Article: Older cars could face annual NCT test

Seth Brundle · 16-12-2009 10:13am #1

Older cars could face annual NCT test

16/12/2009 - 08:13:57

If your car is 10 years old or more, you could face having to do an NCT every year.

It has been reported a raft of changes to the National Car Testing system are being proposed, but there is no word on when they could take effect.

The Transport Minister is to consider draft legislation on the changes in the coming weeks.

http://www.breakingnews.ie/text/ireland/eymhideyeymh/

I wonder how old is "older"!
SIMI must be delighted with themselves these days.

Seth Brundle · 16-12-2009 10:24am

I'm getting even more dense in my old age!

PaddyFagan · 16-12-2009 10:37am

It's in the Times motoring section today, with a suggestion that it's already approved and will kick in January. I have to say I'm inclide to suspect that it's part of the governments plan to help the garages by making the scrapage scheme look more attractive.

Paddy

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/motors/2009/1216/1224260753473.html

CARS OVER 10 years old will have to be tested every year under changes to the National Car Test approved by the Minister for Transport. Noel Dempsey has also effectively banned excessively tinted car windows and noisy exhausts under the changes due to come into effect in January.

langdang · 16-12-2009 10:44am

Having a car in this category, I can play devil's advocate to the gumment here.

A large percentage of people wouldn't even notice one wheel hanging off until it was pointed out to them. With a car that old they have decided that it's not worth maintaining/check various things. These people need to be forced to keep their vehicles safe(r).

Then again, there's practically minded people with perfectly safe serviceable vehicles, that will just be inconvenienced by this.
What I'm worried about here is that the Glasrai will tighten up emissions specs.
I have no problem with being pulled up on a safety aspect, but if stricter emissions force me or others out of a 10yr+ car with multiple airbags ABS etc, and into poverty spec 03 s**tbox with zero safety features??? with all due respect, eff you na Glasrai, eff you

Mr. Presentable · 16-12-2009 10:46am

They cannot surely apply the same criteria to a car 50 years old that they do to a four year old one. Can they? That'd put everything more than, say, 20 years old off the road permanently.

seamus · 16-12-2009 10:48am

:rolleyes:

More pocket-lining for the friends of the government in the motor industry. So because they can see now that their "incentive" is nothing but a whole pile of crap, they're going to push people with otherwise perfectly safe and functional vehicles into debt in order to prop up car sales.

Even the AA has said that this is completely unnecessary.

Seth Brundle · 16-12-2009 10:49am

nipplenuts wrote: »

They cannot surely apply the same criteria to a car 50 years old that they do to a four year old one. Can they? That'd put everything more than, say, 20 years old off the road permanently.

Thats the idea presumably! This will suit the scrappage (as mentioned) and also the Greens

R.O.R · 16-12-2009 10:51am

Not sure about the rest of Europe, but for as long as I remember, in the UK all cars over 3 years old are subject to the MOT every year.

It's not such a big deal tbh.

Mr. Presentable · 16-12-2009 10:53am

The Greens. It was a black, black day those looneys got into power. The country is buggered because of them.

peasant · 16-12-2009 10:55am

nipplenuts wrote: »

They cannot surely apply the same criteria to a car 50 years old that they do to a four year old one. Can they? That'd put everything more than, say, 20 years old off the road permanently.

You can only ever test a car to the criteria that applied when it was made.
If it still runs within the paramters that applied when it left the factory, everything should be ok.

Slidey · 16-12-2009 10:58am

This is the way it has been with commercials.

You would be very surprised at the number of year old vans/jeeps that fail their first test.

They often come back a year later and fail it again. I would have no problem with having the test an annual thing.

I would have 2 stipulations though.

*Tests should be available within a week or 2 of booking.

*Test should run 12 months from the day of testing not the registration date. That is a pure bullschit carry on.

kdevitt · 16-12-2009 10:59am

nipplenuts wrote: »

They cannot surely apply the same criteria to a car 50 years old that they do to a four year old one. Can they? That'd put everything more than, say, 20 years old off the road permanently.

Vintage vehicles (cars over 30 years old) are NCT exempt, so this won't happen. Pre 93 cars already have different emission standards due to not needing a cat.

Completely cynical move to get people to scrap their cars imo!

peasant · 16-12-2009 11:03am

kdevitt wrote: »

Vintage vehicles (cars over 30 years old) are NCT exempt, so this won't happen.

Who's to say that that won't change?
Looking at some of the "classics" on the road, it mightn't be a bad idea either

Thoie · 16-12-2009 11:06am

R.O.R wrote: »

Not sure about the rest of Europe, but for as long as I remember, in the UK all cars over 3 years old are subject to the MOT every year.

It's not such a big deal tbh.

I think it's not as big a deal in the UK because as I understand it you can get it done in your local garage at any time - you don't have to wait for appointments and travel to a limited number of centers.

cantdecide · 16-12-2009 11:07am

kdevitt wrote: »

Completely cynical move to get people to scrap their cars imo!

gan dabht

Having said that, it may encourage people to fix their cars rather than just sitting waiting for them to die. It's harder to scrap a roadworthy car that's been given some maintenance every year.

kodute · 16-12-2009 11:10am

Don't really have a problem with this... My car will soon be 11 years motoring and only ever failed due to a minor thing.

Probably a good thing for car sales too. People tend to be nervous buying a car almost out of NCT 2 years, when it comes around more often they may be a bit more assuaged.

voxpop · 16-12-2009 11:12am

Thoie wrote: »

I think it's not as big a deal in the UK because as I understand it you can get it done in your local garage at any time - you don't have to wait for appointments and travel to a limited number of centers.

No doubt the current crowd will do everything backwards and bring in a yearly NCT before creating any new test centres, causing the whole system to clog up.

kdevitt · 16-12-2009 11:13am

peasant wrote: »

Who's to say that that won't change?

IrishTimes - "But the authority has not suggested that vintage cars aged over 30 years should be included in the testing regime." So doesn't look like it'll change in the near future.

peasant wrote: »

Looking at some of the "classics" on the road, it mightn't be a bad idea either

Can't really disagree - but there are going to be practicality issues with certain cars - can't imagine a Model T Ford passing the test with flying colours. Maybe a basic roadworthyness test would be more appropriate. Think I'm getting slightly off the point though.

-maccer- · 16-12-2009 11:14am

By testing cars yearly the government will be doubling the number of nct tests required in the country. Can it even cope with this capacity? Can see it already 4 to 6 month waiting lists for nct tests. Chaos.

More inconvenience and unessesary expense on the motorist in my opinion. I don't know the stats but from my experiences and my friends with cars over 10 years old failing the nct is quite common. Wouldn't be surprised to end up in a situation where you end up down the nct centre 4 times in two years.....

kdevitt · 16-12-2009 11:16am

cantdecide wrote: »

gan dabht

Having said that, it may encourage people to fix their cars rather than just sitting waiting for them to die. It's harder to scrap a roadworthy car that's been given some maintenance every year.

Yes - but if you have a 9 year old car which will soon require annual inspections, but currently has bi-annual, it may encourage the easily scared into sending the car to the big scrap heap in the sky.

Its a shame to see the cars that end up getting destroyed.

peasant · 16-12-2009 11:22am

kdevitt wrote: »

Yes - but if you have a 9 year old car which will soon require annual inspections, but currently has bi-annual, it may encourage the easily scared into sending the car to the big scrap heap in the sky.

Its a shame to see the cars that end up getting destroyed.

Totally irrational though.
My current daily driver will be twenty next year and so far has flown through two NCT tests without issues (and should continue doing so, hopefully)

kdevitt · 16-12-2009 11:26am

peasant wrote: »

Totally irrational though.
My current daily driver will be twenty next year and so far has flown through two NCT tests without issues (and should continue doing so, hopefully)

Of course its totally irrational!

But it happens -

This is a car that went for scrappage in the Uk btw:

Vegeta · 16-12-2009 11:29am

What exactly is the motivation for this? Is this not a blatant revenue generation exercise?

The NCT brought in as a way to make the roads safer yeah? Yet a tiny % of accidents are due to vehicle failures, aren't they. So why would this be needed annually if there is no problem with safety.

Is there a report stating that cars over 10 years old are more of a threat (to other road users) on the roads.

Sure older cars have less safety features but an NCT isn't going to fit some additional airbags.

Gregor Samsa · 16-12-2009 11:32am

There's a couple of other interesting changes coming in the NCT, including

Tyres will also have to have an “E” mark, certifying that their grip and performance meets international standards. This follows moves by the department to restrict the sale and supply of retreaded tyres.

But still no plans for recording mileage at test.

macplaxton · 16-12-2009 11:33am

Thoie wrote: »

I think it's not as big a deal in the UK because as I understand it you can get it done in your local garage at any time - you don't have to wait for appointments and travel to a limited number of centers.

On the mainland yes, NI is 10 DVTA test centres.

Annual would be fine, if it's 12 months from last test, not registration birthday. Over 30s I wouldn't have an issue with, if the testers were tame. I seen some shockingly baldy tyres at shows.

Have they got round to testing motorcycles yet?

Gregor Samsa · 16-12-2009 11:36am

Vegeta wrote: »

The NCT brought in as a way to make the roads safer yeah? Yet a tiny % of accidents are due to vehicle failures, aren't they. So why would this be needed annually if there is no problem with safety.

The pass rate on cars 10 years and older is 32% (according to the IT article). Now some of this may be down to misaligned headlights, but the impression given is that older cars are not being maintained to the standard they should be (to anyone reading this with a 10 yr + car, of course I don't mean you, I know you look after your like your first born

).

Of course the extra revenue can't hurt either.

peasant · 16-12-2009 11:37am

At least my oldy won't fail on any of this

The final change to the car test is that malfunction warning lights for airbags, electronic and anti-lock braking systems and electronic stability control will be checked. The vehicle will fail if these don’t work properly.

hellboy99 · 16-12-2009 11:42am

More money :rolleyes:

Vegeta · 16-12-2009 11:52am

phutyle wrote: »

The pass rate on cars 10 years and older is 32% (according to the IT article). Now some of this may be down to misaligned headlights, but the impression given is that older cars are not being maintained to the standard they should be (to anyone reading this with a 10 yr + car, of course I don't mean you, I know you look after your like your first born ).

Of course the extra revenue can't hurt either.

Found it

http://www.ncts.ie/test_stats.html

biko · 16-12-2009 12:00pm

In Sweden a brand new car is inspected after 3 years, then after 2, then every year. About the same price as here.
The MOT is yearly.

It'll help get some of the worst rust buckets off the road.

I like the ban on noisy exhausts, fekking ricers

alastair · 16-12-2009 12:02pm

phutyle wrote: »

The pass rate on cars 10 years and older is 32% (according to the IT article). Now some of this may be down to misaligned headlights, but the impression given is that older cars are not being maintained to the standard they should be (to anyone reading this with a 10 yr + car, of course I don't mean you, I know you look after your like your first born ).

I was in getting my 20 year old yoke NCT'd yesterday. It passed, despite a blowing exhaust that I'd assumed would mean a fail. My attitude to the NCT is that it's a handy/cheap means of generating a fix list for the garage - so it's failed before, but on stupid stuff like the aforementioned misaligned lights. I'm surprised that the fail rate is so low tbh.

Saw a five year old car fail in the test centre yesterday on a blown indicator bulb - you have to wonder how the owner didn't check beforehand.

Article: Older cars could face annual NCT test

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