When it comes to our car’s annual MOT, most of us just use our local garage, or the one that we use for car repairs during the year. However, a new report from The MoT Files has shown that geography, rather than the condition of your vehicle, can be a big factor in whether your car passes or not.
(Credit – Lizzie)
The MOT postcode lottery
The MOT Files reveal that those who live in remote areas of the UK face a tougher time getting their cars through their MOT than their inland peers. The worst pass rates all tend to be in coastal areas, suggesting that harsher conditions there may somehow affect the ability of a car to pass its MOT. The two lowest pass rate postcodes are in Kirkcaldy and Dundee in Scotland – both coastal towns. There’s a similar picture in Plymouth, Exeter and Truro, all in the far south-west of England.
London and the south-east dominate the top of the table. If you live in an RM postcode (Romford) you have around a 73% chance of passing your MOT on the first attempt. The most common problems highlighted on an MOT can include headlights, indicators and blown bulbs. It also includes common defects such as a number plate light not working or a brake light malfunctioning.
Regional variations
In KY postcodes (Kirkcaldy), one in two cars fails its MOT. You’re 12% less likely to pass your MOT first time there than in the rest of the country. Around 25% of cars fail on suspension problems. You’re also twice as likely to fail for a brake issue in this postal area in comparison to the rest of the UK. Dacia vehicles have the lowest failure rate (although only 160 were tested in the area, versus 26,000 Vauxhalls) and even that was 18% higher than in other parts of the country.
Birmingham is the place where the most MOTs are carried out. In 2016, there were over 813,000 MOTs in the city. The next highest number was in Sheffield, which came in at just under 600,000. Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands was at the bottom in terms of the number of tests, with just 23,497 MOTS carried out over the year.
Interestingly, some areas show more positive rates for certain types of vehicles. For example, in Milton Keynes, Aston Martins had the highest pass rate of any type of vehicle. There was also an unusually high number of tests carried out on these vehicles – perhaps due to the manufacturer’s servicing and restoration centre being based in Newport Pagnell, within the MK postcode.
Tips to get through the MOT
The report shows that, before you book your MOT, it might be worth considering a trip over county lines in order to maximise your chances of passing. You can also improve your chance of passing by undertaking a few checks before you go to the garage.
Lights are one of the top reasons that cars fail their MOTs. They’re also one of the easiest things to check. Grab a friend or family member when it’s dark and go through all the lights on the car to ensure they work. Another common reason for failure is the windscreen – make sure your wipers work well and you that have plenty of fluid in the windscreen wash reservoir!
Have you played the postcode lottery in order to maximise your car’s chance of passing its MOT? Will you be doing so after reading this report? Leave a comment below to let us know!
Many discount MOT centres, including large chains of garages and service centres, increase their income by manufacturing faults. The most common that I have found are: One headlight out of alignment, corroded brake pipe unions, brake discs under manufacturers minimum thickness, and minor tyre defects blown out of proportion to sell tyres.
The system is a farce, one of my sons cars was failed because he had a three inch high teddy bear mascot on the dashboard, I know it is legally correct, but idiotic, as my son and I were waiting in the test centre and we would have moved it on request.
The DVSA should ask themselves why there are lots of headlight alignment and corroded brake pipe union issues, as most are made up to make extra money. This is more common in more populated areas because MOT stations discount, because of competition, to get cars in to find faults they can make more money on.
My car supplied new by and regularly serviced at the franchised “stealer” failed its first MOT there because of headlamp alignment immediately after the 3rd year service. Charged £15 to turn a screw, I am sure just a way to add value to them, for the work.
They don’t get that opportunity any more, I use an independent who allows you to get under the car with them to inspect the underside of the car and watch them carry out the test.
Useful so that they can’t call you and add value for additional unnecessary work and great when you have classic cars MOTed.
my mot garage that I’ve been using for over 10 years on a verity of cars does do repairs but they know I either use a branded(bmw) garage or do the repairs myself
Graham, I agree the garage was acting rather severely in failing your son’s car due to the teddy bear mascot on the dashboard ( if in fact that was really the only reason for failure). However, I respectfully suggest you speak to your son to try to encourage him to become less childish and to deploy more of his attention to driving responsibly rather than allowing the possibility of distraction by silly mascots. One of the earlier respondents to this discussion made a similar remark to yours and that was about supposed failure due to something hanging from the rear view mirror; perhaps that was also one of the mascots such as one often sees, mainly, I reckon, displayed by stupid drivers.
I *hope* it’s more a reflection of the cars used in each area and they way they are used rather than the objectiveness of the tester! Are roads hillier in Kircaldy – making brake wear more likely? Do the stats include the age of the cars? Dacias are likely to be younger than elderly Vauxhalls as they haven’t been around so long and dealerships may not have spread to all areas.
Your Aston Martin stats demonstrate this, and skew figures where a used car dealer is MOT’ing cars after they’ve been checked and repaired.
Quite so! and I expect people in the South East, with better public transport and drier weather (not to mention higher incomes!) will generally have cars in better condition!
I think that the canny Scots don’t waste money on services just see what fails and then fix that. I operate coaches and if we don’t pass first time DVSA (which was VOSA) investigate us for not maintaining our vehicle properly. If its well maintained it should pass first time. But most will use the “see what fails and then fix that” system.
Most garages benefit financially from failing cars, especially when the reason for failure is deliberate damage such as lacerating a gator sleeve which requires a high labour input to rectify. Surprisingly, on one such occasion where proof of damage was accepted by both the garage and the MOT Inspector, no action was taken by the latter. However, the threat of legal action in the Small Claims Court resulted in payment of the contrived work by the garage owner. The evidence was based on the clean edge of the sliced gator sleeve when it was recovered. Several years later a similar attempt was perpetrated on my wife’s car by another local garage. Coincidence? I doubt it! Sadly, women are more exploited by garages than men. J
You’re not the first case i’ve heard about cut gators! Our old car failed the MOT on a ‘split gator’ I changed it myself, the split was not a split but a nice neat fine cut/slit most likely caused by a stanley knife blade, I gave the garage a piece of my mind and told them I’ll make sure people don’t come to have their mot’s in this place.
I do a quick check and sometimes deliberately ignore a fault in order to give the garage something to winge about. Having found the obvious one they often miss other niggles that I found and can fix at my leisure. Try gluing gaters to re-seal them then watch the garage moan “you can’t do that”! Oh yes you can!
Cars in coastal areas are likely to fail more due to corrosion, particularly rust on brake pipes.
Some years ago a friend got a brand new Corsa! He lived on the East Coast too and within a year his car was suffering with serious rust on all unprotected parts [nuts/washers/brake pipes/discs/suspension/steel wheels] Two years on rust was appearing on the lower edge of the sills and wheel arch lips. Three years on the car had rot on all wheel arches…He regretted buying a new car.
More like buying a Vauxhall. I had a work van from new, combo, and within the year rust had appeared on doors and sills.
Totally agree, but rubbers tend to suffer as well, so bushes are more likely to need replacement in coastal areas
Surely the important thing is not to get passed, but for problems to be identified?
What a surprise – Dacias fail less frequently than Vauxhalls. Is that because Dacias have only (realistically) been on the market for a few years, so there are far fewer old ones around? And have increased failure rates been adjusted to take account of less affluent areas, where they have older cars with perhaps poorer/less maintenance?
Kirkaldy? Well, that might have something to do with the severe economic situation in that part of RKF ….. the High Street is reminiscent of downtown Kirkuk, even the McDonald’s has been shut down – and I don’t think it’s cos the locals have all become vegetarians
I take my car to the local Council Testing Centre, They are fair, tell me what I should look-out for and unlike some garage testing centres, are not failing on silly things just to give them some extra income!!! It may cost more in the short term but they are on the drivers side not their own.
I agree. I go to my local council usually. Last year I left it too late so had to go to a local garage. He marked 8 advisories (such as corroding suspension spring, corroding brake pipes, loose McPherson strut along with many other things) and failed it on an engine mount. I replaced the mount myself to get it through but didn’t do any work on the other bits. Took it this year to the council again and got the stricter examiner there. Flew through and didn’t even get 1 advisory. Shows how locals are purposely trying to fail to get money out of you.
Well I’m buying me an Aston Martin and moving to Milton Keynes!
This year the brake discs on our 10 plate ford fiesta was described has having serious corrosion & failed them, garage wanted to put on new discs & pads, charge was to be £370! I said my Son will change them, the look on the garage management was utter shock and they tried to tell me my Son isn’t allowed to change brakes! Told them my Son is a fully trained mechanic and IS doing the job, new Ferodo discs & pads cost me just £85, of course fitted for free by my Son.
Discs only had surface rust and NOT rot, pads had more than half of the material on them [29,000 miles on car]
I took the original discs & pads to another MOT station and asked them what they thought of the components, he said the disks show only slight wear at the outer edge with no scoring to disks, inner surface rust was acceptable with no rot, pads in good condition with no score marks…. No reason for failure.
I could have challenged this failure but decided not to as it neatened up the appearance behind the alloy wheels.
Oh the place where I took the car for the MOT…..Ford Dealership.
Warsop Ford Dealership in Nottinghamshire.
sounds like my local tyre people when I needed two tyres on the front of my Jeep. they put the wrong size on and very nearly fu@@@d up the four wheel permanent drive .on it. also said brakes needed doing and would ONLY charge £250 to change all of them as there was various difficulties with the Jeep system.. I went on ebay bought the complete set , including discs, for £65 changed the front nearside first took me 20 mins (no difficult parts found) then spent ten minutes on each other corner. Still no difficult parts found. Amazing what Bul@@@t these “Mechanics” try and get away with.Oh by the way the tyre people have now moved and joined up with another company.
Sounds the same as the Ipswich based Kia dealership, Marshalls, who said exactly the same during a servicing. They also wouldn’t do a road test because it was considered too dangerous with the discs and pads in that condition. I took advice from a local tyre and brake specialist before committing to having them done and was told there was nothing wrong with the discs but whilst the inner pads showed signs of wear they should be ok for several more miles. Even when I had the car serviced and MoT tested by a local independent 39,000 miles later it passed with flying colours with the same discs and pads
I hope the article is not hinting that if a vehicle could be an iffy pass, then you should consider another area for an MOT.
I must be lucky with my MOT garage (I just use the local one, family business). I never bother with lights or washer water levels before taking it in, he just replaces things as he goes I guess. I’ve had lights replaced, and wipers, but the car wasn’t failed, I was just billed for those parts on top of the MOT.
That’s how it should be. I have heard of mot failures because of something hanging from the rear view mirror!! Why not just remove the offending article.
I had a situation where one of my brake lights blew on the way to the MOT. Garage offered to replace it for me so I was really pleased – until he charged me £5.00 for a £0.59p bulb and two minutes of his time. Never went back there again!!! Funny thing was, there was a motor factors place right next door, I could have just nipped in and bought one.
it is because some people can take offense if personal items are removed without prior permission, also if it so simple to remove the items why does the presenter not simply remove them before the test
Used a tyre place for servicing and repairs until I bought discs and pads from Halfords and they were “notinterestd pal”. That’s after spending 100s with them.
Went to a small independant for for the job, so gave it to them for the MOT, 1.25 for a bulb and the old girl passed.
The tyre place charge 25 for MOT and always find faults costing a bit. The wee grage charge 50 for the MOT but don’t try to milkyou for money.
Best laugh I’ve had. My elderly mother took her car into a branch of a well known chain of fast fit centres because she needed two new front tyres. They told her the car needed shock absorbers all round and she phoned me in a panic. I told her to let them do it but tell them she wanted the old ones as proof. I told her I would be there shortly.
You should have seen the managers face when he told us the price and I pulled out the receipt for all 4 shocks from another branch and said “lucky there’s still two months to go on the warranty!”
Excellent, taught them a lesson.
Well done! I had a similar one once. Apparently my wife’s car needed 3 tyres to pass (they were well within the legal limit but by some strange coincidence, the garage had a special offer on tyres in that particular size that day)! I told the guy on the counter that I’d take it and get some part-worns put on. I brought it back after lunch (with no tyre soap round the edges or ANY sign that any of the tyres had even been touched!) and he just wrote the ticket there and then.
KWICK FIT
Many years ago I bought an old Austin Metro car. I took it to Kwikfit for MOT and they said: drums corroded , calipers damaged, brakes defective, Discs corroded etc.£380 to MOT it. Went to scrapyard, got discs/brakes for £10.That had just been put on an Austin Metro car but that car failed MOT due to rust problems on the chassis. Went to another garage and the car passed the MOT. The car only cost me £150 in the first place.
Love it. HA! HA! Kwik Fit is one place I WON’T be using. If possible, I buy the tyres on the net & find a fitter for them. My car is now 6 years old after having bought it from Motability after 5 years
I have an 11 year old fiesta most of my MOT’s and service has been done by kwik-fit have never failed and have never needed any other parts, I only used them as I get a defence discount which sadly they don’t do any more, not all kwik-fit branches are the same but even main dealers can be bad, so I have been lucky.
I have bought several tyres over the years through tyre shopper online you pay up front and then go to national tyre service to get them fitted half the price of going to the shop and paying. Stopped using Kwik fit when I wanted 1 new tyre and they told me I needed 4!
A few years ago I had new suspension parts fitted by the quick fitters before my car went for its MOT.
It then failed the test at a reliable, trustworthy garage that I had been using for years because a nut had been left off, that would cause the suspension to collapse. When I went back to complain the manager agreed to fix it and would MOT it for free. I didn’t agree and got them to pay for the test at my regular garage. Haven’t been near one of their garages since.
4 year old Corsa, told brakes, drums etc need replacing from well known centre. Was told at the time lifetime guarantee. Should have read the small print. One year later told brakes needed redoing ( work in London stop/start ) so was not surprised. BUT said the drums had corroded so needed replacing. Agreed. Seems lifetime only covers the pads not the outside bits. Never took my car back there again for service mot etc. As if the drums only last a year must be using sub standard goods.
was it KWICK FIT
heard this before from certain replacement garage happens all the time
NOT SURPRIZED!!! They are a bunch of idiots in that firm….
Willum, I agree when it comes to MOT’s but they seem OK when you want good price tyres….
I took a car to one of these outlets for new tyre before taking it to a previously booked place for the MOT later that day. I was told the handbrake wasn’t working and needed the cable replaced. I took the car away not giving them the work and presented it to the garage doing the MOT and asked them to check the handbrake. Turns out the cable had been removed from one of the guides making it very slack with no breakage or other damage. They just put it back on the guide and it passed the MOT no problems. Will never use the tyre place again
Sue,
It’s a common mistake that people think their rights are what’s written in the warranty. NOT SO, the Sale of Goods Act (or whatever replaced it) says that things should last as long as a normal person would expect them to. So, when they tell you “the warranty says …”, you laugh and say the magic words “Sale of Goods Act”, and they’ll know it’s ‘game over’. Suggest you speak to Citizens Advice.
– Rick
Took my car to the local council vehicle maintenance garage which is a registered MOT centre also. They do not undertake repairs and so have no advantage in failing your vehicle’s MOT unlike a lot of garages who fail it and then say they can do the repair and retest. Unless you know the ordinary garage owner very well beware ! Two yrs ago when the car was only 12 months old, the dealer said I might want to consider changing the brake discs as they ‘had some pitting’ I ignored them and the car passed the MOT two yrs later. Dealers are rip off merchants.
I once took an old Morris Minor to the local garage for MOT and it failed. When the tester told me what had caused the fail, (it was a front trunnion) and explained what could happen on the road, he then asked if I was going to fix it myself. He said he was going to the place where he could collect the parts for me, which I said thanks for the help. When the parts arrived I gently took the car around home and sorted the problem. I took the car back to him for a check over and it passed with flying colours.
I used a local garage in Stockport to do my MOTs for about 10 years, owner was brilliant, but like me in his mid 50s he was planning on retirement and when I took it the following year he had sold the business to a guy of middle eastern appearance. When I went to collect it he gave me a monstrous list of fail points repairs running in to thousands of pounds, new petrol tank ? he claimed it was spilt at the seam and was leaking badly ( think I would have smelt it and noted the poor consumption), complete new exhaust system as it was corroded and leaking badly (was OK when I took it in), and many more. Thankfully I had a lot of mechanical experience working in the aircraft industry so I knew he was talking complete B**L S**T so I got it home jacked it up and found he had loosed the exhaust engine recirculating drain and so it was now blowing. I resealed it, then on the petrol tank 10mm rubber return hose it looked like it had been cut with a Stanley knife to make it look like it has split/ perished but the rubber was dark soft and flexible, a perished hose is normally harder and whitened with age. I fitted a new hose about 5 quid and took it to a different MOT station, I mentioned my experience with the 2nd MOT station they checked it all over and passed it all OK exhaust and tank were fine in good condition. I decided to report the first MOT station to VOSA and ask for a refund, they took a long time to reply to my email and only said they can not issue refunds, and will not take any action against the rouge garage who was clearly ripping of customers on expensive unnecessary work. So the moral of the story: Choose your MOT station very carefully and if it changes hands make sure its not run by criminals, because unless you are very wealthy and can afford to take them to court, VOSA and the DVLA are not interested.
As a semi rural mot station for 34years, 28 of which, have involved mot testing without any problems .The fail rate here is what it is .I say that because there is no control of it .I think that in places like Birmingham for example there will be a concentration of testing stations all fighting for test numbers ,so the test fee which you never mentioned goes down. along with the quality of the test .As a tiny cog in the wheel that is never listened to I think that all cars should have a service history from a trusted garage that would be the basis of an annual MOT .The fail rate should be minimal you will always get a bulb failure for example ,but should alleviate the large amounts of very poor tyres , corrosion in brake pipes ,excessive play in suspension joints etc .This does not need or mean to exclude the small independent non testing garages they can still fill in a service history for presentation when taken for a test .At that point the work undertaken should be evident and customers would be safer .JG .
Hear what you’re saying John, but insisting on service histories from garages puts motorists at the mercy of garages who often charge unreasonable and exorbitant prices (I know this from personal experience). I am not a qualified mechanic but I can service just about everything on my cars – it’s saved me £000s and I’ve never had a failure after my work.
I have always made a point of getting my cars tested by a station that only tests and does not carry out repairs. Funny how “faults” have been when the car was being serviced at a main dealer while still under warranty too!
Completely agree. I use an MOT only facility and only one of our cars has failed over 10 years of taking them there (slightly broken suspension spring on a 17 year old Octavia). Garages are looking for business and have refused to pass my vehicle even though it was fine (brakes). In fact, it was cheaper for me to go elsewhere for an MOT rather than pay for the ‘repairs’ (it passed!!). Yes, I service and maintain the cars myself, so that helps. Interesting though how my motorcycle passed with an illegal (just about) rear tyre!!!
I agree. At my local Audi dealer they found that my two 1 year old rear tires (Not purchased through them) at £260 per corner were perished yes perished on the inside wall where you can’t see them. Yet to maintain my Audi waranty it has to be taken to them. Included in the MOT was a major service at £450 plus brake fluid change £59. I get the car back and find an advisory also that my coolant has changed colour but they hadn’t changed it. Next time it goes to my local garage.
If as some of the comments below indicate if you believe you’ve been failed wrongly you can report them to VOSA ! Testers have I believe a three strike system where they can be struck off being a tester.
I took my BMW to Kwick Fit 3 years ago for its Mot which it failed I was quoted £400 to replace all disc brakes. I refused their offer and had it tested at another Center where it passed with flying colours. I asked the tester about the condition of the brakes and was reassured they were in perfect condition. I still have the same brakes today!
Kwick Fit were offering a free 40 point brake check at the time. Beware of this company at all costs. The matter was reported to the appropriate authorities.
What I find often in the West Wales area is that the MOT station will find trivial things like bulbs and wipers as you state. But I think they just find these trivial faults just to prove that they are doing their job and not passing vehicles willy nilly…
Why would you want to find a garage where you are almost guaranteed to pass? Surely if your car has a problem you need to know and get it rectified. I have a local trustworthy garage, my car doesn’t automatically pass in fact last week it failed because some split pins in the suspension system had corroded and fallen out they needed replacing for my own and the safety of other road uses.
Common sense dictates you check the obvious, a car that fails on low tyre tread or a blown bulb deserves to and just shows laziness on the owners part. Most areas have an official VOSA testing station who have no axe to grind, use them if you wish.
My local garage checks my car out before MOT, takes it to local MOT Station, always passes and I just get charged for the MOT, no mark up. Hence, my garage gets my repeat business and I have never had a breakdown.
Seems more likely that certain areas are lower income, less well maintained vehicles.
lower income, less well maintained vehicles usually means more is spent on booze & cigs than on the family transport
I use an M.O.T. centre that only carries out tests, but doesn’t carry out any repairs. They don’t specify where the repairs should be carried out and are not too worried how long you take to get the job done (obviously you can only continue to drive it if you have a valid M.O.T.). That way there is no incentive to fail unnecessarily.
This is the approach I use and it the best one in my opinion as you get a truly independent assessment. I know some people recommend the council run MOT stations, I have not used them so cannot comment
Actually once an MOT centre issues a fail then the current MOT is invalidated. You can still drive it home or to a place of repair, however follow the rules of booking it in, otherwise its driving without an MOT and up to 1000 pound fine. I was a bit shocked that the fine had gone up so much, but there it is.
If the car has a serious fault then technically you are not aloud to drive it on the road at all and would need to trailer it to the repair centre.
Hi David. After reading your reply, and reading https://www.gov.uk/getting-an-mot/after-the-test, where it says “You can take your vehicle away if your MOT certificate is still valid.” but fails to say whether the current MOT is invalidated, I telephoned the DVSA to ask for clarification. I then spoke to a lady who confirmed that after an MOT failure, where your current MOT has not yet expired, you may carry on driving the vehicle as failure does NOT invalidate the old MOT.
I needed to clarify the point as our MOT is due next month.
As you say, if the car has a serious fault you would not be able to drive the car away.
I have a Volkswagen Transporter Shuttle 2.0 litre diesel on a ;10′ plate which I purchased from a V.w. dealer with 12085 miles on the clock.
Now the car has some 45000 miles on it, much of the mileage being as a minicab in London, during which time I have had all servicing done at one of my local service stations who are mid range in pricing and they have never tried to rip me off-on the contrary if I have asked about the condition of my tyres,brakes etc. they have always responded that I have plenty of wear left and have passed my car through its M.O.T. first time also bearing in mind when it was used for Private Hire 2 M.O.T.s a year were required by TFL.
Incidentally to my knowledge despite being an automatic, the brakes have done at least 33000 miles and still have a reasonable life and as yet I have not had to replace tyres apart from 2 due to severe punctures. (Also when I drove manual cars I would achieve 50-60000 miles out of a clutch plate) Careful and considerate driving and regular maintenance is the answer first time M.O.T. passes in my opinion.
By the way, I am a 73 year old retired pensioner now.
Tip from an ex DVSA vehicle examiner.
Check all the normal things you should check anyway. Tyres, Lights, Windscreen wipers etc and book your car in before the old MOT expires (you can get it done up to 4 weeks before the old one expires and not lose any time left).
Then if you feel you have been wrongly failed ask for an Appeal form from the MOT test station. If the DVSA vehicle examiner agrees you were wrongly failed you will get a certificate from him. It may take a couple of weeks before the car is retested hence the tip about taking it in early.
I now believe that if you car fails the MOT it overrides last years pass certificate, as it is a test roadworthy at the time of test.
i Stand corrected, the DVSA has updated its guidlines :
Driving a vehicle that’s failed
You can take your vehicle away if your MOT certificate is still valid.
If your MOT has run out you can take your vehicle to:
have the failed defects fixed
a pre-arranged MOT test appointment
In both cases, your vehicle still needs to meet the minimum standards of road worthiness at all times or you can be fined.
You can be fined up to £2,500, be banned from driving and get 3 penalty points for driving a vehicle in a dangerous condition.
Although if it has just failed is it meeting the minimum standards of road worthiness
The DVSA will never work for the motor owner as they have a vested interest in supporting there appointed garages
as an ex HGV mechanic i agree with above comment about mot failures most could be avoided just by doing those simple easy checks
hello Derek, please could you provide proof or experiance of this vested interest you speak of, many thanks in advance
hi Dave
as an ex HGV fitter part of my job was to take trucks for there annual Mot test i did this from middle 1960’s to when i retired 10 years ago in that period of time i became good friends of some of the testers and also watched some of these complaints handled while awaiting my turn for my test and was often told we will always support our agents
some times i had many reports of when DVLA inspectors visiting their agents making faults much worse and then photographing them i must stress i was told this and did not personally witness this.
but having written the above reply i still would like to make it very clear that i feel very strongly in saying that a lot of motorist do not help them selves with mot test by not doing simple checks them selves
but a lot of these simple checks should be carried out weekly and not just mot test
It’s actually up to one calendar month before the current test expires.
I go to a ‘family’ garage recommended by friend who did the car – in the North of New Forest. They are business like and helpful at all times, and if they think its not worth doing say so and have quick look for which they charge nothing. I am not a big customer there but they always seem to remember me. They also have contracts to remove breakdowns off main roads. Its a longer journey but worth it every time
Keith
According to the report the most common reasons for failing the MOT are due to lights not operating and lack of enough windscreen washer fluid, both of which are extremely easy to check before presentation at a testing station. Perhaps those who present cars with these faults need their brains testing as well as their cars.
If your MOT has run out you can take your vehicle to:
have the failed defects fixed
a pre-arranged MOT test appointment
In both cases, your vehicle still needs to meet the minimum standards of road worthiness at all times or you can be fined.
You can be fined up to £2,500, be banned from driving and get 3 penalty points for driving a vehicle in a dangerous condition.
Although if it has just failed is it meeting the minimum standards of road worthiness
This is not a report. It is a garbled interpretation of data.
The MOT is a subjective test, and is based on the opinion of the MOT examiner. Matters like tyres are to a standard p, blown bulbs are certain,p.obvious. Worn brake pipes or play in steering are less definable. In terms of road safety I would prefer a more cautious examiner to a more casual one. I have never taken my vehicle to a test station and allowed them to carry out any remedial wok. I make that clear from the start. Prevents bogus claims of work to be carried out.
I use a garage who offer friendly advice and don’t charge for it, mot is carried out by a person who I know will do a good job which regarding my safety is paramount.
I have always taken my cars there as I know they will do a good job and have never had to return for a fault, they are a friendly local small garage who do repairs but only if agreeded and with evidence.
Until recently I was in the motor trade, not only in sales but repair and maintenance. Unfortunately in the UK it seems that many car owners once their car has reached about five years old it is then treated merely as an old hack and suffers from little or no maintenance. Even the same for expensive cars. Bald tyres, faulty brakes and steering, headlamp misalignment, damaged protruding bodywork, even a broken drivers seat on one occasion. Many faults were quite obvious to the owners but they chose to ignore them.
I usemy local garage who know. My car .also they don’t send a bill for about six. Months lol
Land Rover Garage wanted to return car, Range Rover, low mileage 3/4 years old to ex works condition, fitted new brake discs. Our old Volvo Estate 220,000 miles had, I think, had two sets discs in its 20 years we had it.
Why not have your car tested in Northern Ireland.? All cars are tested at a government test centre, which is run by the British Government. NOT THE GARAGE , OR THE Republic of Ireland. If your car doesn’t pass,you can’t get it taxed.
This article does not tell me where, I expected to be able to enter my postcode and find the nearest garage with high pass rates
I would rather pay full MOT price to my local council testing centre where they don’t make money out of repairs. My car was serviced by my regular garage before MOT at large UK tyre company where it was failed and they did £300 repair. Advisory warning was given on another part. Six weeks later the car manufacturer recalled my car for adjustment and a safety check was carried out by their technician at the same time, I handed over my MOT certificate and asked for “warning” to be check only to be told it was perfect! One year later my car passed its test at council centre, afterwards I showed the tester the previous MOT warning, he read it and burst out laughing.
I am sorry to say that there are unscrupulous traders who will find faults where none exist in order to drum up repair business. To avoid this take your vehicle to the local council workshops ; where a council undertakes to test its own vehicles it must offer that service to residents. No council will undertake repairs so has no interest in finding failure points unnecessary. I have been doing this for 30 years and can vouch for the straightforward process. It is possible to to be shown faults which are found. you should be given 10 working days to bring the vehicle back for a retest after repairs.
How do you find out if your council has an MOT centre? I thank you in advance for your response.
Just google it what I did. City Council MOT “cityname”
Council’s do not run MOT centre’s they are all privately owned! The price of an MOT can vary too so shop around, usually you find MOT centre’s are car maintenance garage’s.
Sorry, but they do! I work for a council which has MOT testing facilities for its own fleet, and are obliged to provide tests for the public as well.
I can confirm that councils do have their own MOT facilities. The one I have used for the past 4 years is in their large MT workshop where they service everything from small vans to large lorries. The tester told me they try to pass vehicles rather than fail, if legally possible of course. Two years ago my car was failed because it had a small nick in an almost new tyre, and the wire carcass could be seen when the rubber was pulled to one side. They phoned a local tyre depot for me, to see if there was a tyre of the same type/size (which there was), I drove there and had it fitted and the council MOT centre re-tested it for me the same afternoon. I think that was good service.
Oh yes they do !!
and our local council actively advertise on local radio.
1). Go online.
2). Local phone book.
3). Give your local council a ring and ask.
Agree – I’ve always used Council MOT workshops for an independent view and they’ve been great. I’d blown a brakelight bulb without realising and they failed it, replaced the bulb and passed it at just the cost for the MOT!
Autospeed are main culprits for this as l had my vehicle regularly checked each year as well as them servicing the car, l stated to get advisories for the rear box exhaust had it checked by another garage who advised that there’s nothing wrong, won’t be going to them anymore.
WARNING FOR DASH-CAM & SAT-NAV USERS : the MoT rules say that you must not obstruct the “swept area” of the windscreen with items like stickers, SatNav, DashCam, or fluffy dice, etc. You can look up the precise details on the Internet but, essentially, make sure you’re not sticking your DashCam/SatNav so it obstructs the area that is cleaned by your windscreen wipers; in particular, the area immediately in front of the driver (full height of windscreen and appropriately the width of a steering wheel). This is an automatic fail.
Yes, you could simply remove your DashCam/SatNav for the MoT test. But, don’t forget that you might get prosecuted if you’re later involved in an accident and you’ve obstructed your view through the windscreen.
Rick
I should have said that you are permitted a small obstruction within this “swept area”, as plaving a DashCam where the wipers don’t clean the windscreen would render it useless. I think the permitted obstruction is 40mm. This is sufficient to get the DashCam’s lens into a swept area of the screen with the main body and mount outside this MoT zone. I’ve mounted my DashCam behind the rear view mirror, so the lens looks through the swept area, but the mount and body are in the dirty part above. This also helps hide the DashCam from thieves.
My classic Aluminium body Land Rover “Defender” was once failed for excessive rust on the (aluminium) underbody and those (Forth Bridge thickness) chassis members — he was a bit red-faced when I asked him to explain how aluminium could possibly rust.
And another MoT station gave a fail because the side lights weren’t white. Actually, they wanted an old yellowish white tungsten bulb white. Whereas the colour temperature of my LED side lights is a blue cast white. Unfortunately for this MoT tester, I have a degree qualification in digital art and photography; so I’m an expert in colour temperatures. I got the test centre manager to drag his MoT tester outside to tell us which of the cars driving past (in the twilight) had “white” side and headlights — whereupon a PASS Certificate quickly followed.
An MoT “FAIL” is what worries most of us; but I’m thinking we should also be concerned about those all-too-common erroneous “advisories”. If these go on the vehicle’s permanent record, they could inappropriately prejudice the next MoT tester. Can any MoT tester reading this please confirm whether previous “advisories” are visible when completing a new MoT test? If so, we’ll need to start challenging any spurious records.
Cheers,
Rick
A story worth telling. Many years ago I owned a Ford Fiesta. I drive less the average mileage per year – recent years 3,000 a year. I took the Ford for MoT at one of these well-known, quick-fit places. The Ford was not many years old and had only 40,000 on the clock at the time. It failed MoT with a list of problems anyone would associate with a vehicle that had covered 100-200 thousand miles. I think I had to pay £5 to DVLA for a copy of what information they had on the car.
Obviously, I was investigating if the car had been clocked. DVLA documents were illegible in the main, however I saw no indication the clock mileage had been interfered with. I took the car to another MoT testing station and it passed the MoT for the cost of the MoT – no faults identified. I should have had Trading Standards send in one of their test vehicles they use to expose bent traders. But it is only the rich that can afford the time to seek justice in this land.
KY postcode covers the whole of fife and many more towns, glenrothes, leven, St. Andrews, Dunfermline and of course Kirkcaldy. So it’s the whole of fife that’s a hard place to pass an MOT.
If it means more roadworthy cars on the road I’m all for that.
Maybe location is related to how well people maintain their car not how picky the mot guy is. After all I bet you won’t find many nackered bangers in Kensington, whereas Dundee and Plymouth.
To be honest it’s a pattern of junk sensational wrong headlines cropping up on this site
Definitely, in the past two years I have had three cars and not one of them passed it’s M O T first time. So I will travel else where to get the M O T done
Generally speaking your best option for not getting ripped off is to find a good local mechanic to look after your car. They don’t have huge corporate chains (either through main dealers or “specialised” repair centres) behind them, so the only way they survive is by doing a good job (or being amazing bullshitters! Make sure it’s someone you trust!). They will also be able to carry out an inspection prior to MOT (even if they don’t have the certification to do the testing) to make sure your car won’t fail on something other than perhaps emissions.