MOT on Historic Vehicles

[PaulB]

Hi All

Correct me if I’m wrong but my understanding is that once your car has been registered as Historic (over 40 years old) you no longer need to get an MOT. It is optional but vehicle must be kept in a road worthy condition.

My question is that if you get an MOT test after being exempt and it fails do you have to resolve it before you can use the car?

Also do you have to continue getting the car MOT’d or once it has expired it is still optional?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[sparky_spit]

Hi Paul - I can answer one of the questions with certainty: once an Historic vehicle has an MOT issued it does not have to keep on having it done every year after that, you can please yourself if you do or don't. The only condition to this is that your car must still conform to the rules around what constitutes an "Historic Vehicle".

As far as having to comply with any failures that a voluntary MOT throws up, I'm not sure; but common sense would say that any safety critical issue found must be rectified and re-tested. You would be in trouble with your insurance company at the very least if you had an accident while knowingly using a vehicle that had a MOT failure logged against it in the system, let alone the Police and the courts if it were a serious accident.  But I'm not sure what the law actually says.

[djw113uk]

As I understand it: If you get a fail, then you must fix it and get a pass before you can use it on the road. However, if you have an mot and it expires then you just continue using it.

Perhaps others can confirm or correct me?

 

[RobPearce]

1 hour ago, djw113uk said:

As I understand it: If you get a fail, then you must fix it and get a pass before you can use it on the road. However, if you have an mot and it expires then you just continue using it.

Perhaps others can confirm or correct me?

 

That sounds entirely reasonable and sensible. It can't possibly be what the rules actually are 😝

[PaulB]

Thanks for the replies gents.

I did think that one didn’t have to continue with MOTs but wanted to make sure.

If my car did fail a MOT on a safety point then I would definitely want to fix it so the above makes sense.

Thanks

 

 

[Rutty]

22 hours ago, djw113uk said:

As I understand it: If you get a fail, then you must fix it and get a pass before you can use it on the road. However, if you have an mot and it expires then you just continue using it.

 

But do you have to fix it? What is to stop someone MOT exempting the car after the fail and continuing to use it? Yes It would not be road legal but ANPR would see it as having an MOT, only if the car was stopped on in an incident would it show up as having defects. 

For the record I still put my cars in for an MOT and would fix any defects found before continuing to use them.

Mark

[Clive]

45 minutes ago, Rutty said:

But do you have to fix it? What is to stop someone MOT exempting the car after the fail and continuing to use it? Yes It would not be road legal but ANPR would see it as having an MOT, only if the car was stopped on in an incident would it show up as having defects. 

For the record I still put my cars in for an MOT and would fix any defects found before continuing to use them.

Mark

I agree. I think if a car fails, then it is fixed but not submitted for a retest, then it is legitimate to use.

What is a worry is people who think "non safety" aspects, eg emissions, are OK. Because then it could lead onto headlights and "but I don't use it at night" or indeed wipers. And so on. 

Best to keep the MoT up to date, if little use every 2 years (but then little used cars often develop brake faults)

[Topic63]

My own experience after taking my 1971 GT6 for a pre-MOT inspection and having a chat with the tester.

The car failed only due to having LHD headlights fitted which I didn’t even consider, even though I had imported it from Stockholm it never crossed my mind. However I never use it after dark, then again you never know, especially now the nights are drawing in. So new headlights were fitted and re-aligned.

As for emissions, the tester was not really interested in any of the readings as again due to its age it was pre any emission standards. Knowing what the recommended readings should be, I ask if we could adjust them down so at least it is running nearer standard, they were adjusted as close as possible without affecting idle or it’s running condition.

My personal feeling is that it is always better to have another set of eyes to check over your car, your own thoughts on its condition may differ significantly to an MOT tester that does inspections for a living, even if you don’t go the full hog and have an MOT certificate, a yearly inspection doesn’t hurt. 

 

Edited September 16, 2021 by Topic63