Car passed m.o.t - the receptionist told me the car is illegal to drive!

colino

They are either looking for extra, unnecessary work or a date. The idea that the car is unsafe and they are covering their backs is nonsense. If the testable items were very close to failure (no such thing really, it passes or it fails) they would have passed and given you an advisory notice.

ukjoel

There are two reasons for the Red, Yellow, Green Form.
One is two cover their backsides in case the next day you get pulled by the police who say your tyres are below legal minimum. They have a signed doc from you saying you knew they were low and therefore you cant sue them for not informing you of their status. This form also predicts what MAY need fixing at ANY TIME prior to your next service MOT - so it can be a long list.

The second reason is to scare you into spending lots of money with them.
Many places offer low price MOTs to get you in for this precise reason.

With regards to the MOT it either passed or it didnt.
There isnt any grey area.

Confusion over why it passed the MOT and then appeared to fail on the RED YELLOW AMBER with tyres is probably due to the tech being sloppy with paperwork. MOT is done in the MOT test bay and they are in demand so probably kicked off straight after it was done. RED YELLOW AMBER probably done in lunchbreak while he was having a sarnie.

Used to audit these checks for the manufacturer and out of a sample of 50 I could expect to find ambiguities like yours in 35-40 at a decent dealer and 50 at a poor dealer.

dizziblonde

I'm going to assume from the username that you're female (forgive any offence if you're not). I'd strongly suspect they're trying a nice way of trawling for business to be honest - I'm female, I know a fairish bit about cars because of my ex, but I've had garages try it with me before (thankfully I have enough mechanics about the family I could ask). Because of that I tend to stick to my small family-run garage who know their clients so well they immediately name the car I drive before I've even said who I am on the phone (my accent's not local) and I know they'll give me an honest assessment of what needs doing now, and what can wait a month or so, and what I just need to keep an eye on).

I've had the advisory forms before - just budgetted to get that stuff done in the near future but never got terrified to drive my car because of one (and I tend to be the biggest neurotic going about funny noises or whatever in my car)

somech

was it tested by nationwide autocentres?

angelicmary85

somech wrote: »

was it tested by nationwide autocentres?

No I took it to Arnold Clark...which was probably the biggest problem!!

Tucker

I had my MOT done today, at the only place I would trust to test it - the Council Depo.

Available to the public and they don't do repairs, so they have no hidden agenda. 4th time I have taken it there and 4th time it has passed.

I thought it was going to be diferent mind as my brake lights were stuck on!! The guy had a look for me and found one of my brake bulbs was the wrong type, changed it for free and passed it.

Try your local council next time. Totally trustworthy!

foxwales

You shouldn't have signed the health check before hand, especially if it is blank as you are confirming their standards of work which have yet to be carried out.

Also if there were any issues of concern with regards to your cars road worthiness, then an advisory notice should have been issued with the MOT certificate to make you aware of components that will need attention in the future.

To pass your car but to state to your face that they passed the car with known faults and with no advisory notice is illegal as they are falsifying doucments that are a legal requirement to prove the road worthiness of your vehicle.

Should your vehicle be involved in an accident and it is discovered that it was due to a long term fault of the vehicle which was not addressed at the MOT stage, then you could be liable for prosecution from driving an un-roadworthy vehicle, you may also find that this will invalidate any car insurance that you have.

Make a complaint to VOSA asap as they have time limits in which they can investigate improper MOT certificates: TEL: 0300 123 9000.

Rolandtheroadie

Tucker wrote: »

I thought it was going to be diferent mind as my brake lights were stuck on!! The guy had a look for me and found one of my brake bulbs was the wrong type, changed it for free and passed it.

Try your local council next time. Totally trustworthy!

They sure are, but what cowboy changed your brake light bulbs.

angelicmary85

foxwales wrote: »

You shouldn't have signed the health check before hand, especially if it is blank as you are confirming their standards of work which have yet to be carried out. I didn't think it was right...that's why I questioned it at the time.

Also if there were any issues of concern with regards to your cars road worthiness, then an advisory notice should have been issued with the MOT certificate to make you aware of components that will need attention in the future. Is this the orange paper that was mentioned by another poster? I didn't get one of them.

To pass your car but to state to your face that they passed the car with known faults and with no advisory notice is illegal as they are falsifying doucments that are a legal requirement to prove the road worthiness of your vehicle. Should your vehicle be involved in an accident and it is discovered that it was due to a long term fault of the vehicle which was not addressed at the MOT stage, then you could be liable for prosecution from driving an un-roadworthy vehicle, you may also find that this will invalidate any car insurance that you have. The warranty runs out on the 23rd so I got the m.o.t post dated to the 23rd to make sure I had time to fix any faults before they actuall needed done, if you see what I mean?


Make a complaint to VOSA asap as they have time limits in which they can investigate improper MOT certificates: TEL: 0300 123 9000.

Thank you for your reply

Glitzkiss

ukjoel wrote: »

There are two reasons for the Red, Yellow, Green Form.
One is two cover their backsides in case the next day you get pulled by the police who say your tyres are below legal minimum. They have a signed doc from you saying you knew they were low and therefore you cant sue them for not informing you of their status. This form also predicts what MAY need fixing at ANY TIME prior to your next service MOT - so it can be a long list.

The second reason is to scare you into spending lots of money with them.
Many places offer low price MOTs to get you in for this precise reason.

I once fell out with our local vw dealership who insisted on wasting my time with one of these red, green, yellow forms. I'd only used them as my local small, but very good, independent garage didn't have the equipment to fix an immobiliser fault. The poor girl on the customer service desk tried to tell me only they could properly look after my car :rollseyes: and I was facing potential later problems by not using a vw dealership to srevice/maintain my 10 yr old polo. At which point I told her I was not impressed they had wasted my time looking for work I had not authorised and as my car was getting MOT'd the following week I would get my usual garage to look at it for me.

Sure enough the car passed it's MOT after replacement break pads but this was the only red my mechanic agreed with. All the others he classed as nonsense or amber (i.e. would need doing in the winter service) :rollseyes: