Another MOT question

[Tori]

My cars mot runs out on 20th July. I had it mot'd on Friday. It needed a fair amount of work, brakes etc, which I was getting done all at the same time.

It failed as my windscreen washer jet had packed up. Fair enough. The mot tester then tells me, if he cannot get it working, the car will fail, and I will have no mot. I reply, it's ok, it doesn't run out til 20/7. He then tells me that will not valid! If I get pnc checked by the police, my car would be flagged up as an mot failure and if I had an accident, it would be doubtful I had valid insurance!

I was always under the impression that your old ticket still stood, but apparently this is a very grey area. I checked with another garage and they told me there was no definitive answer, and that it was very risky territory!!

So, if you not early, be aware that if it fails, your old ticket may, or may not be valid!! What a farce!

[jon]

Yup. It used to be the case that the old ticket still covered you as it was valid, thats why certain friendly mot stations would turn a blind eye to overly loud exhausts etc... if you got pulled on the way home you could produce your old mot and plod would not know that the center had just passed a noisey exhaust (if you fitted the noisey can 'as soon as you got home from the mot' then the tester wouldnt get in trouble). A few years ago the system went 'live' though and instead of the ticket and records only displaying the date of the test, the computer system now shows the exact time so now if you get stopped leaving the mot center with a loud can a pnc check will flag up the new mot time. This was partly done to catch out dodgy mot centers so they could see exactly what time the mot was issued and not be told that it "wasnt like that when I tested it". Some places are still willing to risk passing overly loud cans etc (its down to the testers discretion) if you are willing to say you fitted them when you got home, but its not unheard of for the police to sit just down the road if they have reason to suspect a dodgy mot tester.

(I have a friend thats an ex-mechanic and mot tester)