Attitudes towards six-month MOT exemption revealed in new survey

[Mike Ruff, GW editor]

Around 40 per cent of drivers won’t be making use of the current six-month MOT exemption, a survey of 2,200 UK drivers has suggests. Just one-in-seven
[See the full post at: Attitudes towards six-month MOT exemption revealed in new survey]

[Geoff]

Dont know who you interviewed the majority are lapping it up , extra 6 months on old cars , they can sell them with this on it , no checks nothing . Garages are up against it and it needs removing straight away .

[Dave]

That is a load of troffle I’ve gone from 15ish mot’s a day to 3 a day 6 month extension is going to put mot testers jobs on the line

[Clive]

Don’t know where you got those metrics. I agree with Geoff 100%

[Megan]

The 6 month extension needs to come to and end and soon. How long can we allow this to continue? They asked us to stay open yet took away all our work with the extension and the closure of most supplier which most garages are still feeling the full force of. As Geoff said the only people actually using the extension are people running old, non road worthy cars. If I had to give a statistic I would say probably 7/10 vehicles which exceeded their date and came in for test have failed. How the DVLA are not checking factual statistics is beyond me.

[Alastair Mayne]

Unfortunately most of us ‘in the trade’ know full well that the people who will take the opportunity of saving the cost of their MOT for 6 months who also ‘take the opportunity’ of saving any money that they can by not maintaining their vehicles. How many time has everyone carried out an MOT test for people like this, have told them that it’s failed for really dangerous defects and suggested that they don’t drive the car until it is repaired to be told something like “no, I need it tonight, I’ve promised little Johnny and his mates I’d take them to the football in it”?

[David]

A part from loss of income for garages that stayed open, is there any other reported evidence to suggest that road safety has been compromised?

[Dougal]

We are finding most customers are having their MOT at the normal date, a few are going a little over to find a convenient date.
It seems they prefer to get it done while on furlough/ working from home/ kids not at school/ money in the bank because of cancelled holiday.
Reducing it to a 1 month extension would suit most people.

[Dan]

For us people are booking as normal. some because they want to keep their car roadworthy and others because they don’t want a big bill at Christmas!!!!

[STEVE RADFORD]

ABSOLUTE RUBISH , MY STATION HAS GONE FROM CARRYING OUT AVERAGE OF 8 TESTS PER DAY PRE LOCKDOWN ,TO 2 IF I AM LUCKY , AND THE KNOCK ON WILL AFFECT MY BUSINESS FOR YEARS TO COME

[Richard donworth]

Rubbish mot garages on there knees

[tom]

don’t know where you get these figures from every one I know love it that they have 6 months extention because if a scappage scheme comes back in they will have a car with current mot so can trade it in ive gone from 10/15 per day to 3 per day so have judt come back to work after 9 weeks off no rent relax so we are going to struggle

[Richard donworth]

Your survey is wrong Mot garages on their knees.and service work gone!!!!

[john]

if its too dangerous to do mots (that is why they wont lift the extension) then surely the mot system should have been shut down, its just yet another cock up by dvsa they do nothing for us, the mot system should be run by a governing body that knows what it is doing and helps there garages that do the job

[JO GIBBONS]

If your garage is open I wouldn’t advise delaying your MOT or vehicle service, particularly if you are actively using your vehicle. Not only could your vehicle not be roadworthy you could be facing a much inflated repair bill due to the lack of maintenance. I can foresee an increase in breakdowns and roadside repairs, this isn’t good for anyone. 

[Ann Zemlik]

We have found that the majority of our customers are not taking advantage of the extension. We presumed that trade would be quiet when we returned after lockdown but we have been very busy with both tests and servicing.

[PhillW]

The RAC needs to stop doing Rubbish Surveys that are completely inaccurate and use the money more wisely on there core business of answering the phone when I brake down and on more mechanics in vans and making sure there computers are showing the right up to date information I have more phone calls than ever before from customers asking me if there MOT has been extended At least 90% even though I warm them of the caveat of road worthiness decide they would rather spend the money later on there MOT and Service

[Murray]

I’m sorry, but this is not the case in the vast majority of cases we have experienced. MoT and associated repair work fell off a cliff. 99% of the people we speak to are happy to utilise this delay for as long as possible to put off the expense and are seemingly doing the same with servicing. The Gov makes clear you must keep the car roadworthy despite this, so the reposibility sits with the car user/owner regardless.

[Author]

Posts