Dodgy MOT - What Are My Rights?

GreenSaints

[FONT=&quot]Hi All,

It's been a long time since I've been on the forums, as I have been debt free for over a year (yippee!) and I hope you can all help me please.

I recently treated myself to a new car, well old car really - a N reg Mini Sidewalk which I'm totally in love with :blushing:

When I went to look at the car (a few weekends ago) I was mainly concerned with all the typical Mini pitfalls (i.e. rust, rust and more rust!) and because of its ridiculously low mileage (25k) and owners (only 2) I didn't think about the simple things (like it having oil in it - those sorts of things)

So, I parted with my cash (obviously with some MSE haggling) on the condition that they sorted out a few things for me, one of them being getting a MOT on the car.

I picked up my car last weekend, drove it home (50 miles) very happy with its 12 month MOT intact. The advisories I had were:[/FONT]

• [FONT=&quot]Crack in number plate, might be difficult to read[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Front tyres are near legal limit[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]That's where the story should end, but unfortunately it doesn't

Sunday morning, me and my boyfriend decided to do a little bit of servicing on the Mini. These are the few issues I spotted:[/FONT]

• [FONT=&quot]Oil - TOTALLY EMPTY! Not a drop! I had to put in 3 litres of oil in for it to get to the minimum level. The car only takes 4.8 in total![/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Radiator was all rusted up - there was just water in it - no coolant at all![/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]The smoke and fumes coming from my exhaust was unreal. It made my garage floor black[FONT=&quot]![/FONT][/FONT]

So, I had a look at the paperwork I was given and saw that with my MOT certificate I had a copy of the emissions. It FAILED on every test! Every single one! And by a significant amount. I thought maybe they'd attached the wrong copy of certificate, that it did pass and they accidentally put the fail one in.
[FONT=&quot]
I thought that maybe the lack of oil and coolant might have had something to do with the emissions being so bad, the car was ticking over quite high extra, so took it out for a spin and it did calm down, my exhaust wasn't smoking as bad, the revs were low, all good.

On Sunday I contacted a local specialist Mini garage near me to ask if they could do a full service as I don't believe it had one for a few years and gave them a list of things to look at, one of them being the emissions as I was worried if it was a bigger problem, I'd rather get it fixed sooner rather than later. I dropped my car off to them on Tuesday morning.

I have just received a call from the specialist, turns out it did fail dramtically. The lambda sensor needs replacing, so replacing that could fix the issue with the emissions. However, he also said the tyres aren't just near the legal limit, they should have failed. Also, something has broken on the front pads, meaning the disc and pads need replacing - which also would have failed the MOT. My washer jets didn't work (I only knew this on Monday on my way into work) but that was an easy fix, but also this would have failed the MOT.

My question is, what do I do now? The bill at the minute is about £400 (:eek: so much for being debt free!) granted some of it was things I wanted doing (full service for example) but the items that would have failed the MOT, surely I shouldn't have to pay for that? I've only had the car 5 days and 2 of them have been in the garage!

I vaguely remember the salesman (or boy in this case) saying that if there were any issues covered by the (3 month) warranty, and they believed I was being 'ripped off' they would ask for me to bring it to them and they would fix it. Surely they wouldn't expect me to drive 50 miles to take my clearly unsafe car to get fixed. Would my issues be directed at the garage I bought it from or the MOT testing place?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.[/FONT]

glentoran99

bought from a dealer? take it back

unholyangel

Btw, if it failed the emissions test, it shouldn't have passed the MOT. They may have run a bottle of cleaner through it and got it to pass - I'd speak to them and see what they say.

There are some things a garage has some leeway with when giving an MOT, but not everything. And certainly not to pass something thats below the limits required by law.

What mileage is on the MOT compared to now?

NotRichAtAll

failed emissions is a failed mot.

you mention:-

oil not a drop, it must of had some for you to drive it 50 miles home

smoke and fumes:- did you not see smoke and fumes on the above 50 miles journey?

i would contact the seller and let them know that you are not happy with the paperwork you have saying the car has failed, advise them that you want everything sorted or you will have no other choice but to take the matter further. The seller may have a little scam going with the mot garage.

wealdroam

GreenSaints wrote: »

I vaguely remember the salesman (or boy in this case) saying that if there were any issues covered by the (3 month) warranty, and they believed I was being 'ripped off' they would ask for me to bring it to them and they would fix it. Surely they wouldn't expect me to drive 50 miles to take my clearly unsafe car to get fixed.

Why not?
Why should they be concerned about how far away from them you live?
You chose to buy a car from a dealer fifty miles from home.
If it really cannot be driven, because it is unroadworthy, then you need to find another way of getting the thing to them - trailor?
Before you do that though, you could ask them if you can get it repaired at your local garage at their expense. Good luck with that.

GreenSaints wrote: »

Would my issues be directed at the garage I bought it from or the MOT testing place?

It is very simple to check whether your car has a valid MoT or not.

Check the MOT status of a vehicle

If you feel the MoT was wrongly passed, then you need this form:

Complain about an MOT

.

NotRichAtAll

It is very simple to check whether your car has a valid MoT or not.

Valid does not really mean jack, if the car has not been properly tested, if its a back street garage who do not give a fiddlers then a monkey could pass the car.

wealdroam

NotRichAtAll wrote: »

Valid does not really mean jack, if the car has not been properly tested, if its a back street garage who do not give a fiddlers then a monkey could pass the car.

But it appears that the OP doesn't even know whether the certificate she has was actually issued for her car:

GreenSaints wrote: »

So, I had a look at the paperwork I was given and saw that with my MOT certificate I had a copy of the emissions. It FAILED on every test! Every single one! And by a significant amount. I thought maybe they'd attached the wrong copy of certificate, that it did pass and they accidentally put the fail one in.

We all know that the piece of paper issued at the end of a MoT test, beit pass or fail, is only a copy of the official computer held record. That piece of paper can easily be, shall we say, 'adjusted'.

I repeat - it is easy to get a true record of the current MoT status for the vehicle, and the OP would be wise to do that.

If the OP finds that the vehicle was indeed wrongly passed, he should use the second link in my earlier post to report that.

OP, you need to remember that an MoT test only records the state of the vehicle at the time of the test.

akkers

DVLA have no balls. What they tell you is that the car passed the test on the day and at that time, nothing after nothing before.
However, I bought car some time ago. It had been MOTd a few days earlier with a clean bill of health. When I got home, I found that the break pads were worn, hand brake could not hold the car at all plus some other faults which would have been there when it was MOTd. Brake pads could not have worn out in a few days standing in a showroom. The garage did not want to know and fobbed me off.
I wrote to the MOT fraud section. They replied and said that they had made a note. Made a note!!! I did not hear anything from them after that.
If these people are interested then what can the public do?

[Deleted User]

The lesson here is an MOT can't be relied upon. Not taking a competent mechanic with you to look at a car worth hundreds or thousands of pounds is well.., asking for problems.

I find it difficult to believe how many people don't bother with getting a mechanic to inspect a car before purchase. I'm sure there are one or two ethical car dealers in the country.., but I don't know where they are! Expect problems and take a mechanic with you.

burlington6

deannatrois wrote: »

The lesson here is an MOT can't be relied upon. Not taking a competent mechanic with you to look at a car worth hundreds or thousands of pounds is well.., asking for problems.

I find it difficult to believe how many people don't bother with getting a mechanic to inspect a car before purchase. I'm sure there are one or two ethical car dealers in the country.., but I don't know where they are! Expect problems and take a mechanic with you.

You do know there are far more dishonest private sellers out there, don't you?