MoT PSA/heads up

everthewatcher

Forum Supporter
If you have an MoT due in the next month or so get it booked now.

Thanks to the six month MoT extension granted earlier this year there's now a huge number of tests due in the next three months, with some estimates being over 11 million.

I called today to book at my usual place where normally I'd have been offered slots next week and possibly even one this week. The first slot they had available was the 22nd and had I phoned yesterday I'd have been offered the 17th.
 
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That raises some questions:

Are these postponed MoTs backdated to when they were originally due? If not, there will be a huge demand at this time of year, every year.
 
Are these postponed MoTs backdated to when they were originally due?
I doubt it, but it would be a sensible option. People won't want to pay for a year and only get 6 months.
If not, there will be a huge demand at this time of year, every year.
Quite. There needs to be a randomness factor on the length of time the test is valid for for all such tests (say 11-13 months, lasting for 3 years), to desynchronise all these things to something back to near normal. But HMG are too stupid to go with anything like this. And still the losers would moan and the winners would gloat.
Luckily, mine's not due till end of March.
 
The MOTs weren't exactly 'postponed', just extended by 6 months. One of mine was due in June but was automatically extended to the same day in December, so I effectively got 18 months for the price of 12 last year.
 
Ah. Someone with the facts without guesswork or conjecture.
A google would have taken less time than a guesswork post. :rolling: :frantic:

And just to remove any doubt still in your minds, have a look HERE
 
And just to remove any doubt still in your minds, have a look HERE
It doesn't answer the question. There will be no work at all for MOT testers to do between April and July inc., either next year or the year after and minimal in the two years following. It therefore follows that there will be a large increase in August-November ongoing for the lifetime of all the vehicles concerned.
 
Ah, I see. That aspect F35'd me first time around the airfield. It was much louder than a 'woosh' too.
But don't worry about the testers, Richie will furlough them on full pay.
 
There will be no work at all for MOT testers to do between April and July inc., either next year or the year after and minimal in the two years following. It therefore follows that there will be a large increase in August-November ongoing for the lifetime of all the vehicles concerned.
One way would round it this would be to give vehicles with MoTs expiring August-November a compensating six-month extension. Downside would be it would mean even more vehicles where the MoT due date no longer matches the annual service.
 
I ain't bothered. Our cars' dealers were open for business, so both serviced and one MoT'd (the other is too new) on time :)

I expect a lot of people have just been gaming the system - which is OK if their income was slashed, but with the furlough scheme :dunno:
 
Downside would be it would mean even more vehicles where the MoT due date no longer matches the annual service.
Annual service? My services are every couple of months.

It's shambolic effectively giving some people six-month free extensions - what about the rest of us? No, I think an amnesty rather than an extension would have been the best idea, but this government is very short on following the best idea rather than the first thing that pops into their tiny little Brexit heads.
 
Annual service? My services are every couple of months.
Never done that kind of mileage but for a spell back in the '90s I did have to service on a mileage basis.
It's shambolic effectively giving some people six-month free extensions - what about the rest of us? No, I think an amnesty rather than an extension would have been the best idea...
Agreed, and MoT test stations would have been able to recover their now lost income.
 
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Do I get the impression that you are a rabid anti EU exit supporter BH. If so, get over it. You lost. We are out of the EU. But I will listen to your "I told you so" comments when it all goes tits up. (Providing that you will listen to my "I told you so" when it turns to pure gold. Except I'm not convinced)
 
You lost.
That's not my point. My point is that this government was elected for its enthusiasm for Brexit, not its ability to handle a crisis such as Covid. It's a one-trick pony. "We're following the science!" Science does not deliver black-and-white decisions, science delivers fuzzy data which needs mulling over and political decisions made with due consideration to statistical variation and socio-economic factors. It is rarely appropriate to just knee-jerk on "science".
 
Given the number of U turns over the last few months, I am pretty nervous of them doung a U turn on leaving the EU. I feel a "Please Mr. Barnier, can we come back" sort of conversation coming on, supported by "Your fishermen can rape our waters for as much fish as they want to and of course we will follow your rules, however onerous they will be".
 
That's not my point. My point is that this government was elected for its enthusiasm for Brexit, not its ability to handle a crisis such as Covid. It's a one-trick pony. "We're following the science!" Science does not deliver black-and-white decisions, science delivers fuzzy data which needs mulling over and political decisions made with due consideration to statistical variation and socio-economic factors. It is rarely appropriate to just knee-jerk on "science".
I'm not aware of any government in the world that is, in total, 'better' than ours, or the alternative one that was on offer at the last election. Whatever one you want seems to come with a big suitcase on wheels full of gotchas.

I've given up worrying about it. Que sera sera.
 
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