If Car Fails Early MOT is it off the road

Ebe_Scrooge

As above. Your old MOT is still valid, so you can't be done for driving without a current MOT certificate. But you may very well be pulled up for driving an unroadworthy vehicle. "Valid MOT" and "Roadworthy Vehicle" are 2 completely different things except for the precise moment at which the MOT test is carried out. To take it to the extreme, imagine you had the MOT test done, then whilst driving out of the test centre you crashed into a tree. Your MOT certificate is only 5 minutes old, but your car is now unroadworthy.

mikey72

BAA1 wrote: »

The main point here is that an MOT certificate does not say that the car is roadworthy at any point after the test was done, it just shows that it past the test criteria when it was tested.

So, if a fault was found during an MOT (or pre-MOT) that makes the car unroadworthy, it should not be driven. (Except to / from the MOT test station and/or a pre-booked garage to get the fault(s) fixed)

It'll be just as un roadworthy then.
So long as it still has a current MOT, it can still be legally driven, unless there is a fail on the mot which makes it illegal, such as bald tyres. That's a seperate offense though.

Lum

Ebe is correct here.

It's also worth adding that certain failures on the MOT are marked **dangerous** while others are not.

A bit of common sense when you get your test results is what is needed here. For example if you fail on a headlight bulb, don't drive it at night!

mikey72

If you take common ones, like corroded brake pipes, sometimes put down as advisories, sometimes as fails, the car isn't un roadworthy until it actually fails, and the brakes fail.
Even if you crash, if the brakes were still shown to be working, you can't be prosecuted.
Same for something like rusty sills. Unless they car had folded in half, or you could put your feet through the hole, there's not a lot the police can do.
Unlike tyres, where there is a measurable limit, or a light that either works or it doesn't.

System

mikey72 wrote: »

It'll be just as un roadworthy then.
So long as it still has a current MOT, it can still be legally driven, unless there is a fail on the mot which makes it illegal, such as bald tyres. That's a seperate offense though.

What !

You have used a few different words to say exactly what I wrote

Sometimes, I do wonder what planet we are on with some forum members.

mikey72

BAA1 wrote: »

What !

You have used a few different words to say exactly what I wrote

Sometimes, I do wonder what planet we are on with some forum members.

Well apart from the fact I didn't say anything like you, I do agree you're on a different planet to me.