I think the consensus is that I can still drive using my old MOT so long as I address any failure points first.
The main reason that I ask is that all MOTs in Northern Ireland are carried out in government centres. This has good and bad points - good because somebody completely independent is inspecting the car, bad because it can take a while to get a retest appointment, and the garage doing the repairs cannot retest it and issue a cert.
Thanks to all.
Edited by Captain Zetec on 12/01/2009 at 10:10
|
I am also getting my MOT done early on my Fiesta and of course I am worried if it fails and needs a lot of work doing I am without a car, yes legally I can still drive it but I would not want to. On the other hand I would rather find out now if my car is not roadworthy rather than the police informing me after an accident so it is a risk I am willing to take.
I only have 3 months left on the existing MOT anyway.
I think it does depend on what it fails on too, e.g dodgy reg plate, slight crack in the windscreen, fog light, emissions you might think its worth carrying on driving as they are not really safety related (depending how bad the windscreen crack is).
On the other hand you would be stupid to drive a car which has just failed on brakes ot tyres etc.
|
|
The small print on your insurance policy will say something like"it is the insured's responsibility to maintain the vehicle in a legal and roadworthy condition".
|
|
|
Rattle. You are driving a worthless car with a failed clutch. And you want to spend money on it? You are mad.
An MOT test is no guarantee of roadworthiness. IIRC it says so on the back of it.
|
The clutch has been fine since, it was more my driving than anything. If I buy something else then there will probably a load of unknown problems with that too. Also if ebay is anythign to buy its not worthless, I've seen a few 96 Fiestas go for over £500 on there. They are easy to sell because of insurance.
It just seems the best way forward, I will have another look on Autotrader today but my car has been very reliable in past month, now I know whats wrong with it and how to deal with it.
|
|
|
|
|
I think the consensus is that I can still drive using my old MOT so long as I address any failure points first.
No. You can drive the car on the old MOT until it expires regardless of failures notified in the new MOT.
|
But is what is confusing people.
Yes you can drive the car with the law, but the car has to be roadworthy in order to drive it on the public road. So if your car fails on brakes you would have to have that fixed before driving it. But because you have a valid MOT you won't need to reMOT unitil your existing one expires.
I hope that makes sense.
In reality if you got stopped and you showed your old MOT certificaticate evne if it the car is not roadworthy the police may not car/bother to check. If you have an accident though that is when it gets messy.
|
|
Incidentally (according to my MOT tester) if you take the old MOT certificate with you when you have a test carried out up to a month early, the new certificate can be given an expiry date 12 months from the expiry date of the previous certificate, not 12 months from the date of the test.
Edited by L'escargot on 12/01/2009 at 12:57
|
Incidentally (according to my MOT tester) if you take the old MOT certificate with you when you have a test carried out up to a month early the new certificate can be given an expiry date 12 months from the expiry date of the previous certificate not 12 months from the date of the test.
Now it's all on computer you don't even need to take the old certificate, the database will tell the tester when the old one expires and they can add the 12 months on. I'm not sure if it works that way by default anyway, or needs manual intervention.
Edited by SpamCan61 {P} on 12/01/2009 at 13:09
|
If your car is involved in an accident and it has a prominent safety related fault, the insurance assessor could pick it up anyway (and invalidate your cover), regardless of MOT status. If it doesn't have a prominent safety related fault, it should pass the MOT reasonably easily.
As has been mentioned above, all an MOT certificate does is tell you that a car met a fairly basic set of standards on a given date. It is not a roadworthiness guarantee.
Edited by DP on 12/01/2009 at 13:47
|
I've done this lots of times - the point of testing early is it gives up to a month to get any parts necessary and do the work at leisure. However if you are going to go on using the car, as opposed to just driving home cautiously from the (failed) MOT, then you really do need to know what you are about from a practical point of view, and there will always be an element of risk, if only from having ignored effectively a warning from an expert tester.
You need to have enough practical knowledge and ability to be able to make a sensible judgement. If it fails say because the handbrake is not quite good enough, it might be reasonable to go on driving for a bit until you fix it, but not if you live in a hilly town.
My car failed once in the lunchtime at work, on a brake hose bulging under heavy pressure. I bought a new hose and yes, I did drive cautiously 40 miles home, and then fixed it that evening. In my judgement I knew what I was doing and accepted the risk.
But it would have been madness to go on blithely driving around normally for several weeks, and criminally irresponsible to let someone else with no knowledge of brakes to do so.
Of course if a failure fault is really bad, the examiner can tick the box which says the car is unsafe to drive at all. I have never had one of those, and it would probably be sensible to obey it even if it were only a short drive home.
|
>>Of course if a failure fault is really bad, the examiner can tick the box which says the car is unsafe to drive at all.
There was somebody who posted on here a (long) while back that the garage gave them the option of either trailering it away, or having them fix it (at outrageous cost).
|
Surely that is owners risk? Yes the box legally declares the car ilegal to drive but the garage cannot stop the owner from driving their own car away can they?
My dads car had one of them stuck on it, although it just said on it "in my opinion the car is dangerious to drive and should not be used on the public roads" I don't know if that was because of the brake pipes or because it failed the rolling road test.
Either way in April he said "you won't have any problems with the brakes for a while" I asked him tod o the brake pipes at the time and he said wait till the MOT.
I've been paranoid ever since.
|
|
If have part-ex'd a car that a few days left on MOT, but I didn't hand over the VT30 notifying that it had failed an early re-test (but have immediately sent it to them afterwards) - There's an argument that it's in dealer's interest to rush past this in order to get the new car sale, knowing that you'll legally be on back foot and that they'll be able to send a demand to reclaim any costs (Some postings on the forum suggest that this demand could be "extortionate") in rectifying to get MOT valid again. - is it best to try to take control and:
- return the money to try to void the sale and get the car back (but too late?); or
- obtain a quote for the repairs needed and send that money to cover that (but they'll not accept it as my garage's costs might be lower than their's?).
So, while ignorance of the law is no excuse, it seems that ignorance of your car's faults is a good idea - best not to have an early re-test if planning to sell the car anyway.
|
|
|
