MOT fail thread

Werewolf · 13 May 2025 at 01:41

Scania said:
Thanks for this.

I've just looked it up and had endless - horrifying - entertainment!

"The Customer complains the car feels funning when turning"
*shows video of the suspension completely broken and held together with some bungee cords, wheel hanging on by one nut and part of the steering arm poking through the side of the cabin"
"the Customer refused repair and drove off"

The American attitude to car safety boggles the mind completely, it's like it's still the 1910's and they're still driving around at about 20mph maximum.

theone8181 · 13 May 2025 at 07:29

Werewolf said:
"The Customer complains the car feels funning when turning"
*shows video of the suspension completely broken and held together with some bungee cords, wheel hanging on by one nut and part of the steering arm poking through the side of the cabin"
"the Customer refused repair and drove off"

The American attitude to car safety boggles the mind completely, it's like it's still the 1910's and they're still driving around at about 20mph maximum.

I don't understand why some sort of MOT isn't applied. Even if they skipped emissions, it could still include safety stuff. I realise this would cause 90% of the cars in Florida to fail though

.

tom_e · 13 May 2025 at 07:40

theone8181 said:
I don't understand why some sort of MOT isn't applied. Even if they skipped emissions, it could still include safety stuff. I realise this would cause 90% of the cars in Florida to fail though .

Land of the free...and home of the brave enough to drive those death traps

Rroff · 14 May 2025 at 00:35

Think I've posted about it before but I still remember distinctly when in the US when someone drove past with the driver's door so rotted out you could see their feet operating the pedals though the big holes in it.

Werewolf · 14 May 2025 at 01:38

Rroff said:
Think I've posted about it before but I still remember distinctly when in the US when someone drove past with the driver's door so rotted out you could see their feet operating the pedals though the big holes in it.

Sounds like some of the stories my dad has from before the MOT/early MOT days, he was car sharing with a friend who worked at the same place*, and his friend had a bit of wood covering a hole in the floor on the passenger side.
There were apparently plenty of jokes about fred flintstone.

IIRC for the first few years MOT's were after ten years, which was plenty of time for cars of the era to have rotted out a lot.

*He describes it as one week taking one car whilst fixing the other, then swapping who drove and whose car was getting fixed, I've mentioned before he does not remember the maintenance requirements for cars in the 60's through 80's as fondly as some whose only experience of them are the surviving examples that had all the early "deal with the poor quality and lack of rust protection" taken care of decades earlier

GravyMonster · 14 May 2025 at 10:21

theone8181 said:
I don't understand why some sort of MOT isn't applied. Even if they skipped emissions, it could still include safety stuff. I realise this would cause 90% of the cars in Florida to fail though .

IIRC it is in the more progressive states, but even then it's nowhere near as comprehensive as an MOT/TUV inspection.

Diddums · 14 May 2025 at 19:24

Some of the stuff you see in South Africa puts all of those to shame. The ones that immediately come to mind are the taxis that replace their steering wheels with vice grips, so they can move the seat a bit further forward and squeeze another passenger in. Another one was a bus that crashed on Van Reenen's Pass, killing a few on board and leaving others disfigured. The accident investigation revealed that the front brake pads were made of MDF.

The worst by far however was a taxi driver who was involved in a taxi war. He turned up to the taxi rank the next day with a van riddled with bulletholes, and half the blood of one his passengers was still on one of the seats.

Gammawolf · 14 May 2025 at 20:49

I saw a Lamborghini Huracan on/doing the school run late last year and it was driving with no MOT, seems the chap finally got it sorted after using it expired for 109 days. Wonder if someone reported it or he got caught by plod

An MOT fail but probably not in the spirit the thread envisions

Rilot · 15 May 2025 at 20:09

Gammawolf said:
I saw a Lamborghini Huracan on/doing the school run late last year and it was driving with no MOT, seems the chap finally got it sorted after using it expired for 109 days. Wonder if someone reported it or he got caught by plod An MOT fail but probably not in the spirit the thread envisions

To be fair, he / she probably didn't realise. It's not like you get a letter from the DVLA.
I remember when my Lexus went over 3 years old and I completely forgot I needed to MoT it for about 6 months.

theone8181 · 16 May 2025 at 07:04

Rilot said:
To be fair, he / she probably didn't realise. It's not like you get a letter from the DVLA.
I remember when my Lexus went over 3 years old and I completely forgot I needed to MoT it for about 6 months.

I did forget for a few months on one of my cars. I think at the time you didn't get reminders, which is strange as you got one for VED.

Akagi · 16 May 2025 at 13:05

theone8181 said:
I did forget for a few months on one of my cars. I think at the time you didn't get reminders, which is strange as you got one for VED.

They want you to pay VED because they get money.
They want you to forget to get an MOT so they can fine you and get money.
Money money money.

theone8181 · 19 May 2025 at 07:33

Akagi said:
They want you to pay VED because they get money.
They want you to forget to get an MOT so they can fine you and get money.
Money money money.

Is there no fine for not having ved?

JonRGV250 · 19 May 2025 at 08:31

The government do make money from MOT’s, but only £205 per 100 MOT slots (which we have pay or we can’t test).
Also you can sign up on GOV.UK for text/email MOT reminders, so no real excuse for forgetting.
And that’s coming from someone who was riding a bike around with the MOT over a year out of date

Nasher · 19 May 2025 at 08:44

Akagi said:
They want you to pay VED because they get money.
They want you to forget to get an MOT so they can fine you and get money.
Money money money.

Don't forget the tax slapped on top of mandatory insurance.

I feel like you'd be taxed/billed for using public footpaths in this country if the government could find a way to have some jobsworths monitor them.

b0rn2sk8 · 19 May 2025 at 08:49

JonRGV250 said:
The government do make money from MOT’s, but only £205 per 100 MOT slots (which we have pay or we can’t test).
Also you can sign up on GOV.UK for text/email MOT reminders, so no real excuse for forgetting.
And that’s coming from someone who was riding a bike around with the MOT over a year out of date

That charge probably only just covers the cost of running the MOT system itself, the enforcement regime etc. etc.

I can’t think it actually raises revenue, it’s only about £85m/year (assuming ~42m MOTs done per year).

Conscript · 19 May 2025 at 09:19

Diddums said:
Some of the stuff you see in South Africa puts all of those to shame. The ones that immediately come to mind are the taxis that replace their steering wheels with vice grips, so they can move the seat a bit further forward and squeeze another passenger in. Another one was a bus that crashed on Van Reenen's Pass, killing a few on board and leaving others disfigured. The accident investigation revealed that the front brake pads were made of MDF.

The worst by far however was a taxi driver who was involved in a taxi war. He turned up to the taxi rank the next day with a van riddled with bulletholes, and half the blood of one his passengers was still on one of the seats.

We have family in Hoedspruit, and tend to visit at least once a year. We were over there in February and the state of some vehicles is pretty eye opening. We got stuck behind one of the huge ore trucks coming through the Abel Erasmus pass and I swear the rear axles were displaced a least a foot left of the front one.

Dis86 · 19 May 2025 at 10:26

Diddums said:
Some of the stuff you see in South Africa puts all of those to shame. The ones that immediately come to mind are the taxis that replace their steering wheels with vice grips, so they can move the seat a bit further forward and squeeze another passenger in. Another one was a bus that crashed on Van Reenen's Pass, killing a few on board and leaving others disfigured. The accident investigation revealed that the front brake pads were made of MDF.

The worst by far however was a taxi driver who was involved in a taxi war. He turned up to the taxi rank the next day with a van riddled with bulletholes, and half the blood of one his passengers was still on one of the seats.

Sounds like a great place. Can't imagine why people would possibly want to leave!

Diddums · 19 May 2025 at 10:40

Dis86 said:
Sounds like a great place. Can't imagine why people would possibly want to leave!

Weather innit. It's why all us saffers are in england, can't beat a british weather.

Dis86 · 19 May 2025 at 10:42

Diddums said:
Weather innit. It's why all us saffers are in england, can't beat a british weather.

To be fair...the last 3 months have been stunning here. Still not sure I'd take getting gunned down in the back of a taxi for 12 months of it!

Diddums · 19 May 2025 at 10:45

Dis86 said:
To be fair...the last 3 months have been stunning here. Still not sure I'd take getting gunned down in the back of a taxi for 12 months of it!

mate I've been absolutely loving our weather here. It's been nothing short of fantastic, although the press seems to think we should be building an ark for this weekend.

As for saffrica, as long as you stay in certain areas you're fine, the people that want to murder you to death are very afraid of the ones who like to protect the country's tourism revenue stream.