Post date: 23-Sep-2015 15:33:21

There are plans to to extend the first required MOT of vehicles from 3 to 4 years however examination of DVSA (Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency) MOT testing data has shown that on average 9% of all new vehicles FAIL THEIR FIRST MOT after 3 years.

Based upon 2.4 million new cars registered in 2014 a total of 222,879 cars will fail their first MOT in 2017! Alarm Bells please.

In one year alone we will then have around 225,000 unroadworthy vehicles on the road until 2018 with the failures being illegal tyres, damaged lights, faulty brakes and more. As the UK continues to record ever higher record sales month by month by year on year from 2013, since the recovery from the dreadful economic melt down of 2007-09, the number of these unsafe cars on the road will only grow.

This 4 year rule is already in place in Ireland but it is unlikely to be rolled out here before 2016.

The Chancellors stated intention is to save the motorists billions through test fees as vehicles are built to ever increasing high standards. However as we have seen in the last few years with millions of Toyota's having several catastrophic recalls with failing brakes and randomly exploding airbags now followed by the VW and VAG group caught out with 11 million (potentially 30 million cars by time finalised) having maliciously engineered and installed software and parts to cheat stringent automotive legislation without which meant they would not be permitted to put on sale their diesel cars as too polluting by up to 40 times over the legal limit, the Chancellors goodwill with good intentions is misguided and can not place such trust with these vehicles and their makers.

Vehicles can and do go wrong unexpectedly and through malicious design and build with the latter example. In the main the recalls which can be around 50 cars a year from many manufacturers are not as severe as the two highlighted above. If its made by man, whoever makes it, they will go wrong and end up being recycled for washing machines and fridges. With new car makers with little experience like China, or small independents, lower quality cars will be passed for that extra year as well. Until new companies / nations with no prior production, expertise and products come up to longer established competitors well versed in build, safety etc (Korea's car makers have achieved that very quickly and now threaten the Japanese as well as the Europeans makers) their vehicles tolerances and standard could represent a serious danger. Especially if they don't age well from a below average starting point when compared to the established. Neither can anybody presume, whatever experts may advise them, that all new cars are all properly maintained and serviced as required. Many individuals and some company cars are run into the ground and dumped into the used market before the vehicles warranty or mileage is too high for its short age and they have missed a service or more and not had warnings of repair or wear and tear items upon them carried out as they are driven to be as cheap as possible to be passed on for someone else to pick-up the bills.

To add more detail to the above DVSA data the following is covered;

* 15.2% of MOT test results are wrong

* 1,800 vechicle testing stations are retested at random by DVSA of which

18.1% were vechicles that passed but should have failed

11.2% were vechicles that failed but should have passed.

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