So, last year my daughter sold her 1.4 8V Grande Punto, the guy buying it had a 1.2 8v MK2b he needed to get rid of that before he could have hers, he said it had a few scuffs and scratches and a pretty poor home done bonnet respray so she said I'll give you £100 off my GP for it (it had 8 months MOT). He said OK!
He drove down, took the GP away and my daughter said do I want it.....I work from home and don't really need a car, we've an Astra that the missus uses to get to work...I said OK, why not a £100 runabout for 8 months, bound to fail the next MOT, I'll then scrap it.


So..... long story short, took it for the MOT last week, sailed through, only advisories were oil leak (cam cover gasket ) and tyres on the legal limit. Woohoo, as a present I've bought it some alloys and got some new tyres coming as well, happy days, not bad for a near 90k 11 year old car :slayer:

Oh, one little nugget from this......my daughter charged me £200 for the car! Cheeky mare

Like you I always dread the MOT...last year I replaced both front discs and pads, redid the rear brake shoes plus shocks and springs...went straight through. This year didn't touch a thing and again straight through. Not bad for a 13 YO Mk2/B

Yes, it can come as a shock when your car passes its mot..

Three years ago I bought a 1998 4 litre jeep at an auction - it cost me a whopping £250 and came with almost 1 month's mot.

I took it to a workshop/mot testing station that I have been using for 20 years for mots, servicing and repairs. I was aware the jeep had a 'few issues' and fully expected the mot to reveal a lot more ..

When they said it had passed the mot I almost said 'That can't be right! Are you sure?'

Admittedly, the mot came with a lot of advisories (volume 1, 2 ..) which was just the workshop's way of saying 'You've been one of our customers for 20 years .. you can fix all these things yourself before the next mot'.. They've serviced/mot'd my car and my wife's car for the past 20 years. I think that when an mot tester/workshop knows you they'll often give you the benefit of the doubt...

It was the same when I bought a 30,000 mile 1994 Cinquecento at auction and took it for its mot.. The car hadn't turned a wheel in years..

When I went to collect the Cinq it had passed its mot, though they'd fitted 4 new tyres as the old ones had perished a decade ago ... and yes, a list of advisories in leather-bound volumes..

Sometimes there's a realism with workshops/mot centres who have a long standing relationship with customers.

And on the subject of mots ... I'm told that in the future - coming to an mot centre near you ... that cars with a warning light of any sort on the dashboard will be an automatic failure.

I had my mk2b for 8 years it was 3.5 years old when I got it, it never once failed an MOT, though in later years it was getting a few more advisories.

I actually look forward to the MOT. (Perhaps I need help?)
No matter how well you look after your own car, having someone else give it a good look over to ensure it is safe and legal is a great idea. My local garage is quite strict, which is good news as far as I'm concerned.

Mines on Monday, fingers crossed!

Scudmonkey said:

Like you I always dread the MOT...last year I replaced both front discs and pads, redid the rear brake shoes plus shocks and springs...went straight through. This year didn't touch a thing and again straight through. Not bad for a 13 YO Mk2/B

Click to expand...

Forgot to mention...NO advisories

I dont mind advisories
I dread fails....

Mine scraped through this year
Its just cost me a chunk atm, which i know aint the end of it....
Im starting to worry its days are numbered
And i cant afford new yet....

I have to plan way ahead for it all as well

And on the subject of mots ... I'm told that in the future - coming to an mot centre near you ... that cars with a warning light of any sort on the dashboard will be an automatic failure.[/QUOTE]

Well it's news to me & i'm a tester.

It already is in effect, if its a red warning light... fail. If its amber, advisory

Well I can see a whole heap of folk popping bulbs out then...................haha.

Qube O said:

Well I can see a whole heap of folk popping bulbs out then...................haha.

Click to expand...

Might work for some circuits, but ABS needs to come on, then go out, so removing the bulb should not fool the tester.

I can foresee some testers wanting to fail it for the brake warning light, coming on with the handbrake. Some are not as bright as the warning lamps, sadly.

dtimmins1985 said:

It already is in effect, if its a red warning light... fail. If its amber, advisory

Click to expand...

Not quite. If the battery,brake pad or oil pressure are on then that would be a manual advisory although the oil pressure one should be a refusal to test since vehicle damage may occur. The ABS one, as Bill points out, has to work but strangely an airbag one that does'nt is an advisory.