NCT Test Fail *for the best reason EVAR

Spunog UIE

Well, my car failed the NCT test... why, because it didn't have the name of the county in Irish above the numbers. Everything else fine the size font, EU stars or whatever, but it fails because it doesn't have the name in irish in tiny ille letters above the reg. The guy said I can buy a sticker that i can stick them on.



"Yes guard i saw a car mow down four kids yesterday, it was a red toyota starlet, 90 D 12345** something something, with some crazy kid in it, it all happened so fast i couldn't get the last two numbers"

"yes that is a tragedy happens all the time I'm afraid sir, crazy kids mowing each other down... I'm afraid I couldn't possibly find them tho with your details do you have anything else?"

"mmmmm yes, i seem to recall a 2 pixel high sticker on the reg plate it said baile atha cliath"

"oh well sir that makes allllllllllllll the difference, we know exactly who it is now and we'll get em for sure!... in fact I'm going to go out right now and get them. Still even tho there are crazy bastards that mowed down these kids in there cheapo car, at least they had the common sense to buy a sticker with that name on it, with out it, it could have been much...much worse, sleep well tonight good citizen."



What pisses me off is I probably read this before or heard it and just forgot about it. The car was a 91', rest made up of course

The rest of the car was perfect, it did scarily well in all the tests considering how old it is.

Such bull****. This is all.

samo

pey also heard of this beforehand on some radio show, apparantly there was a case where the gards gave some bloke a ticket for the same reason whilst he was parked up eating his lunch and minding his own business. Tis madness...

Dr. Dre

Well, I must be living under a rock....wtf?
Is this for real?
What the hell is this country coming to? it's beyond a joke at this stage.
Thanks for the heads up though, mine's due this month.

/me goes off to check number plate

mike65

Amazing is'nt it? NCT - language police.

Mike.

damo

thats an absolute joke, its just a scam by the nct crowd to get your money (i.e the re-check fee)....it is absolutely sick you have my condolences buddy you just got robbed

Interceptor

This and 'indicators not orange enough' are the reason the NCT are a bunch of useless monkeys.

You have to be a real spod to fail people for this but I have heard of it happening many times.

I have one of those label printers in work and am going to put pretend Irish words on my plate 'if' I ever do an NCT again (Bailme Outa Chokey) and see if the knuckle-dragger who tests the car spots it...

Thats it - a prize for the best pretend Irish sweary words for your county and I'll print 'em and post 'em to you...

The prize? Oh probably the '88 Uno at the bottom of my garden.....

'c

Spunog UIE

I don't think i'll be charged for the 'retest' i.e. they look at the plates. You get charged 28 ish euro if it has to use any of the equipment (like lights alignment).

It means I'm waiting another few days till I find the stickers, I have one, got it off an uncle who works in a garage, get the other one when I've a chance and bring the car back into them to see it.

So I'll be driving the next few days in a perfectly fine car cept for those stickers, in the very very rare chance I meet an 'asshole garda'/'garda' I'll be fined 1500euro or so :S (touches wood) and runs away from Murphy's Law. This on a sheet they gave me.

The Muppet

Madness,

Have heard of this happening before . I thought the NCT was to get unroadworthy cars off the road, How does this make the car dangerous?

Only In Ireland.

BTW a mate of mine is A DOE tester and he reckons that the NCT Centres need a certain amount of retests at €27 a go to make them financially viable. I had never thought of it before but his theory is that if you compare the number of tests they can physically carry out in a hour against the number of bodies carrying out these tests they need a certain number of shorter bay retests to make a profit.

This fail does not fall into that catagory as I assume this is a visual retest which will be free.

LegacyUser

It is a ****in' scam by one of the most corrupt governments in the world.

parsi

Well it does state here -> http://www.ncts.ie/inspection_list.html##12 that they check reg plates and the law is that the county be on them. So they are enforcing what the law is and that's what they are supposed to do. they don't make the rules up - Mini Brennan was the one who added items to the checklist. FranklyI hope they also stop the plates that have regs in script or strange colours - butthen again I suppose they are put back on again after the test.

Unfortunately we can't pick and choose the bits of laws that we want applied to us - the best we can hope for is that we don't get caught...

(re the person whose buddy is a DOE tester - how does he/she feel about the constant allegations that they are on a quota system / don't like things on wet Tuesdays and other baseless allegations - does it p*** them off (it would me) ?)

Seth Brundle

Unfortunatley, they are just enforcing the law, crazy as it may be (www.oasis.gov.ie/transport/motoring/vehicle_registration_numbers.html). If your car was a year older you could write your own name on it and I don't think they could say boo!
However, I still agree that the NCTS are corrupt!

unkel

Yeah, this was posted here before (a few months ago?)

I was furious about it at the time, but it was pointed out to me that the NCT organisation itself doesn't make the rules...

Victor

Hang on this is in the week when we became aware of a problem that people are getting away with offenses because of dodgy plates.

Like this one.

Pataman

Both times my car went through the nct the testers were Romanian, so basically you could put anything you want as gaeilge above the numbers, dont think they would know.

fletch

My Dad's car failed because one of the bulbs over the number plate was blown. Deathtrap! :rolleyes:

dcGT

Isn't it funny how the NCT was introduced to make cars safer and more environmentally friendly, but now, their power has seemingly grown. They're 'enforcing the law' in other areas. Do they check your tax and insurance aswell, and maybe a body search while you're in the waiting room?...or maybe they'll check your driving license for any outstanding warrants :rolleyes:
Is this the government's pathetic answer to a dedicated traffic corps....we can't stop people smashing into eachother on our roads but at least their number plates will be patriotic when they do.

DC.

ednwireland

i can't beleive this argument i came from england several years ago and when reregistered my car the guy asked what font i wanted and what i wanted written on the number plate i told i wnated a legal one so he made me up the proper plate. if your stupid enough to have illegal number plates then it serves you right - no sympathy whatsoever. just cos the law hasn't been enforced doesn't mean it isn't there. i also reckon garages that sell new cars with dodgy number plates should be nicked and given hefty fines. in england (not NI) you just never bothered cos you'd fail the mot and the traffic cops would have you within 10 mins, saw a guy pulled for haveing the plate on the dash cos it had fallen off !. there's alaw for plates make sure your car complies -simple.

not orange enough bulbs really bugs me thoughi know someone whohad a 4 year old volvo and had to replace the indicator units (orange glass) cost him a fortune i think i would have been ringing the manufacturer rather than paying up.

Seth Brundle

they have no way of measuring how orange a bulb is so if this failure was given to me I have to say I would throw a wobbler! I reckon they would just pass me to be rid of me!

FX Meister

My car reg is WX yet its says Baile Atha Cliath on the plate. It passed the NCT with no problem. The plate is a new one put on 18 months ago after the original got trashed along with the rest of the front of my car when a dumbass thought it was okay to cross to the other side of the road without looking to see if anything was coming.

dcGT

kbannon wrote:

they have no way of measuring how orange a bulb is

That's a very good point.
"How 'orange' is your indicator" is something like "How long is a piece of string"

Spunog UIE

ednwireland wrote:

i can't beleive this argument i came from england several years ago and when reregistered my car the guy asked what font i wanted and what i wanted written on the number plate i told i wnated a legal one so he made me up the proper plate. if your stupid enough to have illegal number plates then it serves you right - no sympathy whatsoever. just cos the law hasn't been enforced doesn't mean it isn't there. i also reckon garages that sell new cars with dodgy number plates should be nicked and given hefty fines. in england (not NI) you just never bothered cos you'd fail the mot and the traffic cops would have you within 10 mins, saw a guy pulled for haveing the plate on the dash cos it had fallen off !. there's alaw for plates make sure your car complies -simple.

Once again, the plates have the standard font, standard size, eu stars etc'. The plate did not have the county in Irish above these letters. The plate has been on the car probally since it was sold first way back in 1991, I've had the car for the last 2years, and it passed its NCT 2 years ago, and nothing was ever said about the plates. I'm not looking for sympathy, more expressing my anger of such a stupid rule, aswell as the NCT enforcing it, while letting other people know. By the way there were a bunch of posters on the wall in the test center which I read out of boredom while waiting on the car to be tested, they showed the two types of plates that you can have, their measurements, the font, the colour, the EU thing, but guess what, it didn't mention yeee old County in Irish above the numbers.

parsi

http://www.oasis.gov.ie/transport/motoring/vehicle_registration_numbers.html has the rules about number plates and mentons the requirement for the county name to be in Irish.

This link also has info about how to reserve next years numbers eg 05-D-666 for <insert your favourite hate figure here> . Interestingly if you reserve a large number eg 12345 you will have to wait until that number is reached before you can register your car..

Victor

dcGT wrote:

"How 'orange' is your indicator" is something like "How long is a piece of string"

All colours can be defined, although I don't know if the orange for indicators is.

Seth Brundle

few things:-
* the NCTS do state that you should check your headlamps and reg plates before going for the test. They are merely enforcing the law! To have tha law changed kidnap your TD!
* the test checks to see if the indicators work and if they are orange as per the law. The staff have no facility for checking how orange they are, nor do they have the remit to do so. There are no legal definitions of how orange a bulb/lens should be so how can Mr. NCT fail someone on this?
* the licence plate system is a sequentially ordered system so why should #12345 be allowed on the road before #22? IMO it is a very good system that we have here. I believe that it is good that registrations last the lifetime of the car and are non-transferable. In the UK the DVLA makes a nice bit of money by holding onto what it believes are good plates and then selling them at vastly over inflated charges.

Fudger

parsi wrote:

http://www.oasis.gov.ie/transport/motoring/vehicle_registration_numbers.html has the rules about number plates and mentons the requirement for the county name to be in Irish.

This link also has info about how to reserve next years numbers eg 05-D-666 for <insert your favourite hate figure here> . Interestingly if you reserve a large number eg 12345 you will have to wait until that number is reached before you can register your car..

I thought Irish isn't an EU recognised language or something ? (Remember that Irish EU minister that started talking in Irish in Brussels and was told off for it). Surely plates are to an EU set standard ? So we have another local rule ontop of that ? Surely that makes them illegal in EU eyes ???? Which also brings up the whole "if we are in the EU and free trade & travel yada yada why can i not get car insurance in the UK or France or in any other EU country ?" Its another scam by the Irish corrupt government. I got done for the whole "not orange enough bulbs" yoke I actually thought it was a joke. Didn't know about the plate thingy............ *heading out to carpark to check*

parsi

The only EU standard is that the EU symbol and the country name is on the plate - other than that it's up to the country to make its own standards ..

loz_the_boz

parsi wrote:

Well it does state here -> http://www.ncts.ie/inspection_list.html##12 that they check reg plates and the law is that the county be on them.

Erm isnt the letter/s in the middle of the reg a good indicator of the county ?

Fudger

parsi wrote:

The only EU standard is that the EU symbol and the country name is on the plate - other than that it's up to the country to make its own standards ..

really ? I am very confused by this. I wouldn't have thought that the irish government would have brought in NCT unless told by the EU ? So there are EU set standards on emissions etc but not on Car regs and orange bulbs which is the one we are gettin screwed on ...... madness this country madness....... cheers parsi was out checking the reg there and its all good except for the yoke attached to the reg

aodh_rua

The Irish county name is only required on cars that were registered after the introduction of that style of plate. It might be worth checking whether 1991 falls outside of this requirement.

If you do a search, you should fine a few threads on this in the last few months.

Boggle

From memory, how it came about that the county name in Irish had to be on the plate was because when the NCt was being set up Mr brennan (or whoever was in charge at the time) put out to the various departments regarding things they would like to see on the test. The name in Irish was the sole request of the Dept of Gaeltocht (or whatever its called).

Apparently they dont give a flying fcuk what state the car's in as long ast he county name is written in Irish on the plate. I'm gonna start swearing now.....

Seth Brundle

read the link that was provided a number of times (http://www.oasis.gov.ie/transport/motoring/vehicle_registration_numbers.html)
It clearly states that any cars registered from Jan 1st, 1991 onwards mush have the following:-
* The registration number consisting of numbers and letters must be in black on a white reflective background
* The name of the county of registration must be in Irish, (examples are Baile Átha Cliath, Corcaigh, etc.)
* The flag of the EU and the letters "IRL" must be placed on the left-hand side of the plate, the flag comprising 12 gold stars in a circle, the letters in white beneath it, all on a blue reflective background. No other numbers, letters, marks, etc., should appear on your registration plate.

Canis Lupus

i know someone who failed the nct cos he had a loose bulb in the light casing of his headlight... for whatever reason the new bulb was put in and the old bulb left loose inside the casing... no idea how that happened but the car failed as a result... farce.... the garage man checking it could have just as easily thrown the bulb in the bin...

Seth Brundle

@ Canis Lupis - what was the exact reason for them failing?

Interceptor

Me 4rse. Why do you keep typing about this subject when it is clear we are being held ransom by a shower of lily-livered civil servants who didn't learn enough French in school to tell the EU to shove their NCT up its collective hole.

Are you listening carefully? JUST STOP GETTING YOUR CAR NCT'd Its simple. You can still tax it, insure it and drive it and NO-ONE that I have heard has been prosecuted for not having an NCT. I would love to hear from actual motorists who didn't have an NCT and got a fine or summons and I will shut up on this subject.

If enough motorists stop doing the test, the company carrying it out will go out of business. Or the cops will start enforcing it and then I'll shut up again. I have three cars outside, none have NCT's, two have tax and they are all in daily use and never a problem.

Like I said, if I ever get one NCT'd (to sell it) I'll put nonsense above the plate and marmalade on the indicator bulbs. Of all the cars I've had, I've never had legal plates and only been ticketed once while riding a bike with a plate the size of my Visa card in the style of the Japanese flag.

And any whingy marys who bleat about 'oh its your own tough luck if you get caught, the law is the law' BITE ME!!!!

'c

dcGT

interceptor wrote:

Me 4rse. Why do you keep typing about this subject when it is clear we are being held ransom by a shower of lily-livered civil servants who didn't learn enough French in school to tell the EU to shove their NCT up its collective hole.

Are you listening carefully? JUST STOP GETTING YOUR CAR NCT'd Its simple. You can still tax it, insure it and drive it and NO-ONE that I have heard has been prosecuted for not having an NCT. I would love to hear from actual motorists who didn't have an NCT and got a fine or summons and I will shut up on this subject.

'c

Heh.... sounds like a good plan. But can't you now get points for not having an NCT cert, or has that not come in yet. I remember reading the number of points given for various offences and I think speeding was 2 points but no NCT was up to 5 points???? :eek: Can't remember for certain.

DC.

Nuttzz

It hasnt come in yet

http://www.penaltypoints.ie/index2.php?fn=points_issued.html

No NCT will be a mandatory court appearance, if found guilty 5 points

Seth Brundle

look at www.penaltypoints.ie
Currently points are awarded for seatbelt, speeding, & insurance offences and for careless driving.

sliabh

interceptor wrote:

Are you listening carefully? JUST STOP GETTING YOUR CAR NCT'd Its simple. You can still tax it, insure it and drive it and NO-ONE that I have heard has been prosecuted for not having an NCT.

And any whingy marys who bleat about 'oh its your own tough luck if you get caught, the law is the law' BITE ME!!!!

If your car does not have an NCT cert and is involved in an accident then you may not be covered by insurance. Then you are in deep shít.

And for all the people bitching and whining about the test. There are a range of laws relating to cars and the NCT seems like a good place to me for them being checked and enforced. Would you rather the Guards were out on a Monday morning stopping traffic to check tyre pressures, or do you feel that we should have no laws and standards for vehicles?

Anyway the whole test is being applied in a common sense way. If you fail they are not impounding your car and sending it to a scrap merchant on the spot. You can drive off right there and then. Personally I think for some things they should be able to seize the cars (e.g. bad brakes).

Also while the test is not just about road safety it is an important part of the overall road safety campaign. The campaign is based on "Three 'E's": Education, Engineering and Enforcement. The NCT is one part of the Engineering "E", as well as road improvements.

dcGT

sliabh wrote:

If your car does not have an NCT cert and is involved in an accident then you may not be covered by insurance.

You say 'may'. I'm curious as to what the determining factors are in such a situation. The same goes for car tax. People on the boards have said before that your insurance is void if do not have car tax, others say that you are still legally insured. Surely the law must provide a definitive answer to these scenarios?

DC.

sliabh

dcGT wrote:

You say 'may'. I'm curious as to what the determining factors are in such a situation. The same goes for car tax. People on the boards have said before that your insurance is void if do not have car tax, others say that you are still legally insured. Surely the law must provide a definitive answer to these scenarios?

As far as I know, it comes down to a decision of the Insurance company. If they feel that at the time of the accident the car was not road worthy and you knew it (as you knew it had failed or avoided an NCT) then they can declare your insurance void. The details will be in your policy.

Boggle

I know for def that up to 6 moinths ago the limk gards were told not to prosecute for NCT as they had no basis in law for bringing that prosecution but since then I have not heard anything.

Personally I would never complain about having to ensure you car's road-worthiness once every 2 years but as usual FF has set it up as a money making exercise with no real thought and subject to the wims of assholes. It should be about safety - nothing else.

Blitzkrieger

kbannon wrote:

* the licence plate system is a sequentially ordered system so why should #12345 be allowed on the road before #22?

As long as each car has a unique number, what difference does it make? Exactly what infromation can you take from 00-C-20203? That it was registered Mayish? Nobody knows how many cars were sold any given year so it's no use at all.

Seth Brundle

it is a sequential system so until all numbers up to your number are issued then yours is not 'ready' and cannot be used. From this perspective it keeps things easy to monitor and organise (within the DoE).
If people could choose a random number then what is stopping people choosing 10 billion and 1?

The Muppet

kbannon wrote:

If people could choose a random number then what is stopping people choosing 10 billion and 1?

The width of the number plate.

Seth Brundle

LOL - you know what I mean!

pickarooney

What's the law pertaining to driving cars with say, the steering wheel on the other side?
If you try and pass an NTC you'd surely fail, no?

Seth Brundle

why? If it was designed that way then it is fine. If it was modified then it presumable would need to be checked for safety (Im sure the insurance company would require this also).

sliabh

AFAIK there is an automatic 50% insurance loading if the car was built as left hand drive. I would be surprised if anyone would quote for a car that is subsequently modified to right hand drive.

Is1ldur

I had my car NCT's last year and it was a bit of a joke. It failed because the centre rear seat-belt was stuck down hehind the seat (to stop it flying all over the place). The guy in the centre told me it failed and showed me where the belt was. I had to simply pull the belt up (whcih took 2 seconds), and drive around again to let them see that it was there. Only then would they issue my certificate.
I thought that was a little silly....

parsi

I know it sounds silly .. but.. it is specifically mentioned in their "preparation leaflet" http://www.ncts.ie/preparing_for.html so maybe the guys there were thinking that if people don't make the effort to do what's in the list then why should they bother...I'm sure they've seen plenty of folk who do worse - dirty underside (of car), obviously shagged wipers, missing bulbs replaced by swalows nest etc

mackerski

sliabh wrote:

AFAIK there is an automatic 50% insurance loading if the car was built as left hand drive. I would be surprised if anyone would quote for a car that is subsequently modified to right hand drive.

Not the way you mean - though in effect it probably works out that way, since a tiny subset of insurance companies are prepared to quote for a LHD without being forced (and we know all about how that goes...)

The way it crumbled for me (1999 BMW 323i LHD) was that only two companies that I could find would quote - St. Paul and Eagle Star. At least in the case of Eagle Star, the premium they quoted was either spot on their RHD rate for the same car or very close. However, there are plenty of other companies who were undercutting them by quite a bit for RHD.

For anybody that cares, I pay about EUR1650, despite max no-claims bonus.

Dermot

PS: Nearly forgot - Despite LHD I passed NCT with flying colours. I was concerned that their headlamp calibration jig might "expect" a pattern I couldn't produce (Xenon lights are expensive to swap too), but no problem. They did suggest mentioning the LHD lights issue to the supervisor, which I did - he noncommitally assured me that they would be able to test, knew what they were looking for and would pass it if it passed. Luckily it did.