Drivint To An Mot - How Far Can I Go?

That's easy.......

If you have a current tax disk from another car.........Have you got a scanner, a photoshop program and a decent colour printer?

As long as it will satisfy a casual glance from the recovery man.

I've never done this .....honest.......

my car travels from queensferry north wales to burnley wich is a distance of 64.2 miles as dictated by my satnav i phoned my local cop shop to ask this very question an was told if i allow my mot to run out then i take a risk depending on who and what section of the police dept pulls me over. but its usualy ok if its close to the due date and i have the garage name and full details of the apointment. as citroen xms are also rareish they did understand i only use a specialist for repairs and understand its cost effective to allow said specialist to do the mot and any repairs afterwards to save on the time the car is actualy on the road. but they also said they could oficialy clamp and tow aaway the car also as without an mot the law is already broke and all fines and cosequences are forthwith if the car is not declared sorn after the due date of the mot so that was clearly told to me nooooot. the safest way is chance it at your own peril because if its run out and a camera picks you up youve already had itm sorry to say.

I had a legitimate MOT booked for a Xantia that had no tax or MOT and got
to the garage for the appointment at 9.00am to be told the emissions test
equipment whilst working wasn't booting up onto VOSA's system due to a
certification issue. Despite repeated attempts by the garage to talk to VOSA
the test was void with a new appointment arranged for x2 days later.

Of course I drove past a mobile DVLA camera number recognition system
and got a letter through the post shortly afterwards though the car did pass
the following test appointment.

In the letter the department sent it gave the only x2 situations where a car
can legitimately be permitted to be drive without MOT;

To or from an MOT PRE BOOKED

To or from a garage to have MOT work done by prior arrangement. Seems
the department realised in some cases that a car needs to get to a garage
for repair work to become legal again necessitating a means of allowing it
To get there! SO LONG AS THE CAR IS INSURED!!

I'll have a dig through my paperwork and see what the letter said verbatum
and print it here.

Let's just say I wouldn't was to try claiming off my insurance in this situation
as there have been instances over the years where I'm sure I've read

NO MOT = NO insurance!

The MOT place gave me a letter explaining why I was driving a car with no
MOT or tax and the matter went no further. All I would say mind is this
scenario was through dealings with DVLA who in my experiences are more
belligerent and evil than I think the Police tend to be but I don't fancy finding
out what plod would do in this situation - no discretion any more!!

Use the trailer or run the gauntlet. The easier and cheaper option may have
longer term significant issues for your licence and bank balance!

Andrew

This post has been edited by Andmcit on April 26, 2008 09:27 am

Totally agree.
Sadly over here we can't shop around for a competent MOT garage and have to take the car to a regional government test centre. Unfortunately these are staffed by muppets in some cases, and you're at the mercy of their (final) word.

My S1 was failed in February due to "Front brake flexi hose split / cut". I said 'That's strange, the flexis on it are relatively new, and I would have expected puddles of hydraulic fluid if that were the case', but he didn't want to know.
Imagine my delight when I got home to find nothing wrong with the flexis in the slightest, but a hairline crack (which hadn't even opened up) on the outer protective plastic sheath of the parking brake cable, NOT the inner bit or the cable itself.....
Mind you, the guy did seem hell bent on finding a problem with it, 18 year old car and all that, gotta be *something* wrong. In the time he spent on the XM, the guys in the other testing lanes had put through at least 2 - 3 other cars. He pored over every inch of mine with a fine toothed comb, even getting out and profusely rocking each corner for a few minutes after the suspension testing machine had finished pummelling the shit out of it. He was also going to do it for no working hand brake until I pointed out it acted on the front wheels and not the back.

What's most frustrating is you're totally at the mercy of these government employed monkeys, and their inexperience / lack of knowledge about your vehicle costs you time and money (or in some cases vehicle damage), when they (frequently) get it wrong.

I wrote the testing agency a letter saying I was annoyed with the whole thing and that I had been caused considerable inconvenience having to retest a car that had no fault. I got the usual PR response back with 'we do our best to accommodate customers' etc. This angered me even more, and I wrote them one back saying would they please stop referring to me as a 'customer', as that word implies that I have the luxury of being able to take my business elsewhere. Funnily enough I never received a reply to that one...

Mind you its hardly surprising, these are the same imbeciles who tried to take me to court for back tax on my Mondeo which I sold, and was subsequently used in a bank robbery by the people that bought it less than 24 hours later. In the end I had to get the investigating detective to phone them and say that the car had been in their possession in an impound yard for the past four months, and was nothing more to do with me, as filling out their own notification forms and sending repeated explanation letters seemed to fall on deaf ears...

Ciarán

This post has been edited by Ciaran on April 26, 2008 01:28 pm