Please help me with this one, I am an expat trying to understand what is now the case in the UK having just fallen out big-time with the owner of a car that I thought I had bought to export to France.
When the car was put through the MoT test, or DoE test or whatever it's called now, it passed but with a series of 'advisories' including a crack in the windscreen and wear to front suspension bushes.
I fell out with the owner and consequently won't have a car we really liked because I insisted the car must be absolutely right before I exported it and it immediately faced the French 'controle technique' test.
The owner said the advisories don't really mean anything and should be expected to happen with any car more than a few years old.
Now, in France, advisories at a controle technique test are in two categories: Faults that have to be rectified without a re-test and those that have to be done and the vehicle re-tested within two months.
My question is, so I don't go through this unfortunate exercise again and be accused of timewasting, is 'what are you supposed to do if your car is tested and 'advisories' are listed?
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you dont have to do anything...if it passes and has advisorys that means the other bits might want looking at soon
things such as tyres near the limit or brakes fairly worn, still legal and safe but not for long
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I take advisories as warnings of things that pass, but might not next year.
I wouldn't moan at a seller about them.
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I'm inclined to agree with you here MH, i wouldn't regard a cracked screen or suspension bush wear as things to be ignored.
Certainly if they appeared on my MOT pass certifiicate, they would be rectified at the earliest, and i wouldn't expect to sell a vehicle to a private buyer without fixing them.
Agreed the vehicle has technically passed the test, but as it states, things that need to be attended to soon.
Unless its a very rare vehicle, i'd find another car whose owner feels more like you; of course you could come to some agreement on a value of the defects.
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also depends whos testing it...some cars can get advisorys for years on rubber bushes that arent perfect but they need to be hanging out to fail
just covering themselves a little bit i guess
id not worry unless its a mention of rust...
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I don't know if testers are supposed to look at the list of previous (last year) advisories before commencing a test, but I certainly know one who makes a point of not looking. Many of the advisories are on subjective issues that are often not picked up on subsequent tests. I suspect that some examiners consistently set higher standards than others, and the new system of centrally recording advisories could actually allow the MOT policing authority to issue 'internal league tables' of a testers performance. If they submit 'mystery shopper vehicles' with defects they could tailor the faults to the history of the tester.
Other advisories fall into the class of 'if you are doing one job, make sure that you look at the other related items' that could fail next time around.
IIRC the CT has has a validity of 2 years and will presumably set a higher standard?
If you had said to the seller that you would buy the vehicle if it had a valid 12mnth MoT, I am not surprised that he was upset, if you subsequently pulled out of the deal on advisories issues only.
pmh
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Yes indeed, and I feel very bad about it - I am not in the business of upsetting people. Obviously there is a big difference between what advisories mean in the UK and France.
I should have done my homework better, not just on things like values. Does every vehicle that passes a test come with a list of advisories now, then?
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An example of an advisory.
"Tyre wear low " or similar wording. Means that on the day of the test the tyre is legal; maybe only just. The tester is not allowed to fail it, but issues an advisory so that should the car be involved in any incident and the driver says "its just been mot'd" the tester is in the clear because he has warned the owner.
Basically an advisory is (or should be) something the tester cannot fail but is aware that in the near futur it needs attention.
Unfortunately some test stations use advisories as a way of drumming up extra business, such as worn bushes, crack in screen, corrosion on exhaust etc.
Totally legal to use on the road if its passed even with a list of advisories as long as your arm. But prudent to pay attention to them or at least obtain another opinion.
Best suggestion is to use it as a lever to lower the price a little ! And most cars over 5+ years will probably emerge with an advisory of some sort!
As far as the ministry goes the mot is black and white = pass or fail. In the real world its not that simple, hence the advisory.
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Your situation with this car seems to fall upon a grey area between the UK test and the French test. As far as the UK is concerned the car is perfectly roadworthy at this time and has been issued with its 12 month certificate and they don't want to see it again until next year. If it was a serious fault then they would have failed it.
Your French system sounds a little more complex, but who is to say that if you put the car in for the Controle Technique test, that they will even pick up on the same issues? Are they more strict than we are or less?
I think you are in a difficult situation because you obviously want a car that will fly through the Controle Technique test and this guy is offering you a car to which he has done what he can for you - had it MOT'd in the UK and deemed to be roadworthy. He is under no obligation to fix the advisories, but if you want a car that is guaranteed to pass the Controle Technique, then maybe you should be looking at a newer model?
As an aside, I have been MOTing the same cars for years and I have had some of the same advisories year in year out on the same car, but they have never progressed to the stage where they have become bad enough to fail.
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>>And most cars over 5+ years will probably emerge with an advisory of some sort!
I've never owned a car under 5 years - seldom under 10. And I've never had an advisory - and I've never had an MOT done at Kwikfit.
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my current car had an advisory for corroded brake lines.... didnt get a mention at the last MOT though, make of that what you will, has the last MOT tester also signed my death certificate or was the previous one being over zealous?
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My car passed its MOT in January. There was an advisory note re the rear brakes being near to worn. That was nearly 20,000 miles ago. They were recently described by the same garage as "worn, but not yet urgent". I have no reason to suspect that they would deliberately try to scare the price of some rear brake pads out of me. On the contrary, they have often proven themselves to have the highest degree of integrity.
Or cynically is it that " Diaper management " or covering your fundament with a piece of paper would seem to be the increasing norm in this ever more litigeous society.
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A couple of years ago I had to travel 30 odd miles to replace a cracked rear view mirror on a 7.5t van. It had been stopped by VOSA during a vehicle check, and a GV9 issued.
This meant that the fault had to be repaired before the vehicle could continue it's journey.
Last week I took a 7.5tonner for MOT at the local HGV testing station. I managed to clip the N/S door mirror en route - it shattered into about 20 bits but they all stayed in the mirror frame.
Result - a pass with no advisories. The tester explained that even a broken mirror can give an adequate view to the rear of the vehicle.
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Thanks for all this - really interesting. It seems I have panicked, upset someone unnecessarily and lost a really nice car we were looking forward to owning.
All I can say in mitigation is that this situation with 'advisories' didn't seem to be the case when I lived in the UK.
For many years I owned, at the same time, cars that were nearly new or at least very young and cars that were more than 20 years old, sometimes quite a bit more.
I don't ever remember being given warnings about possibly impending problems when the modern cars were MOT'd - to be fair it was mainly Hondas that did three-figure mileages with nothing wearing out - although once the tester pointed out to me that Lancia shock absorbers often leaked slightly and that was regarded as acceptable.
As for the old cars, if something was faulty the car was failed and I sorted out the problem straight away and got it re-tested.
It all seemed so simple...
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I would suggest the advisory is a note for those drivers who would normally not look at or have the car looked at until the next MOT is due, probably having an illegal and unroadworthy car in between.
Most decent garages used to give out advisories before it came on the official printout. Most of the unscrupulous garages used to tell you it needed replaced to pass the MOT, or just did it anyway.
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Thanks for all this, very interesting. It seems I have panicked wrongly, upset someone uneccessarily and we have lost a really nice car we were looking forward to owning.
All I can say in mitigation is that this situation with 'advisories' didn't seem to be the case when I lived in the UK.
For many years I owned, at the same time, cars that were either nearly new or very young, together with others that were more than 20 years old, sometimes quite a lot more.
I don't ever remember being given warnings about impending problems when the modern cars were MOT'd - to be fair they were often Hondas that did six-figure mileages with nothing wearing out - although the tester once pointed out to me that Lancia shock absorbers often leaked slightly and it was regarded as acceptable.
As for the old cars, if there was a fail I got the problem sorted out and the car was re-tested.
It all seemed so simple...
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Oops, sorry. The edit system went haywire...
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MOT advisories - it points out that the tester has noted some wear in a component but at the time of the test he deems it good enough to pass in his opinion. Covering his butt really, its their livellyhoods after all.
Some testers note tread depths because traders swap wheels and tyres around on their forecourts to gain a pass until the cars are sold.
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