4 years before first MOT. Good/Bad idea?

Not for it. People are increasingly unable (or unwilling) to carry out the most basic of checks, so extending the exemption strikes me as a bad idea. Should be going the other way, if anything, but as it stands it doesn't seem to cause many problems.

Kaeo said:
Of course, all motor vehicles do in the UK.
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Negative. The following are exempt, among others:

  • Vehicles manufactured or registered before 1st January 1960
  • Motor tractors
  • Track-laying vehicles
  • Articulated vehicle that is not a lorry or bus (including bendy buses)
  • Works trucks

The top one's a similarly bad idea, but hey ho. The government's just giving classic car enthusiasts enough rope to hang themselves with...
 
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Kuros said:
If they put this in, you'll get a lot more "My garage says I need to get new tyres/brakes even though they've got plenty of life left", with the garage knowing if they don't bring it to peoples attention, they'll never get it sorted until it's bordering on lethal.
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Translates to some pads that have 5000 miles left. A garage must assume the vehicle won't be seen for another 10,000 miles and so will recommend a pad change. Mr ian who does 2500 miles a year has 2 years to go so plenty of life left. Why change 2 years early?
 
pepsilol said:
Translates to a typical garage offer of an MOT and Service bundle. What is your problem with this exactly?
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That's a hell of a leap, I know of people who had no idea you were supposed to service a car at all unless you wanted to sell it.

Never underestimate the stupidity of the general public and their want to spend as little as possible when it comes to the thing that just gets them from A to B.
£30 on an MOT or £100 on an MOT & service, many will just see the £30.
 
tom_e said:
That's a hell of a leap, I know of people who had no idea you were supposed to service a car at all unless you wanted to sell it.

Never underestimate the stupidity of the general public and their want to spend as little as possible when it comes to the thing that just gets them from A to B.
£30 on an MOT or £100 on an MOT & service, many will just see the £30.
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Surely it's an equal amount of leap as bledd who assumed it wasn't serviced during an MOT?
 
Our car has a 4 year service deal and warranty, which includes a check of all the items in the MOT, every year - this came with the car as part of the deal and gives quite a comprehensive readout each year. If I didnt take it in I would invalidate the warranty.

The 3 year MOT is just money to be told the same thing, waste of time imho.
 
A number of friends annoy the hell out of me because the only time they check anything on their cars is when they take it in for an annual service... and assume the "nice man" at the garage will check everything for them. They think they shouldn't have to POWER check anything because the car is less than 3 years old and the red dash lights will warn them if the oil is getting a little low, or something...

Making it 4 years will just mean mechanics get more customers like these!
 
Orionaut said:
I can raise you on that.

I once attended a breakdown that had arisen because the Owner had poured K-Seal into his oil!
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Yeah... That's shockingly worse. At least you can drain and flush water (I guess), K-Seal will surely screw everything in the engine /o\
 
I think its a bad idea personally. Lots of people are too stupid to realise their tyres are illegal/dangerous until MOT time, and you can easily scrub out a pair of tyres in 3 years.
 
I feel like some people need to take their car in for an MOT every year regardless of age.

Brakes / tyres don't often last for 3 years & people often wait until they're told (rather than checking themselves) to change those items.
 
Brakes usually last 3 years unless you drive like you are on a race track all the time. Tyres though, for sure!
 
Skillmister said:
You know it's a stupid idea when you hear people (usually women) at work who don't believe cars require any type of maintenance until an MOT
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This. My mum only fixes what the MOT tells her needs doing..... She doesn't even check her tyres are pumped up until someone points it out. Times that by a few million and there's the truth.
 
Acme said:
Brakes usually last 3 years unless you drive like you are on a race track all the time. Tyres though, for sure!
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I replaced the front brakes on my car (although tbf I rarely brake, let alone hard) after 96k on an MOT advisory. They were 16yrs old and the original brakes though lol.
 
helpimcrap said:
I replaced the front brakes on my car (although tbf I rarely brake, let alone hard) after 96k on an MOT advisory. They were 16yrs old and the original brakes though lol.
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There is no way the original pads lasted that long, how would you know anyway if you only bought the car when it was 15 years old?
 
I don't think it is a particularly good idea as I suspect that some cars which fail at 3 years would not have the fault rectified for another year.
 
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[TW]Fox;30431777 said:
There is no way the original pads lasted that long, how would you know anyway if you only bought the car when it was 15 years old?
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Mine weren't the original, but I replaced them 50K ago with OEM and the pads still have a good chunk of life left in them and the disks will probably see another 30K and that's me driving like a bit of a ***** every now and again. It all depends on how the car is driven I suppose, 2/3 of my mileage is up and down dual carriageways/motorways so I barely use the brakes.
 
personally think its a bad idea, i understand cars are better built but its the basic things like bulbs/tyres and brakes people dont check
 
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