Bought 2nd car from dealer with, what appears to be, a dodgy MOT certificate

laisbojar83

Thanks everyone for your input.

The car is a 1.6 vauxhall zafira - petrol.

The thing that I find very odd is that both mot fails have the same list of issues. Only the mot certificate provided by the dealer passed the car with no advisory or anything. So even if the emissions passed on the second mot, there is no way a pipe would corrod so badly in a space of 12 days.. Or am I wrong? And what about the other issues, had they been fixed in order to pass the mot could they return within such a short period of time?

laisbojar83

nobbysn*ts wrote: »

Did it pass on the day? That says it all.

Sorry I dont get what you mean.

laisbojar83

AdrianC wrote: »

You've looked on the online MOT checker, and seen that all three tests are actually listed on there and apparently legit? Remember, the "certificate" these days is no more than a receipt. The primary record, the only one that actually matters, is what's on the VOSA system.

Emissions can certainly pass one day and fail the next. It may well be that the engine just wasn't up to temperature. Burning oil is not high on the list for likely causes.

And, agreed, I'd have said that the most serious fail on there was the brake pipe.

Hi Adrian,

When I checked on the GOV website I found the failed mot, which the dealer never mentioned about (I dont think he had to anyway), and the reasons why the car failed the mot. The 9 days later a new mot certificate had been issued passing the car with no problems whatsoever. We bought the car on the 18th and had another mot done yesterday - which failed on the same things the first mot tes failed. I hope it makes sense, sorry if not lol.

nobbysn*ts

laisbojar83 wrote: »

Sorry I dont get what you mean.

If he'd lie to you about sold as seen, and deny your rights under SOGA, is it likely the csr would fail, pass, then fail an mot in a few days.

AdrianC

laisbojar83 wrote: »

When I checked on the GOV website I found the failed mot, which the dealer never mentioned about (I dont think he had to anyway), and the reasons why the car failed the mot. The 9 days later a new mot certificate had been issued passing the car with no problems whatsoever. We bought the car on the 18th and had another mot done yesterday - which failed on the same things the first mot tes failed. I hope it makes sense, sorry if not lol.

And the passed test was on the online register? In that case, the car has a legitimate MOT. End of.

Whether that MOT was issued correctly is a separate question. A corroded brake pipe is the tester's opinion. If you want to take it anywhere, take it to VOSA to decide. But, really, if it's even borderline - get it changed.

shaun_from_Africa

AdrianC wrote: »

And the passed test was on the online register? In that case, the car has a legitimate MOT. End of.

Whether that MOT was issued correctly is a separate question.

How can the possibility of the MOT being issued correctly or not be a separate question?
If it was not issued correctly then despite the online register showing a valid MOT, that MOT is not legitimate.

Joe_Horner

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

How can the possibility of the MOT being issued correctly or not be a separate question?
If it was not issued correctly then despite the online register showing a valid MOT, that MOT is not legitimate.

From the point of view of "driving without a valid MOT" the pass stands regardless of whether or not it was obtained correctly. That may seem like a fault in the system but it's not really.

Wiith a "properly" tested car you could still be charged with driving an unroadworthy vehicle for any faults that develop, just not with driving without an MOT. Exactly the same applies here to any faults that were allowed to "slip though".

Even if VOSA retested the car and found it should have failed, they're powerless to over-rule the original test result on the database. So once you get the faults fixed you don't need to have it retested befire using it.

laisbojar83

Hi everyone,

Just an update. We managed to return the car to the dealer. At first he tried to deduct 'rental' for the days we used the car, the price of a new mot test and, believe it or not, 12 days of tax disc!

We remained strong and in the end we even got a bit extra. He even tried to pay me by cheque but I refused. Surprisely enough he had the cash waiting but, of course, decided to try his luck.

After all was done and dusted he said to us: i will be honest with you, I put this cleaner in the engine and went for a run with the car to make it pass the mot on emissions and I put new parts in for the mot then swapped with old ones afterwards.

What a tool!

In any case, thanks everyone for your advice. We have already reported the garage to Trading Standards. Is there anything else I should do? I am concerned he will just try and sell the car to someone else.

L x

Joe_Horner

Thanks for the update, and a good result

Looking at the fail list I suspect that his "cleaner and swapped parts" story is covering for his tame MOT tester.

If cleaner had dropped the emissions enough for the test then they would have stayed down, at least for a while. And I can't see any of those fails that would have benefitted from a parts swap except for the brake pipe, but the work involved in changing a brake pipe wouldn't make it worth swapping back for the rusty one after.

But, honestly, that's not worth you worrying about. You've got the result you wanted, Trading Standards are aware (and may or may not be watching him already), and dodgy MOT places tend to get caught out eventually. With the dealer prepared to take the blame like that DVSA couldn't really do anything to the garage because they just say it was OK when they tested and he created the faults after. They may not believe it, but if the dealer puts his hands up to it there's not much they can do. This time.

arcon5

laisbojar83 wrote: »

After all was done and dusted he said to us: i will be honest with you, I put this cleaner in the engine and went for a run with the car to make it pass the mot on emissions and I put new parts in for the mot then swapped with old ones afterwards.

What a tool!

At least we know the MOT station haven't done anything wrong then.

But he sounds like a right muppet to tell you that.

Well done.