How could I drive this car (MOT question)?

[2Btoo]

Guys,

Simple question.

I have an old car that has been stored for the last 4 years. It had an MOT immediately before being put into storage (i.e it expired 3 years ago). It is now out of storage and has had some work done on it (belts, brakes, oil, filter, engine mounts - all the usual stuff).

I know that the last MOT pass was slightly marginal on some rust in the sills and suspect that time hasn't helped the situation. Other than this I don't think there is any reason why the car wouldn't pass an MOT. I have driven it a short distance on private land and the brakes work, the steering works and it doesn't feel like there is anything amiss.

I have it booked into a place to do the welding as well as some other bits of bodywork. They are NOT an MOT station but work closely with one which is local to them.They are about 20 miles away.

What is my best option to get the car to the place to have the work done? I see the choices as being as follows;

1. Have it moved (or move it myself) using a flat bed truck. Cost: a couple of hundred £ which could otherwise go towards the work being done.
2. Book an MOT at the place, take it there, see what it fails on and take it to the bodywork place for work. However there are other MOT places closer so I couldn't claim with a straight face that this is the closest MOT option. This will also put a MOT fail on the car's history, which I'd rather didn't happen.
3. Book the MOT but not turn up for it, instead go to the bodywork place directly. Apologise to the MOT place and offer to pay for the test anyway so that they aren't out of pocket.
4. Find a local garage with trade plates which they would be happy to lend me.

Serious question: what is my best option?

Thanks.

[The Road Crew]

If its insured properly I'd just drive it.

[Skellum]

You already know- the correct thing to do is trailer your untested and uninsured car to the repair place. Thereafter you can book and drive to an MOT.
You can, of course do any off the others with virtually no chance of getting stopped.
Depends how much risk you happy to both accept and expose others to.

[t.boydy]

Trade plates do not cover no MOT……. Only road tax if used correctly. You can’t just borrow your mates trade plates.

Just have it transported, easiest and safest option

Tom

[Lincsls1]

Insure the car.
Book an MOT at your chosen station for a late PM slot, drive your car to the bodyshop early AM. Once there, cancel the PM MOT.
If stopped by plod, you are dropping your car off at the MOT station early and getting a taxi home. You're unlikely to get stopped IMO.

[LosingGrip]

https://www.gov.uk/getting-an-mot

‘The only exceptions are to drive it:

to or from somewhere to be repaired
to a pre-arranged MOT test’

You’ll be fine to drive it. Just make sure it’s a pre arranged appointment.

[2Btoo]

t.boydy said:

Trade plates do not cover no MOT……. Only road tax if used correctly. You can’t just borrow your mates trade plates.

Thanks - I didn't know that.

[SS2.]

LosingGrip said:

https://www.gov.uk/getting-an-mot

‘The only exceptions are to drive it:

to or from somewhere to be repaired
to a pre-arranged MOT test’

You’ll be fine to drive it. Just make sure it’s a pre arranged appointment.

The bit in bold would only apply in the case of a vehicle which had failed a test.

[SS2.]

2Btoo said:

2. Book an MOT at the place, take it there, see what it fails on and take it to the bodywork place for work. However there are other MOT places closer so I couldn't claim with a straight face that this is the closest MOT option. This will also put a MOT fail on the car's history, which I'd rather didn't happen.

There aren't any requirements for distance to test centre, therefore it doesn't have to be the closest one.

[Tommo87]

SS2. said:

2Btoo said:

2. Book an MOT at the place, take it there, see what it fails on and take it to the bodywork place for work. However there are other MOT places closer so I couldn't claim with a straight face that this is the closest MOT option. This will also put a MOT fail on the car's history, which I'd rather didn't happen.

There aren't any requirements for distance to test centre, therefore it doesn't have to be the closest one.

Agreed. It’s been discussed many times that the rules have no distance limits.

Book it in for a test, fail (or even pass) and drop into the second shop on the way home.

A fail is fine with vast majority of buyers, if there is a history of repair and retest.

Edited by Tommo87 on Thursday 21st April 13:20

[anonymous-user]

SS2. said:

LosingGrip said:

https://www.gov.uk/getting-an-mot

‘The only exceptions are to drive it:

to or from somewhere to be repaired
to a pre-arranged MOT test’

You’ll be fine to drive it. Just make sure it’s a pre arranged appointment.

The bit in bold would only apply in the case of a vehicle which had failed a test.

It doesn't say it has to have failed an MOT test for that exemption to be valid does it? As I read it you can drive an insured car "If the MOT has run out" with no currently valid MOT to and from a location for repairs.

It doesn't specify that the car must have failed an MOT first for that exemption to be valid, unless its buried somewhere else?

If it were me I would book it into the garage for repairs and then drive it there, providing I thought the vehicle was roadworthy and not unsafe.

[SS2.]

JimSuperSix said:

SS2. said:

LosingGrip said:

https://www.gov.uk/getting-an-mot

‘The only exceptions are to drive it:

to or from somewhere to be repaired
to a pre-arranged MOT test’

You’ll be fine to drive it. Just make sure it’s a pre arranged appointment.

The bit in bold would only apply in the case of a vehicle which had failed a test.

It doesn't say it has to have failed an MOT test for that exemption to be valid does it? As I read it you can drive an insured car "If the MOT has run out" with no currently valid MOT to and from a location for repairs.

It doesn't specify that the car must have failed an MOT first for that exemption to be valid, unless its buried somewhere else?

If it were me I would book it into the garage for repairs and then drive it there, providing I thought the vehicle was roadworthy and not unsafe.

Actually, it does - see below:

The Motor Vehicles Tests Regulations 1981 said:

Section 6 - Exemptions

(2) Pursuant to section 44(6) the Secretary of State hereby exempts from section 44(1) the use of a vehicle—

(i) for the purpose of submitting it by previous arrangement for, or bringing it away from, an examination, or

(ii) in the course of an examination, for the purpose of taking it to, or bringing it away from, any place where a part of the examination is to be or, as the case may be, has been, carried out, or of carrying out any part of the examination, the person so using it being either—

(A) an examiner, or a Ministry Inspector or an inspector appointed by a designated council, or

(B) a person acting under the personal direction of an examiner, a Ministry Inspector or a designated Council, or

(iii) where a test certificate is refused on an examination—

(A) for the purpose of delivering it by previous arrangement at, or bringing it away from, a place where work is to be or has been done on it to remedy for a further examination the defects on the ground of which the test certificate was refused; or

(B) for the purpose of delivering it, by towing it, to a place where the vehicle is to be broken up;

[Byker28i]

When the clutch went on my TVR I had it taken to the specialists on a recovery type truck, cost about £100
Thats probably about the fine with points you'd get if caught?

[GhostWKD]

SS2. said:

There aren't any requirements for distance to test centre, therefore it doesn't have to be the closest one.

This, I've driven ~20 miles to a prebooked test before, car needed an italian tuneup due to being off the road a while so I booked a test a few towns over instead of in my town. Couldn't see anything in the letter of the law that prevented this albeit you would maybe have a short argument about the spirit of the law if you got pulled over.

[Pica-Pica]

Whether you drive to a pre-booked MOT or not, if the car is unroadworthy, it’s unroadworthy. The only sure way is to flat-bed it there.

[anonymous-user]

SS2. said:

JimSuperSix said:

SS2. said:

LosingGrip said:

https://www.gov.uk/getting-an-mot

‘The only exceptions are to drive it:

to or from somewhere to be repaired
to a pre-arranged MOT test’

You’ll be fine to drive it. Just make sure it’s a pre arranged appointment.

The bit in bold would only apply in the case of a vehicle which had failed a test.

It doesn't say it has to have failed an MOT test for that exemption to be valid does it? As I read it you can drive an insured car "If the MOT has run out" with no currently valid MOT to and from a location for repairs.

It doesn't specify that the car must have failed an MOT first for that exemption to be valid, unless its buried somewhere else?

If it were me I would book it into the garage for repairs and then drive it there, providing I thought the vehicle was roadworthy and not unsafe.

Actually, it does - see below:

The Motor Vehicles Tests Regulations 1981 said:

Section 6 - Exemptions

(2) Pursuant to section 44(6) the Secretary of State hereby exempts from section 44(1) the use of a vehicle—

(i) for the purpose of submitting it by previous arrangement for, or bringing it away from, an examination, or

(ii) in the course of an examination, for the purpose of taking it to, or bringing it away from, any place where a part of the examination is to be or, as the case may be, has been, carried out, or of carrying out any part of the examination, the person so using it being either—

(A) an examiner, or a Ministry Inspector or an inspector appointed by a designated council, or

(B) a person acting under the personal direction of an examiner, a Ministry Inspector or a designated Council, or

(iii) where a test certificate is refused on an examination—

(A) for the purpose of delivering it by previous arrangement at, or bringing it away from, a place where work is to be or has been done on it to remedy for a further examination the defects on the ground of which the test certificate was refused; or

(B) for the purpose of delivering it, by towing it, to a place where the vehicle is to be broken up;

Fair enough, shame the gov page does not make that clear.

[Mave]

JimSuperSix said:

SS2. said:

JimSuperSix said:

SS2. said:

LosingGrip said:

https://www.gov.uk/getting-an-mot

‘The only exceptions are to drive it:

to or from somewhere to be repaired
to a pre-arranged MOT test’

You’ll be fine to drive it. Just make sure it’s a pre arranged appointment.

The bit in bold would only apply in the case of a vehicle which had failed a test.

It doesn't say it has to have failed an MOT test for that exemption to be valid does it? As I read it you can drive an insured car "If the MOT has run out" with no currently valid MOT to and from a location for repairs.

It doesn't specify that the car must have failed an MOT first for that exemption to be valid, unless its buried somewhere else?

If it were me I would book it into the garage for repairs and then drive it there, providing I thought the vehicle was roadworthy and not unsafe.

Actually, it does - see below:

The Motor Vehicles Tests Regulations 1981 said:

Section 6 - Exemptions

(2) Pursuant to section 44(6) the Secretary of State hereby exempts from section 44(1) the use of a vehicle—

(i) for the purpose of submitting it by previous arrangement for, or bringing it away from, an examination , or

(ii) in the course of an examination, for the purpose of taking it to, or bringing it away from, any place where a part of the examination is to be or, as the case may be, has been, carried out, or of carrying out any part of the examination, the person so using it being either—

(A) an examiner, or a Ministry Inspector or an inspector appointed by a designated council, or

(B) a person acting under the personal direction of an examiner, a Ministry Inspector or a designated Council, or

(iii) where a test certificate is refused on an examination—

(A) for the purpose of delivering it by previous arrangement at, or bringing it away from, a place where work is to be or has been done on it to remedy for a further examination the defects on the ground of which the test certificate was refused; or

(B) for the purpose of delivering it, by towing it, to a place where the vehicle is to be broken up;

Fair enough, shame the gov page does not make that clear.

Doesn't this adjacent part (in bold above) cover it?

[carl_w]

GhostWKD said:

This, I've driven ~20 miles to a prebooked test before,

I've driven over 150 miles for pre-booked servicing and MOT before.

[SS2.]

Mave said:

Doesn't this adjacent part (in bold above) cover it?

It covers a vehicle without an MOT being driven to or from a pre-arranged test.

It doesn't cover a vehicle without an MOT being driven to a garage for some pre-test repairs.

[surveyor]

JimSuperSix said:

SS2. said:

JimSuperSix said:

SS2. said:

LosingGrip said:

https://www.gov.uk/getting-an-mot

‘The only exceptions are to drive it:

to or from somewhere to be repaired
to a pre-arranged MOT test’

You’ll be fine to drive it. Just make sure it’s a pre arranged appointment.

The bit in bold would only apply in the case of a vehicle which had failed a test.

It doesn't say it has to have failed an MOT test for that exemption to be valid does it? As I read it you can drive an insured car "If the MOT has run out" with no currently valid MOT to and from a location for repairs.

It doesn't specify that the car must have failed an MOT first for that exemption to be valid, unless its buried somewhere else?

If it were me I would book it into the garage for repairs and then drive it there, providing I thought the vehicle was roadworthy and not unsafe.

Actually, it does - see below:

The Motor Vehicles Tests Regulations 1981 said:

Section 6 - Exemptions

(2) Pursuant to section 44(6) the Secretary of State hereby exempts from section 44(1) the use of a vehicle—

(i) for the purpose of submitting it by previous arrangement for, or bringing it away from, an examination, or

(ii) in the course of an examination, for the purpose of taking it to, or bringing it away from, any place where a part of the examination is to be or, as the case may be, has been, carried out, or of carrying out any part of the examination, the person so using it being either—

(A) an examiner, or a Ministry Inspector or an inspector appointed by a designated council, or

(B) a person acting under the personal direction of an examiner, a Ministry Inspector or a designated Council, or

(iii) where a test certificate is refused on an examination—

(A) for the purpose of delivering it by previous arrangement at, or bringing it away from, a place where work is to be or has been done on it to remedy for a further examination the defects on the ground of which the test certificate was refused; or

(B) for the purpose of delivering it, by towing it, to a place where the vehicle is to be broken up;

Fair enough, shame the gov page does not make that clear.

Gov.uk often misses highly pertinent details. It is a dangerous resource.