Primary cat deletes - DVSA crackdown?

[Ninja59]

john ryan said:

I don't particularly like McGurk, but his you tube posts were reasonable, and a fair point of view. Mike Beake comes across as unhinged, especially as he rambles off topic and strays into personal abuse. There is an essential difference between legislative requirements (always open to interpretation), and what can be spotted during an Mot test. I wonder if DVSA will now target certain Aston specialist businesses, as they have done with the vintage and replicar trade by withdrawing car registration; it's the car owners who are the potential losers. Who can say if an increasingly automated Mot test will not look for remapping or some more precise evidence of cat behaviour? Keeping the deleted kit is obviously wise.

I must agree your statements about McGurk and BR are completely fair - McGurk only gave their opinion.

The fact BR have strayed into personal attacks is ridiculous. But Mike has history of doing this with others that dare to disagree with his outlook/viewpoint.

[Jon39]

A brief off-topic.
Sometimes on YouTube, reversed text can be seen. A mystery to me.
I spotted it today in the BR video. Although Michelin is reversed, a few frames later Ducatti is not reversed.

Can anyone explain ?

[ram_g]

Jon39 said:

A brief off-topic.
Sometimes on YouTube, reversed text can be seen. A mystery to me.
I spotted it today in the BR video. Although Michelin is reversed, a few frames later Ducatti is not reversed.

Can anyone explain ?

Maybe using the back vs. the front camera of a smartphone?

[Stick Legs]

This entire saga makes me want to deal with neither firm TBH.

Quite sad really.

[Calinours]

Ninja59 said:

Calinours said:

Sure, I will have a go.

As regards personal experience, I do not know McGurk, but have dealt with BR a couple of times, As far as you’d want from any independent garage, Mike does know his onions and is someone good to sort out problems with your VH car. He isn’t a saint and a HR bod would send him on god know what courses (and he’d rightly tell them to fk off) but I for one would always be happy to have him and his team spannering any of my cars - and that is all that matters.

Edited by Calinours on Sunday 14th January 23:32

Surely if Mike and his team were that good at spannering (and as they continually point out other AM MD or indepedent mistakes with vitriol) then they would not have missed the broken spring of the owner last year surely? That was left to DAE to find?

I guess so, mistakes can be made by anyone, I’d hazard that said individual is perhaps just a little less good than most at admitting the possibility of a mistake.

Mindful of my own, I try to avoid pointing at other folks character flaws, and also speak as I find. BR identified and resolved an issue with my car that no less than four other specialists were unable to even identify, let alone resolve, and for that and the way my car drove when they had installed upgrades and fettled the geometry they get my support, however I do consider that Mike does himself no favours at all with some of the more vitriolic comments in his videos.

Edited by Calinours on Monday 15th January 16:21

[LTP]

I'm not going to get in between two dogs fighting on video (unedifying though it is), but I will express an opinion that Aston drivers who delete primary cats but still ensure their cars pass the MOT are probably not the main target of the DVSA.

For that I would guess they are looking more at the "tuners" of hot hatches, with tailpipes the size of dustbins and more engineered-in explosions on over-run than a salute from a Royal Artillery battalion, that go "cruising" up and down dual carriageways and through supermarket car-parks late at night.
Councils are having to take out injunctions so that the police can act

Time for the pipe and slippers and a nice mug of tea

[Ninja59]

LTP said:

I'm not going to get in between two dogs fighting on video (unedifying though it is), but I will express an opinion that Aston drivers who delete primary cats but still ensure their cars pass the MOT are probably not the main target of the DVSA.

For that I would guess they are looking more at the "tuners" of hot hatches, with tailpipes the size of dustbins and more engineered-in explosions on over-run than a salute from a Royal Artillery battalion, that go "cruising" up and down dual carriageways and through supermarket car-parks late at night.
Councils are having to take out injunctions so that the police can act

Time for the pipe and slippers and a nice mug of tea

I don't think any owners necessarily are the target of the DVSA, that is more for the police using S.59s where relevant, businesses are definitely the agenda of the day and having nosed at their criteria for 2024 we can only expect more of it.

I think the car community (including the businesses offering such services) in entirity only have themselves to blame for this irrespective of type of owner, the DVSA are clearly showing it is easier to make businesses compliant than the owners.

Fundamentally, noise is noise to many people whether that be a 4 cylinder or a V12, same for decats.

[Caslad]

McGurk has put 2 videos on primary decat on YouTube in the last 3 weeks. Given that he doesn’t offer the services he criticises it does beg the question as to why he feels the need to repeatedly raise the issue. It may be altruism (admittedly a trait rarely expressed by used car salesmen) but unwittingly or calculated it’s a direct attack on a core part of Mike’s business and whilst I don’t condone the manner of Mike’s retort he has every right to be p***** off.

[randytusk]

AdamV12V said:

In reality most MOT testers would never know, so it would likely pass, but nevertheless removing or tinkering with your cats is an MOT failure.

What happens to vehicles that require a replacement catalytic converter that is no longer in production or available?

[Ninja59]

Caslad said:

McGurk has put 2 videos on primary decat on YouTube in the last 3 weeks. Given that he doesn’t offer the services he criticises it does beg the question as to why he feels the need to repeatedly raise the issue. It may be altruism (admittedly a trait rarely expressed by used car salesmen) but unwittingly or calculated it’s a direct attack on a core part of Mike’s business and whilst I don’t condone the manner of Mike’s retort he has every right to be p***** off.

To be fair to McGurk he did one video giving their opinion with no name calling and one video as a follow up because of the DVSA contact, not because he planned (at least I believe) on doing 2 videos. In regards to the subject matter itself, anyone is welcome to voice an opinion, whether that agrees or not with other views. I do think this is part of a wider "campaign" though to highlight common issues/mistakes for owners of AMs by McGurk (he did an air filter height video prior to this cat one), how helpful they are is obviously up to an individual.

Flipside, given this is not the first time of Mike personally attacking someone in a few months via his videos (the ECU video he personally attacked Matt Riddles, who works for AML currently (okay he did not highlight this) and directly named in that video without prior contact) he can be a peeved as he wants, but he comes across as unprofessional and it does him no favours (but given what I have heard about Mike's time at AML then it is no surprise apparently). Bottom line is anyone resorting to name calling and personal attacks is the lowest of the low, let alone naming someone in a public video with screenshots without warning to that person.

[stevemcs]

randytusk said:

What happens to vehicles that require a replacement catalytic converter that is no longer in production or available?

You won't get an MOT.

I'd rather DVSA crack down on people offering DPF deletes than Cats, its very rare you find a petrol with iffy cats is that bad on emissions.

[Ninja59]

stevemcs said:

You won't get an MOT.

I'd rather DVSA crack down on people offering DPF deletes than Cats, its very rare you find a petrol with iffy cats is that bad on emissions.

A valid point, but if throwing DPFs for the sole reason of particulates then GPFs need to be considered as well surely?

[stevemcs]

Ninja59 said:

A valid point, but if throwing DPFs for the sole reason of particulates then GPFs need to be considered as well surely?

Possibly, but lots of people seem to knock the DPF out because of them blocking, which is usually because of neglect and not servicing. I'd probably say soot particles are worse than what comes out of a petrol

[Ninja59]

stevemcs said:

Possibly, but lots of people seem to knock the DPF out because of them blocking, which is usually because of neglect and not servicing. I'd probably say soot particles are worse than what comes out of a petrol

To be fair it is the same thing really they are all particulates if anything research has shown the petrol ones to be smaller and therefore more harmful.

[SHIFTY]

I swapped the secondary cats on my 2016 Vanquish to straight through pipes and on the last MOT the emissions actually fell.

Cannot see a problem as emissions are lower, but as stated not original unless it's a Vanquish S.

[Jon39]

This topic took a temporary quarantine trip away to the moderators office, presumsbly for consideration.

Wonder who or what, led to that ?

Back now.

[Hoofy]

basherX said:

BR response up on YouTube and it’s a long one.

No skin in this game, I’m a V8 owner and I’m not a BR customer, albeit I might have been had they ever answered/returned calls.

What do people make of this?

He's not a lawyer. Is this a legal matter? What happens if an MOT station decides to fail your car? Or the police pull you to one side and decide to get strict? Is pulling the fuse legal? Sure, you could put it back but is that after the police fine you?

Maybe BR should do a collab with Blackbelt Barrister on this one?

PS I'm all for loud Astons!

[basherX]

Stick Legs said:

This entire saga makes me want to deal with neither firm TBH.

Quite sad really.

This about sums it up for me.

[Thundersports]

Jon39 said:

This topic took a temporary quarantine trip away to the moderators office, presumsbly for consideration.

Wonder who or what, led to that ?

Back now.

I saw a late night comment about Mcgurks which has since vanished.

[BiggaJ]

Stick Legs said:

This entire saga makes me want to deal with neither firm TBH.

Quite sad really.

We all have our own thoughts on those involved however, the above is where I am at on this.