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potentially unroadworthy cars on the road - wotspur
It comes to the end of October and both mine and my wifes car require an MOT, both booked in for this week, and new tax disc.
Having received from the DVLA the V11 form, I thought I'd try and renew my tax disc on line. It was so easy and saved so much queuing at the now, not so local post office.
What surprised me was that my wifes Mot, which was done last Nov, was accepted on line.
This means that though it is still likely to be roadworthy, there must be plenty of cars out there that were more roadworthy 11 months ago than it is now.
I think there should be a limit, that the Mot certificate should be no older than 6 monthsi

{Changed category selection}

Edited by Dynamic Dave on 27/10/2007 at 13:58

potentially unroadworthy cars on the road - L'escargot
I think there should be a limit that the Mot certificate should be no older
than 6 monthsi


That would require MOTs to be carried out twice a year.
--
L\'escargot.
potentially unroadworthy cars on the road - Ruperts Trooper
But that would mean having to have some cars tested every six months !

The annual MOT isn't perfect, far from it, but it is a reasonable compromise between road safety and practicality.
potentially unroadworthy cars on the road - NARU
Of course there are potentially unroadworthy cars on the road every day. DVLA goes out of its way to say that just because a car passed an MOT yesterday, it doesn't mean its roadworthy today.

The test is a compromise - it tests the things which can reasonably be done, but there are some things it cannot test. eg. a tyre with a slow puncture or the car overheating and breaking down on a motorway. The MOT doesn't check the oil or watre levels for instance.

The driver is responsible for checking, and in extreme circumstances could be prosecuted - eg. 3 points for each bald tyre.

Edited by Marlot on 27/10/2007 at 10:44

potentially unroadworthy cars on the road - Bromptonaut
The law requires the vehicle to be insured and tested on the date the license comes into force. That date is either the date the license commences (1 Nov in the OP's example) or the date of purchase if holding on into November.

Not ideal but difficult to see how else it can be done without requiring 2 MoT's a year, particularly where a 6 month disc or period on SORN has thrown the tax and MoT out of kilter.
potentially unroadworthy cars on the road - craneboy
There was some talk in the news a few months ago about possibly reducing the mot to once every two years. Madness!
potentially unroadworthy cars on the road - Hugo {P}
IIRC the spanish laws are slightly different - every 2 years for the first 8 or so? I could be wrong.
potentially unroadworthy cars on the road - Avant
In the immortal words of Michael Flanders (c. 1960, when the tests first came in)

"There's even talk of having them tested before they leave the factory". :)