Currently reading: 'MOT should remain annual'
RoadSafe urged the DfT to maintain current MOT laws

Road safety partnership RoadSafe, is urging transport minister Mike Penning to maintain the MOT test as an annual check-up for vehicles.

Most countries in the EU follow the EU minimum requirement of giving vehicles their first test when they are four years old and subsequent tests every two years.

There is pressure on the UK to do the same, rather than continue the current system, whereby vehicles must have their first test within three years of registration and annual tests thereafter.

The DfT is looking into reducing the required frequency of tests to fall in line with Europe, because modern vehicles are more reliable.

However, RoadSafe is warning that extending the time before a vehicle’s first MOT could lead to more unsafe vehicles on our roads.

This would subsequently increase the number of crashes and road casualties caused by poorly maintained vehicles.

In 2008, the Department for Transport said the MOT failure rate was high – at 35 per cent. Between 2009 and 2010, the failure rate increased to 37 per cent.

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n50pap 7 September 2010

Re: 'MOT should remain annual'

Uncle Mellow wrote:
It is just not good enough for a car to be un-tested until it is three years old.

I tend to agree, which means that the annual checks offered by Chevrolet as part of their 5 year package are an excellent idea. Some cars get minimal attention, with even basic checks [oil,water,washer fluid and tyre pressures or wear] just being ignored. If you have a good, honest garage doing your service, they'll flag up any problems. Bi-annual MOT's would work, I suppose, as long as people realised that they have to be current for the day their vehicle licence becomes effective. I had thirteen years of running a Post Office, where some customers imagined an MOT certificate was advisory not mandatory, and don't get me started on insurance certificates!!! Longer service intervals are now the norm, but despite a low mileage, my cars get serviced every 12 months. I looked at a 3 year old Clio for my nephew, with 18000 miles on the clock, which the salesman told me was " now due its first service and MOT. " Needless to say, my look of horror indicated that he wouldn't be buying the car. If the car's not been serviced in 3 years, what else is lurking, waiting to be discovered.
Peter Cavellini 4 September 2010

Re: 'MOT should remain annual'

Agree, the M.O.T should stay yearly, but also car makers should come clean about recalls that aren't made public but are known within the system, there is a campaign by another well known car mag trying to get this noticed, their trying to make us aware that there could be defects, faults that we should know about, and as usual it always happens outside the warranty, the article is in last weeks Auto Express.

feckin maso 4 September 2010

Re: 'MOT should remain annual'

In NI we still have the mot run by a govt body and we have to display a disk with the mot expiry on the window