What to do if car fails mot and you are told it’s illegal to drive the car back?

ahfat41

Had to spend a lot of money to get 20 yrs old car on the road. £1070, was told it is illegal to drive it back. The steering wheel was leaking and had to be repaired for £800. Asked what option do I have if not repairing, she just said I could not drive it back which means after paying for full service and mot I would have to pay for somebody to take the car for scrap. I decided to repair the car for mot and the mot came with a lot of advisories  coil spring corroded near side, coil spring corroded offside, brake pipe corroded covered in grease near side, brake pipe corroded offside and power steering component has slight seepage from a component rack, that part itself cost over £1000. Am not sure whether Ford is ripping me off last year advisory was cambelt needs replacing due to age and this it was not there. Ford is not that cheap but I bought the car new from them and they do it’s annual service. I do not think next time it failed it’s mot, it’s worth repairing and spend a lot on it. I only use the car on shopping trip once a week and sometimes pick my son from the station only 3 miles from where I live. Will be cheaper using taxi and am getting on as well, time to get used to give up driving.My query is if your car failed the mot, do you have to make arrangements for a company to pick it up for scrap. Next time I will do MOT first then service if it passes. Thanks

Car_54

If your car fails its MOT, the garage can't stop you driving it away.

However, if it had failed on a dangerous fault, you would be breaking the law.

Firstly, if the old MOT had expired, you would now be driving a car with no valid MOT. That is a relatively trivial offence - £100 and no points.

Second, you'd be driving a dangerous vehicle, which is a much more serious offence (and a risk to yourself and others).

You don't have to let the MOT garage do the repairs - there is nothing to stop you getting it trailered somewhere else.

born_again

Ford is ripping me off last year advisory was cambelt needs replacing due to age and this it was not there. 

Cambelt is not part of the MOT.

Advisories are just that, you do not have to have them fixed. If you are using a main ford dealer. I suggest that you find a well recommended local independent that will be a lot cheaper.

ahfat41

Car_54 said:

If your car fails its MOT, the garage can't stop you driving it away.

However, if it had failed on a dangerous fault, you would be breaking the law.

Firstly, if the old MOT had expired, you would now be driving a car with no valid MOT. That is a relatively trivial offence - £100 and no points.

Second, you'd be driving a dangerous vehicle, which is a much more serious offence (and a risk to yourself and others).

You don't have to let the MOT garage do the repairs - there is nothing to stop you getting it trailered somewhere else.

Thanks next time will get mot done one week before. Will that make a difference if it fails before it’s anniversary I should still be able to drive it as mot not expired yet. She said the steering wheel is leaking, too dangerous to drive it back. I have since found out you get paid to have the car scrapped. I might take it to another garage and ask how much it will cost.

user1977

It's not going to be any more illegal to drive it home than it was to drive it to the garage (unless the garage made it worse!). If it isn't roadworthy then yes it might be illegal to drive it. Not up to the garage to police that though.

Car_54

ahfat41 said:

Car_54 said:

If your car fails its MOT, the garage can't stop you driving it away.

However, if it had failed on a dangerous fault, you would be breaking the law.

Firstly, if the old MOT had expired, you would now be driving a car with no valid MOT. That is a relatively trivial offence - £100 and no points.

Second, you'd be driving a dangerous vehicle, which is a much more serious offence (and a risk to yourself and others).

You don't have to let the MOT garage do the repairs - there is nothing to stop you getting it trailered somewhere else.

Thanks next time will get mot done one week before. Will that make a difference if it fails before it’s anniversary I should still be able to drive it as mot not expired yet. She said the steering wheel is leaking, too dangerous to drive it back. I have since found out you get paid to have the car scrapped. I might take it to another garage and ask how much it will cost.

It makes a difference, in that you will still have a valid MOT. But a valid MOT does NOT mean the car is safe: if it has a dangerous fault it is illegal to drive.

badmemory

Please in future take the usual advice on here which is to use an MOT garage which does not do repairs.  They will normally treplace wipers & bulbs but that is it.  I have been using that advice for lot of years now & once needed a bulb, compared to £900 worth of work the year before.  Large garages have targets to meet, if they are not making it guess who has to make up the slack.

Grey_Critic

The garage can legally ask you to sign acknowledging the faults are such that it is dangerous to drive and they have told you.

tedted

they might but you dont have to sign it

Mildly_Miffed

It's every bit as legal to drive it home from the failed test as it was to drive it to the test centre.

If it's not got a current MOT, or if it's SORNed, then it's legal to drive it to or from a test.

The failed test does not invalidate any time remaining on the old test. The question is whether it's unroadworthy to drive...

If it's illegal because it was unroadworthy, then it was illegal to drive it there.

Advisories are just things the tester thinks you ought to be aware of. They may well differ from tester to tester.

Oh, and a main dealer is the single most expensive place possible to take it for work - the hourly labour rate will be through the roof, and the parts price will be the highest around. They will also try to impose new-car standards on an older one, insisting on replacing things that another garage might well repair or suggest you live with.
Don't ever take a car to a main dealer outside the original warranty.
Even within that warranty, you have a choice - any decent garage will use original parts and your warranty will remain valid, but you will have no hope of any edge-case goodwill.

LunaLater

What was leaking from your steering wheel? That’s quite worrying, there should be no liquid in it.