Does A New MOT Prove That A Car Is Roadworthy?
Friday, 4. March 2016
Did you know that an MOT test certificate does not prove that a car is road legal. Many car dealers believe it does as do most customers. But let’s take an example whereby a used car on a dealer’s forecourt has been on a test drive and hits a pothole that forces the wheel alignment out.
Not so much that you would feel it in the steering but this damage could be the future cause of excessive tyre wear or even worse cause an accident. You test drive the car and agree to buy it. True to his word the dealer has the car MOT tested before you take delivery but wheel alignment is not part of the MOT test but it is illegal to drive a car whose wheel alignment is out.
If you find the fault, hopefully not after an accident, the dealer will probably say that the car was roadworthy when you bought it because it had a brand new MOT certificate, issued the day you bought it. It’s a con. There are a number of other items that could be wrong with the car making it not roadworthy but are not part of an MOT test.
And if the MOT is 3 months old there is an even greater chance that it may not be roadworthy as an MOT is a snapshot, much can go wrong over 3 months. Finally on this point Trading Standards are considering a formal prosecution of a dealer who sold a car to a customer two and a half years previous to him being involved in an accident.
The accident was caused as a result of the car having a fault that made it not roadworthy which was shown to have existed at the time of purchase. The dealer argued that the car had a new MOT when sold and had been through 2 MOT’s since but the fault was not part of the MOT test so Trading Standards are prosecuting. If the outcome is reported I’ll let you know. By Graham Hill
