New MOT Certificates

pinkteapot

Had my car MOT'd yesterday so I got one of the new style MOT certificates.

First thing I noticed was that advisories are now on the same sheet (damn, I can't unstable the advisory sheet and bin it before selling a car ).

Second thing was that it's pretty plain and boring now. Surely much easier to produce a fake one if you wanted to?

Anyone know what the thinking was behind the new design?

My car failed initially so I also have the refusal certificate (separate). The old green, orange and red pieces of paper were much more obvious when leafing through paperwork. Now you actually have to read them. :rotfl:

Lum

The claim is that the MOT certificate is just a useful bit of paper and the real check and absolute proof comes from checking the database, so there's no need to worry about forgeries any more.

The real reason is, allegedly, that they no longer have to supply all the garages with expensive fancy paper and a stamp, and instead they push the costs of paper supply onto garages who now have to buy their own printer paper.

And yes the new certificate is terrible, anyone halfway skilled in MS Office or a similar program could come up with a convincing replica in a few hours.

I do agree with putting advisories on the same sheet, however.

pinkteapot

Lum wrote: »

I do agree with putting advisories on the same sheet, however.

I do too really - for exactly the reason I said. I'll probably be selling my car this year. It's old and had an advisory. Might have been tempted to tear off the orange sheet previously but probably wouldn't have as I'm too honest for my own good. :rotfl:

interstellaflyer

pinkteapot wrote: »

I do too really - for exactly the reason I said. I'll probably be selling my car this year. It's old and had an advisory. Might have been tempted to tear off the orange sheet previously but probably wouldn't have as I'm too honest for my own good. :rotfl:

I'm pretty sure on the old MOT cert it states whether or not an advisory sheet has been issued.

Also.
The new certificate isn't certificate it's a receipt, your details are viewable online.

Tucker

Or just be honest about the true condition of it and charge a fair price when selling it.......

interstellaflyer

Tucker wrote: »

Or just be honest about the true condition of it and charge a fair price when selling it.......

Yep, just checked my old MOT certificates and they state whether or not an avisory note has been issued, so it's best to be up front about it, after all a lot of the time advisories are noted where the tester can't check a certain area due to plastic under body panels etc or tyres that are legal but near limit or chips in windscreen that are not within the area where they will be a fail, my last car went through 3 MOTs with non repairable chip in the windscreen and in 3 years it never got any worse.

paddedjohn

I normally get the advisories sorted for my own peace of mind.

Joe_Horner

interstellaflyer wrote: »

The new certificate isn't certificate it's a receipt, your details are viewable online.

That's really helpful for the several people I know who "don't do" online and now have absolutely no way of being confident that any car they might buy has a valid MOT. They can't even rely on the seller to look it up for them because they genuinely wouldn't have a clue if he was doing it properly or not.

I could have a web page up in less than a hour that would fool you into thinking it was the genuine MOT check but would return "valid" test results for any reg ou entered. Give me a little longer and I'll even have it add random and believable advice notes for you. So do you really want me "helpfully" showing you that the car I'm selling has an MOT?

It's also not possible to view the details online without either the MOT receipt number or the V5 reference which means either sellers have to give those details out before viewings (which makes a mockery of the security aspect of requiring the numbers), or the seller has to have an internet connection available for the buyer to use, or the buyer needs to have a mobile connection to check after viewing but before buying.

Seeing as all that starts getting quite complicated, I've got a really cool suggestion:

Why don't they start printing the receipts on officially produced forms (say, a bit like a certificate?) that VOSA and the MOT stations can control access to. In fact, we could give the stations their own individual embossing stamps and say that the receipts also need to be endorsed with the stamp before they're valid. Ok, it won't completely cut out fakes / fraud but it'll make it a lot harder and be really simple in use!