New Cars MOT extended to 4 years?

Freakbro

Freakbro

Freakbro

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I just came across this from last Julys budget that seemed to pass me by (I've searched and can't see any thread on it)

The Government have proposed to extend the MOT requirement of new cars from 3 to 4 years and are currently undergoing a consultation about it.

The reasoning seems to be it will save motorist £100 million a year - but conversely that would be £100 million less income for the motor trade.

So there seems to be a bit of a backlash from motoring organisations, who are campaining against it on safety grounds as it seems 1 in 5 cars fail their first 3 year MOT.

So, what do we think, is this a good idea or one where safety fears outweigh consumer cost savings.
 
I'd be against it as people don't check important things enough as it is!

Someone somewhere will have the same tyres for 48,000 miles until they are told to change them.
 
With the figure of the 1 in 5 cars failing their first MOT? How many of these failures would have been picked up by a service with things like tyre tread or windscreen wipers?
 
I had to do some analysis for VW on this late last year and they were mainly concerned with financial loss and customer safety.

The results I saw confirmed the safety concerns with a lot of tyre changes, brake fluid and brake jobs being carried out on the 1st MOT
 
God forbid us Consumers save money!
Oh my god the poor companies loosing some pennies!

:rolleyes:

Freakbro said:
That's a good point by Kylevdm though, wouldn't those things get picked up on a service?
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Yes they should, But many garages don't actually check things at a service, they just replace oil, filters and check fluids.
Last Service i had they didn't even take off the wheels... and that was a supposedly major check service.
 
Freakbro said:
That's a good point by Kylevdm though, wouldn't those things get picked up on a service?
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Do you think those same people actually remember it needs servicing? My sister thought you only had to service a car when you sold it.

If you can't afford the few quid for an MOT then how do you afford to run a vehicle.
 
tom_e said:
Do you think those same people actually remember it needs servicing? My sister thought you only had to service a car when you sold it.

If you can't afford the few quid for an MOT then how do you afford to run a vehicle.
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Without trying to cause offence. People are idiots. You get told loads by the dealership when you pick up your new car when services are etc, lots of dealerships include the service in the price for the first 3 years if you haggle a bit.
 
Kylevdm said:
Without trying to cause offence. People are idiots. You get told loads by the dealership when you pick up your new car when services are etc, lots of dealerships include the service in the price for the first 3 years if you haggle a bit.
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Don't worry I made her well aware, that's my point people are idiots and services aren't a legal necessity so if they can't even figure out when they need a new pair of tyres or their brakes are FUBAR then they probably don't remember to get it serviced either.
 
Kylevdm said:
With the figure of the 1 in 5 cars failing their first MOT? How many of these failures would have been picked up by a service with things like tyre tread or windscreen wipers?
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Mine did fail and its not something off a service. It had a problem with brake application on one side at the front. It's something that you'd expect the driver to be able to feel, but hey ho, some people are less equal.

Servicing on the otherhand, if the average idiot can't tell the brakes are no good, tyres, fluids.. remembering to book a service, no chance.
 
Rather than implementing this, they should concentrate their efforts on teaching drivers to keep left, and uncapping HGV speeds. If HGVs were allowed to do 70 mph, they'd be less morons in the middle lane.

I'm convinced 80% of road congestion issues in this country are due to people not keeping left.
 
Extend it to 5 years and increase the fine to driving like a muppet with bald tyres to £1000.

Job done.

The sort of things 3 year old cars fail on are ridiculous - it is almost all tyres and bulbs, things which frankly anyone presenting a car for an MOT should already have checked, but they can't be bothered.

It's not until a car gets to 6+ years old that MOT's begin to start to be failed on genuine mechanical and safety defects a prudent owner couldn't reasonably have spotted in 15 seconds of basic checking as every vehicle owner ought to.
 
This is old data but its all I could find with a quick google:

The report concludes: ‘One in five cars registered in 2008 failed their first MOT, with testers most likely to fail cars from French firms Renault, Citroen and Peugeot.’
The most common reasons were lighting and signalling (164,837 failures), followed closely by tyres (96,760 failures), headlight aim (82,555 failures) and issues with the driver’s view of the road (80,605 failures).
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Fancy that - defective bulbs (obvious with a 30 second check and you shouldn't be waiting until an MOT failure for this), tyres and view of the road (damaged windscreens and stupid parking passes in the wrong place).

So the cars themselves are perfectly serviceable, they are just driven by inattentive liabilities who need an MOT fail to tell them broken headlights and bald tyres are something they must fix :rolleyes:
 
People don't care because they get away with it. Apparently it's illegal to use a mobile phone whilst driving too, but I've never seen any evidence of that.

They should get the PCSOs to walk around supermarket/shopping centre car parks to check tyre depths and hand out on the spot fines.
 
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I wonder what proportion of single vehicle accidents are caused by defective or simply poor tyres? I bet there are loads, there are enough dashcam videos on Youtube of cars in this country randomly spinning out on Motorways for no apparent reason.
 
[TW]Fox;29258674 said:
Extend it to 5 years and increase the fine to driving like a muppet with bald tyres to £1000.

Job done.
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That can't be enforced, and it's pointless slapping a fine on a dead person for killing others by having crappy tyres.

Unless of course you're saying that the fine would be imposed by those servicing, which i don't see how that could happen.
 
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How likely is it that these people are going to get caught with their bald tyres though, in between yearly MOTs?
 
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