a bit silly

[RedRuby]

I would be more likely to agree if the fault found was listed as dangerous but as you can fail for say a failed bulb it seems over zealous. Also still a bit unclear as it can be driven to a place to rectify the fault, I like many would drive it home to fix the fault, so is that alright? Or would the place to fix it have to be a registered garage?

Edited by RedRuby, 29 September 2015 - 07:37 AM.

[Dzmarc]

Does that also mean if it fails you can't drive it back? 

Or could you claim that as a place of repair? 

 

 

Typical rubbish.

[AndrewT]

I think I may be in a minority of one here but the MOT is effectively a certificate of roadworthiness. If your car fails it is because it is no longer roadworthy. The fact that 11 months ago you got a certificate that said it was roadworthy 11 months ago is surely irrelevant.

As a couple of posters above have said - your car could get damaged 5 mins after passing the test and then you'd be driving an unroadworthy car for a year. This is true but if stopped by the police (and for the sake of this argument the defect is genuinely dangerous) then you would need to get your car fixed, irrespective of how long is left on the MOT certificate.

The MOT tells you the state of the car at a point in time. If it's no longer in good condition then the state of the car 11 months ago is irrelevant.

MOT failure problems can be cheaply and easily avoided simply by moving to Australia. Once your car is registered you never have to get it checked again. If the police pull you over and find problems then you pay fines per defect and have to get it all fixed within a certain time period. The only time you need a new roadworthy test is before you advertise your car for sale.

[Owsty]

Surly you must be able to drive it home to repair it instead of paying extortionate garage fees !

[nicklouse]

so thinking about it, it should also mean that the take it for a test upto 4 weeks before the date of expiry is no longer valid?

Again i think the words used are very poor and do not make thing clearer.

so you can no longer use the car to get the things needed to fix the small issues. that is a poor result. but i do agree if the fails are such that the car is not safe then it is fair.


are we going to see a new type of service offered by the garages?

the Pre MOT check so you can fix what is needed for the MOT?

[sonikk4]

You can book your car in for a pre MOT, this has been available for years.

The garage I used to get my car serviced at offered this inspection, still cost money however they would soon spot anything amiss and give you the chance of getting it rectified.

[nicklouse]

sure but i bet we well see a big push on this.