Rolling MOT Exemption

[cannonball]

There was a time when having a Q plate was an awful situation (usually because the car was a piece of crap with a crap kit on it) but that was a long time ago. I imagine that having a Q plate now could be a interesting conversation starter, certainly not as awful as it used to be.
As for the tinkering with the MOT I think it is utterly stupid, why would you bother testing a four year old regularly serviced Passat but not test a 40 year old, one owner Morris Minor. Any sensible driver would want to know that their car AND everyone else's was safe to be on the road. STUPID STUPIDITY.

Angry Jon.

You know John you have answered this bollax better than anyone else, old cars need an mot, all sorts of crap will be turned out when they do not need a test, all you rose coloured glasses wearing people need to realise there are people out there that do not give a rats arse on a cars road worthy ness condition,,,,,,,,

[Chris_R]

While I agree with the general principle that the MOT for over 40 year old cars is a good thing and I took part in the government consultation opposing the MOT exemption and supporting continued MOT tests it seem from official figures that perhaps the risks and dangers are being overstated.
There are approximately 197,000 pre-1960 vehicles, 95,000 of which are cars that are currently exempt from MOTs. Approximately 9,100 pre-1960 cars are voluntarily submitted for MOT with about 1,600 failures. In 2015, in accidents involving pre-1960 cars, 1 person was killed, 20 suffered serious injuries and 36 slight injuries.
There are approximately 300,000 additional vehicles between 1960 and 1977 that would be eligible for MOT exemption (i.e. those over 40 years not already exempt) and the corresponding casualty figures are 2 killed, 51 suffering serious injuries and 161 slight injuries. For vehicles registered between 1977 and 1987 these casualty figures more than double indicating that you are more at risk in a 30 - 40 year old car than you are in an over 40 year old car.
Less than 3% of casualties of all types are attributed to a mechanical failure, not just for older cars but across the entire car population which indicates that in fact the overwhelming majority of cars in this country are in fact maintained to a high standard. It also means that 97% of the people injured in car accidents involving cars over 40 years old were caused by factors other than something that might be related to an MOT.
Possibly the high standard of mainenance and consequent low casualty rate attributable to a mechanical problem is a result of our MOT regime and relaxing that regime may lead to increases. We will not know that for some years. Nevertheless the MOT failure rate of cars registered between 1960 and 1977 is significantly less than the rate for the rest of the general population and despite cars over 40 years old representing 1% of the vehicle population they only represent less than 0.2% of the miles driven.

[Steve Payne]

Personally I feel even 1 death is to many.

If these new rules cause one fatality that is one death that could be avoided.

When these rules applied to pre 60's cars the chances are almost all of them were owned by proper enthusiasts, with cars now only having to be 40 years old that brings a lot more useable every day cars into play. I am sure there will be a lot of young people who will feel it is cool to drive an Escort, Marina or VW. It will be even better if they are students who don't have to pay for road tax and get it MOT'd.

Technically in June you could find some old car that has been sat in a field for many years, pump the tyres up, insure it and then once you have done the bit on the Government website you are off.

My vague wish is the Insurance companies will react in some way, maybe increase premiums on cars with no MOT? Maybe the Police will be more vigilant on 40 year old cars? Mind you not that you ever see one these days.

Steve

[Richie]

"Less than 3% of casualties of all types are attributed to a mechanical failure, ...which indicates that ... the overwhelming majority of cars in this country are in fact maintained to a high standard"

I guess the issue is ...Will such standards be maintained when there is no need to subject vehicles to an annual MoT test?

[Chris_R]

"Less than 3% of casualties of all types are attributed to a mechanical failure, ...which indicates that ... the overwhelming majority of cars in this country are in fact maintained to a high standard"

I guess the issue is ...Will such standards be maintained when there is no need to subject vehicles to an annual MoT test?

The statistic is an official statistic. The conclusion that you have italicised was my own observation. The Government argue that the already lower MOT failure rate among cars registered between 1960 and 1977 indicates that these cars are already maintained to a higher standard than the rest of the cars on the road.
Will those standards be maintained? The Government argue that as we already maintain the cars to a higher standard than the rest of the cars on the road that we will continue to do so in the future as the overwhelming majority of the cars involved are owned by enthusiasts. I doubt we will ever really know the answer in the short term. On the figures I gave earlier, just a single incident can distort the figures for any particular year as the unfortunate fatal incident on last year's Brighton run demonstrates.

[interjen]

Technically in June you could find some old car that has been sat in a field for many years, pump the tyres up, insure it and then once you have done the bit on the Government website you are off.

[Keith]

Gosh, we haven't seen that photo before....

[Grant]

I had a little Old Mini for sale once, it was a bit of a wreck really, anyway a chap phoned me up from the advert I had out.. I explained to him that it had No Doors... he replied >> "Well if it has No Doors... How am going to get in"?

[ernie100]

Technically in June you could find some old car that has been sat in a field for many years, pump the tyres up, insure it and then once you have done the bit on the Government website you are off.

Steve

Steve ..are you talking about my Mark 111 ?

[colin7673]

This is an answer given to me by Angus, when I emailed and asked the question.

Colin,

In answer to your question regarding the MOT situation. The government has legislated that they are no longer required for vehicles beyond a certain age. Our insurer’s Hiscox, recognise this and are unable to do anything about it. We as a company, like to recommend that clients continue to have their cars MOT’d to provide a third party check and some peace of mind. Failing that we recommend that the car is serviced regularly annually in order to maintain it in a roadworthy condition. A large number of our clients are mechanically minded and are able to undertake this process safely themselves but for the majority who are not, an annual service should provide peace of mind. It may well be that insurers take a different stance in the future but for now that is how the land lies. I hope this helps.

Kind regards
Angus

[Chris_R]

So, to put this one to bed you do NOT need form V112 or any other special process to claim MOT exemption.

The MOT on my Interceptor expired on 15th May. The tax expires on 31st May.

On 19th May I tried to renew the tax to see what would happen. The online renewal system said the car needed an MOT. I clicked "continue" to allow the check to proceed and the system returned there was no valid MOT and the application was cancelled.

Today, 23rd May I thought I'd try again. It was always my understanding that MOT exemption declaration would be self-declared at the point of renewing the tax.

I went into the online system. It still said an MOT was needed. When I clicked continue the online system had changed. There was a message that the DVLA records detected the car was made more than 40 years ago and may be eligible for MOT exemption. There were 2 boxes on the screen, one where I could declare there were no modifications and claim exemption and the other I didn't read properly but I think said it had been modified and needed an MOT. Presumably if you selected the second option the online check for a valid MOT would then take place. I selected the no modifications option and clicked on Continue and on the next screen my car was immediately taxed for the next 12 months.

Job done.

Quite simply, if your car now qualifies for MOT exemption and you wish to tax the car and claim exemption you simply tax it as usual on the DVLA website from the V11 reminder and simply claim the exemption during that process. You will need to claim the exemption on each and every occasion that the car is taxed. That's all that is necessary.

The roadworthiness or otherwise of your car and how you may choose to ensure that roadworthiness is now entirely your responsibility. However, if you do submit the car for a proper MOT (as opposed to some kind of "MOT check") and it fails then it will be recorded as failed and you cannot use the car until it has passed or you claim exemption at the next tax renewal.

Over time there may be some MOT exempt cars that become shall we say somewhat less roadworthy than perhaps they ought to be but that is something we will not know for some years. I suspect most classic cars do only 1,000 to 2,000 miles a year, sometimes even less and so I think it will take quite some years before anything might become apparent. The overwhelming majority of classic cars are very well maintained either by experienced and dedicated owners or by garages and the shows that happen up and down the country on any weekend demonstrate these cars. You rarely see anything that would make you say "that shouldn't be on the road". That of course does not preclude something hidden from view being deficient.

[Steve Payne]

This will all be great for us until somebody has a fatal ACCIDENT due to a car that would have failed an MOT. I wonder if the insurance companies will step in ?

Interestingly the MOT tester I use was telling me yesterday the cars he reckons will suffer the most with the new test are Diesels. A lot of Diesel powered cars were marginal before and with the new test and the cost of repairs to get them through this could see a lot of cars being scrapped. A set of injectors and a clogged or damaged DPF can cost thousands, why would you spend over £2k having your 10 year old Focus diesel fixed?

Steve

[JamesE]

So, to put this one to bed you do NOT need form V112 or any other special process to claim MOT exemption.

The MOT on my Interceptor expired on 15th May. The tax expires on 31st May.

On 19th May I tried to renew the tax to see what would happen. The online renewal system said the car needed an MOT. I clicked "continue" to allow the check to proceed and the system returned there was no valid MOT and the application was cancelled.

Today, 23rd May I thought I'd try again. It was always my understanding that MOT exemption declaration would be self-declared at the point of renewing the tax.

I went into the online system. It still said an MOT was needed. When I clicked continue the online system had changed. There was a message that the DVLA records detected the car was made more than 40 years ago and may be eligible for MOT exemption. There were 2 boxes on the screen, one where I could declare there were no modifications and claim exemption and the other I didn't read properly but I think said it had been modified and needed an MOT. Presumably if you selected the second option the online check for a valid MOT would then take place. I selected the no modifications option and clicked on Continue and on the next screen my car was immediately taxed for the next 12 months.

Job done.

Quite simply, if your car now qualifies for MOT exemption and you wish to tax the car and claim exemption you simply tax it as usual on the DVLA website from the V11 reminder and simply claim the exemption during that process. You will need to claim the exemption on each and every occasion that the car is taxed. That's all that is necessary.

The roadworthiness or otherwise of your car and how you may choose to ensure that roadworthiness is now entirely your responsibility. However, if you do submit the car for a proper MOT (as opposed to some kind of "MOT check") and it fails then it will be recorded as failed and you cannot use the car until it has passed or you claim exemption at the next tax renewal.

Over time there may be some MOT exempt cars that become shall we say somewhat less roadworthy than perhaps they ought to be but that is something we will not know for some years. I suspect most classic cars do only 1,000 to 2,000 miles a year, sometimes even less and so I think it will take quite some years before anything might become apparent. The overwhelming majority of classic cars are very well maintained either by experienced and dedicated owners or by garages and the shows that happen up and down the country on any weekend demonstrate these cars. You rarely see anything that would make you say "that shouldn't be on the road". That of course does not preclude something hidden from view being deficient.

I think you got the response you got because you are in the "window" for retaxing your car anyway because it is running out soon. My Triumph's MoT ran out in early May, but is taxed until January 2019 so I could not register it as MoT exempt. I therefore need to do the V112 (or cancel the existing tax and retax it from now).

[David Devine]

The way I read the government form I do not have to do anything until my tax runs out next April then I tick the box for no MOT required. It says unlike tax exempt I get MOT exempt automatically until the Tax renewal.


Dave

[monk1483]

Technically in June you could find some old car that has been sat in a field for many years, pump the tyres up, insure it and then once you have done the bit on the Government website you are off.

I used to drive past this car for almost 20yrs in Walcote, Leicestershire. At first it was not too bad, the owner claimed it just wanted a bit of welding on the sills to pass an MOT.
The car was parked in his front garden and subjected to all weathers, in the latter years it had a tarpaulin over it. He was approached many times by people wanting to buy it, but they were all turned down. It had a nice personalised number plate, wonder if that was transferred.

Anyway I digress. The Republic of Ireland did away with MOT's a while ago, however the insurance companies demanded an engineers report instead. This was considerably more expensive than an MOT, I'm not sure but I think they have now scrapped the system and have reverted back to MOT's.

Unless you fancy doing a bit of bird for causing death by dangerous driving (which could fall under driving an un-roadworthy vehicle) , not to mention a death or serious injury on your conscious, then continue to have your car MOT'd. After all 50-60 pounds a year is a small amount out of your motoring budget, if it fails then it needs fixing - simples.