The MOT test (or simply MOT) is an annual test of vehicle safety, roadworthiness aspects and exhaust emissions required in the United Kingdom for most vehicles over three years old.
Texas in the US just got rid of safety inspections this year. They still do emissions testing for cars newer than 25 years, but it is up to the county and most rural counties don’t.
I purchased a used car a decade ago and I have never had a mechanic service it or inspect it. I had a proper shop do a head gasket swap 5 years ago and I legit think I could have done a better job just reading the workshop manual and having a go.
It won’t get forced into a roadworthy check unless a cop pulls me over for something super obvious like smoke billowing out the side.
I know someone who bought a car second-hand and onsold it 5 years later with the same oil that was originally in it.
I’m a bit confused by this. When I bought a used car in Melbourne around 6 years ago I had to get a roadworthy check done I in order to get it registered. So maybe the law has changed since you bought yours?
It also says you need one if you buy a used vehicle:
You’ll need a roadworthy certificate (RWC or ‘roadworthy’) when selling a car, re-registering it, or clearing some defect notices.
I remember it beeing quite a pain, too. I bought the car and had to register it online (temporal for 24 h) to move it home. Cost me 50 AUD to do so. Then I had to move it to the roadworthy test a couple km of days later = another 50 AUD. But my battery was dead and I couldn’t move it. So 50 AUD wasted. Didn’t get them back, since you need to cancel a registion 24 hours in advance. Second time and another 50 AUD later I drove it to the roadworthy ckeck. Needed to change some minor stuff, took them a couple of days. The mechanic tooed my vehicle to my home so I didn’t have to pay another 50 AUD to move it back once he was done. But I had to pay another 50 AUD to move it to the registration place.
So I payed 200 AUD on top just to get the bloody thing registerd. On a car that I payed 300 bucks for. Fucking moneysucking fuckers.
We also have this regular inspection. Doesn’t apply to new cars, the first time is when the car is 4 years old, then every 2 years until 8, then its every year.
There’s a nice benefit to it - they keep the history of how many km the car has in total at that point. You can check this when buying a used car to see if anyone fiddled with the odometer, any big changes should be really obvious.
The EU Directive 2014/45 of April 3, 2014 mandates all member states to carry out periodic safety and emission (roadworthiness) inspections for most types of motor vehicles including passenger cars, light and heavy goods vehicles, trailers, tractors with designed speed exceeding 40 km/h and, from 1 January 2022, motorcycles with engine displacement over 125 cm3
My state use to have emissions and safety inspections. It was like a 600 page pdf for all the safety stuff that had pretty annual updates. People would consistently work around it though. A handful of years ago they voted to kill off the safety part under the guise that it would be cheaper for residents. What really happened is everybody and I mean everybody just raised their emissions testing price to what it used to be for both. Safety took 15-30 minutes to do as they had to crawl around and poke and prod a ton of places. Emissions they just plug in the computer and 2-3 minutes later you’re done. So workload decreased and the price stayed exactly the same…
Sure, now residents don’t have to swap wheels(tires that extend past the body is a super common mod that was an instant fail) and other things to pass safety every year so that surely saves cost if they were paying somebody to do it. Also the cost of actually fixing things like replacing bald tires and burnt out lights.
The amount of cars with no brake lights, treadless tires, etc. is so much higher. Was walking through my work parking lot and one car’s tire had the steel cords showing…oof.
In the US they’re normally called car inspections, if the state/county even has them (yes, we’re monsters over here more and more).
Why would you need to talk to anyone for an annual test? Is it typical to try and upsell a repair, like in the cheap oil change places? All the inspection centers I’ve ever used they want you in and out, and the most they’ll try to sell is a replacement wiper or bulb because what you have won’t pass. They just ask if you want to pay for it installed now to pass or come back later after you do it.
Not really. In California it’s called a smog check
And many American states do not have any kind of mandatory inspection
The UK MOT covers a lot more than just emissions. The vehicle needs to have appropriate tyre tread, windscreen in safe working order, no check engine light, etc. And mileage is recorded to reduce potential for fraud. Many other things are checked.
US state inspections are all that too. Emissions is actually the first thing to expire being checked on older cars, since it becomes impossible to maintain the standards as parts age. Also new cars (3 years or less) are exempt from the emissions check/charge (in my state anyway) I guess because it’s assumed they are working as designed.
Again, this is if they even do them. And while I don’t agree with it, I can see some areas eliminating emissions for some reasons. But you can tell places that don’t do inspections at all, because the cars on the road can be very questionable from even a novice if they are safe to be around at speed. Why basic safety issues isn’t a federal thing mandated to all is beyond me.
Also new cars (3 years or less) are exempt from the emissions check/charge
This might sound obvious but: EVs and motorcycles (without modded exhausts) are also exempt from SMOG. The former for hopefully obvious reasons, the later because motorcycles pollute so much less than cars that it’s not worth the bother
So those don’t ever have to go in for any kind of looky-loo at all
Maybe it’s state-specific, but both of them in my state still require a safety inspection (which is obviously less cost).
Looking up California, that’s where the confusion on my part is. All they care about is emissions. I guess you can have bald tires and only one light working, as long as you don’t emit too much CO. That’s ridiculous.
In my memory, they will get you to try and do a brake fluid change, a transmission fluid change (if your car does those), steering fluid, expensively change your air filters, swap brake pads, pay for rotor something-or-other, bla bla bla.
Some people drop money because they don’t want to NOT do something important, and they don’t know any better.
The name derives from the Ministry of Transport,[5] a defunct government department, which was one of several ancestors of the current Department for Transport, but is still officially used.
In case, like me, you don’t/didn’t know:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOT_test
It’s still wild to me that any developed nation DOESNT have mandatory road worthiness inspections.
I guess New Zealand isn’t a developed nation. That makes me sad
In Florida they break trucks on purpose to emit extra carbon called rolling coal. We obviously don’t have inspection here.
Texas in the US just got rid of safety inspections this year. They still do emissions testing for cars newer than 25 years, but it is up to the county and most rural counties don’t.
You still have to pay the inspection fee.
Melbourne, Australia: Zero inspections ever.
I purchased a used car a decade ago and I have never had a mechanic service it or inspect it. I had a proper shop do a head gasket swap 5 years ago and I legit think I could have done a better job just reading the workshop manual and having a go.
It won’t get forced into a roadworthy check unless a cop pulls me over for something super obvious like smoke billowing out the side.
I know someone who bought a car second-hand and onsold it 5 years later with the same oil that was originally in it.
I’m a bit confused by this. When I bought a used car in Melbourne around 6 years ago I had to get a roadworthy check done I in order to get it registered. So maybe the law has changed since you bought yours?
It also says you need one if you buy a used vehicle:
https://transport.vic.gov.au/Registration-and-licensing/Registration/Roadworthy-certification/Roadworthy-certificate
I remember it beeing quite a pain, too. I bought the car and had to register it online (temporal for 24 h) to move it home. Cost me 50 AUD to do so. Then I had to move it to the roadworthy test a couple km of days later = another 50 AUD. But my battery was dead and I couldn’t move it. So 50 AUD wasted. Didn’t get them back, since you need to cancel a registion 24 hours in advance. Second time and another 50 AUD later I drove it to the roadworthy ckeck. Needed to change some minor stuff, took them a couple of days. The mechanic tooed my vehicle to my home so I didn’t have to pay another 50 AUD to move it back once he was done. But I had to pay another 50 AUD to move it to the registration place.
So I payed 200 AUD on top just to get the bloody thing registerd. On a car that I payed 300 bucks for. Fucking moneysucking fuckers.
That’s right. It needs to have a RWC when you transfer it into you name, and it never gets checked after that.
You’d think from the $900 it costs to register a car for a year, there would be a budget to have a mechanic look over it for 20 minutes.
Annual tho? That’s a bit much.
We also have this regular inspection. Doesn’t apply to new cars, the first time is when the car is 4 years old, then every 2 years until 8, then its every year.
There’s a nice benefit to it - they keep the history of how many km the car has in total at that point. You can check this when buying a used car to see if anyone fiddled with the odometer, any big changes should be really obvious.
Wait, they have this here in Australia too? I have never heard of this.
Not in WA.
Nice.
A lot can happen in a year
A lot has happened in a year.
Seems for EU it’s mandatory for all members
France: every two years. May be different (4 years ?) for cars under 10 year old, but I wouldn’t know.
You should check out some of the state rules in the US. Some are strict, others don’t even exist
My state use to have emissions and safety inspections. It was like a 600 page pdf for all the safety stuff that had pretty annual updates. People would consistently work around it though. A handful of years ago they voted to kill off the safety part under the guise that it would be cheaper for residents. What really happened is everybody and I mean everybody just raised their emissions testing price to what it used to be for both. Safety took 15-30 minutes to do as they had to crawl around and poke and prod a ton of places. Emissions they just plug in the computer and 2-3 minutes later you’re done. So workload decreased and the price stayed exactly the same…
Sure, now residents don’t have to swap wheels(tires that extend past the body is a super common mod that was an instant fail) and other things to pass safety every year so that surely saves cost if they were paying somebody to do it. Also the cost of actually fixing things like replacing bald tires and burnt out lights.
The amount of cars with no brake lights, treadless tires, etc. is so much higher. Was walking through my work parking lot and one car’s tire had the steel cords showing…oof.
And some of them vary wildly county to county!
In the US they’re normally called car inspections, if the state/county even has them (yes, we’re monsters over here more and more).
Why would you need to talk to anyone for an annual test? Is it typical to try and upsell a repair, like in the cheap oil change places? All the inspection centers I’ve ever used they want you in and out, and the most they’ll try to sell is a replacement wiper or bulb because what you have won’t pass. They just ask if you want to pay for it installed now to pass or come back later after you do it.
In Finland the places doing the inspections only do that, they don’t offer any car repair services.
No conflict of interest.
Not really. In California it’s called a smog check
And many American states do not have any kind of mandatory inspection
The UK MOT covers a lot more than just emissions. The vehicle needs to have appropriate tyre tread, windscreen in safe working order, no check engine light, etc. And mileage is recorded to reduce potential for fraud. Many other things are checked.
US state inspections are all that too. Emissions is actually the first thing to expire being checked on older cars, since it becomes impossible to maintain the standards as parts age. Also new cars (3 years or less) are exempt from the emissions check/charge (in my state anyway) I guess because it’s assumed they are working as designed.
Again, this is if they even do them. And while I don’t agree with it, I can see some areas eliminating emissions for some reasons. But you can tell places that don’t do inspections at all, because the cars on the road can be very questionable from even a novice if they are safe to be around at speed. Why basic safety issues isn’t a federal thing mandated to all is beyond me.
This might sound obvious but: EVs and motorcycles (without modded exhausts) are also exempt from SMOG. The former for hopefully obvious reasons, the later because motorcycles pollute so much less than cars that it’s not worth the bother
So those don’t ever have to go in for any kind of looky-loo at all
Maybe it’s state-specific, but both of them in my state still require a safety inspection (which is obviously less cost).
Looking up California, that’s where the confusion on my part is. All they care about is emissions. I guess you can have bald tires and only one light working, as long as you don’t emit too much CO. That’s ridiculous.
In my memory, they will get you to try and do a brake fluid change, a transmission fluid change (if your car does those), steering fluid, expensively change your air filters, swap brake pads, pay for rotor something-or-other, bla bla bla.
Some people drop money because they don’t want to NOT do something important, and they don’t know any better.
I was wondering how a car could get a Message Of The Day. I use Arch btw.
I feel like I’ve been rickrolled.
As a vegan, I’m pretty sure he means Mushroom, Onion, Tomato.
Well now I’m hungry at 2AM. Thanks.
Ah, so an APK!
Melted: Over-Toasty
?
Apparently,
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOT_test
My brain immediately 1984’d that to MiniTrans and then immediately imagined trans mini me from Austin Powers
This wasn’t useful information to anyone but I figured at least one other poor soul needed to go on that journey with me