MOT Test..

[JonnyFive]

After reading this;

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1375428/MO...

(Yes, The Mail. I apologise..)

And thinking about it, 8 out of 10 peoples reaction when I tell them (At Work) the MOT costs £54.85 either tut, shake their head or say its ridiculous.

Do you think the MOT is expensive? The annual £55 check on the vehicle to ensure its safe to be on the road (If people didn't have to have an MOT, we'd have some right deathtraps on the road!)

[C. Grimsley]

thats the maximum price, some places around here are doing them for £25.


Carl

[JonnyFive]

C. Grimsley said:

thats the maximum price, some places around here are doing them for £25.


Carl

Some also do them for free if you have it serviced with them.

[chard]

£35 seems to be the going rate. Good value IMO

[skodamanpat]

Given that you can find somewhere to do it half price without looking then no not expensive. Should be every 2 years after 4 though, it works for the french.

[interloper]

I see no need and no benefit to changing this, a three year old car can have bald tyres, blown light bulbs, knackered brakes and a high miler, shagged suspension from our horribly pot holed roads. IMO it helps to keep death traps off the roads, so should be left as it stands.

[bigandclever]

JonnyFive said:

And thinking about it, 8 out of 10 peoples reaction when I tell them (At Work) the MOT costs £54.85 either tut, shake their head or say its ridiculous.

Hardly surprising, because you can get it cheaper elsewhere.

[JonnyFive]

skodamanpat said:

Given that you can find somewhere to do it half price without looking then no not expensive. Should be every 2 years after 4 though, it works for the french.

Is that not quite a long time.. People can easily do 30-40,000 miles in that time frame, and if they didn't have it serviced pads would be in pieces by then.

[SS2.]

chard said:

£35 seems to be the going rate. Good value IMO

Yup, just had one of mine tested at that price.

Very good value considering the [fixed] time it takes to undertake a test these days.

[Mermaid]

No MOT till the car is 4 years old and then every 2 years with the MOT costing £100 would be good - something the Govt is thinking about.


AFAIK MOT's in Germany every 2 years but very thorough - all marginal cars would get scrapped I suppose.

[chard]

JonnyFive said:

skodamanpat said:

Given that you can find somewhere to do it half price without looking then no not expensive. Should be every 2 years after 4 though, it works for the french.

Is that not quite a long time.. People can easily do 30-40,000 miles in that time frame, and if they didn't have it serviced pads would be in pieces by then.

+ 1 two years is too long some people do not bother to maintain cars

[JonnyFive]

bigandclever said:

JonnyFive said:

And thinking about it, 8 out of 10 peoples reaction when I tell them (At Work) the MOT costs £54.85 either tut, shake their head or say its ridiculous.

Hardly surprising, because you can get it cheaper elsewhere.

Well when they ask before they have it done, and still have it done I'd say its probably up to them if they want to go elsewhere, eh?

[eltax91]

Mermaid said:

No MOT till the car is 4 years old and then every 2 years with the MOT costing £100 would be good - something the Govt is thinking about.


AFAIK MOT's in Germany every 2 years but very thorough - all marginal cars would get scrapped I suppose.

So, at the mileage I have averaged the last 3 years, I could buy a ew car tomorrow, do nothing to it, no MOT, service or maintenance and have covered 132k miles! Man the car could quite easily be a deathtrap by then.

[chard]

Mermaid said:

No MOT till the car is 4 years old and then every 2 years with the MOT costing £100 would be good - something the Govt is thinking about.


AFAIK MOT's in Germany every 2 years but very thorough - all marginal cars would get scrapped I suppose.

Why good?? I would rather have my car inspected each year.

[skodamanpat]

chard said:

+ 1 two years is too long some people do not bother to maintain cars

In which case it will be a death trap before 3 years/ 1 year. Bring in steeper penalties for running with bald tyres etc. An MoT is no guarantee of a cars safety in any case.

[andym1603]

Cannot remember ever paying full price for the annual test. I believe the test is an essential
evil, but as it is only valid for the duration the vehicle is at the testing station I voted
too expensive.
Yes the garage has to cover their costs but the test does not justify the always increasing price.
Andy..

[chard]

skodamanpat said:

In which case it will be a death trap before 3 years/ 1 year. Bring in steeper penalties for running with bald tyres etc. An MoT is no guarantee of a cars safety in any case.

Steeper penaliies won't help, some people are plain stupid/tight. I've seen plenty of cars with tyres down to the canvas. Sometimes on performance kit where you would have thought the owners would know better.

[Negative Creep]

chard said:

JonnyFive said:

skodamanpat said:

Given that you can find somewhere to do it half price without looking then no not expensive. Should be every 2 years after 4 though, it works for the french.

Is that not quite a long time.. People can easily do 30-40,000 miles in that time frame, and if they didn't have it serviced pads would be in pieces by then.

+ 1 two years is too long some people do not bother to maintain cars

+2 - just look at the amount of cars driving around with defective lights and imagine them doing that for another 12 months before being pulled up on it

[poing]

JonnyFive said:

Some also do them for free if you have it serviced with them.

Yup get mine for free if I use the dealer for servicing, given that my 48,000 mile service complete with MOT cost £125 then I was actually pretty happy so will continue to use them. Can't get the service done cheap enough elsewhere to offset the MOT cost.

In terms of cost for the MOT I think it's pretty fair given the amount of stuff and training etc a garage has to invest to become an MOT test station. Not sure how much they get for each MOT though.

[LBFB]

Personally, I would rather the mot was more frequent than less.

There are too many rustbucket motors out there that maybe passed their test 9 months ago with several advisories but are now being run to the death with shagged tyres, duff brakes and dodgy suspension.

I would also like to see the test taken away from garages who might just have a vested interest in the odd fail here and there for the extra work the repairs bring in.

I would prefer to see it all done by a government agency where the testers do nothing but mot work; you book your car in online or over the phone, just like you do for a driving test, and pay up-front. If you don't turn up, your money is gone and the tester gets an early lunch.

If your cars fails on minor things you can still take it away for repairs; if it fails majorly it has to be collected and the repairs done elsewhere (or just scrapped...).
This would encourage everyone to keep their vehicles in better nick and maybe take some of the ramshackle shonkers out of the picture; if you can't afford to run a car safely, should you run one at all?

Not everyone will agree of course...