NCT... "There may be trouble ahead..."!!!

Darragh29

http://www.tribune.ie/news/article/2009/jul/12/testers-allegedly-took-bribes-to-pass-unroadworthy/

Am kind of surprised to hear this as I thought the process was fairly robust. As for lads having to account to Gardai for letting garages "skip the queue", I've often been given preferential treatment in an NCT centre as a garage owner. Now crucially no money changed hands for this, but I've often brought a car up at first thing in the morning that should have been "booked in", with a request that if they had a big of a quiet period, maybe they would test it and sometimes I'd get lucky or other times they would be too busy but the idea of someone possibly having to answer to Gardai for this makes me shudder.

I also know of a dealership that drops a few bottles of alcohol up to the NCT staff in his town at Christmas time, but I know that this is only to say thank you for a small bit of flexibility that is afforded to him in relation to booking in cars similar to that which I have enjoyed myself and I make no apologies for having received.

At the end of the day, the trade has been asking for a mechanism to fast track trade re-tests through the process on a "same working day basis", as some parts of the NCT inspection process are so subjective.

Right so, let's see the sparks fly on this one...!!!

Drummerboy08

I know a person who i used to work with, who would slip the tester €50 to pass a car if it failed on certain items. Used to do it to get cars booked in too.

TBH, in this country, it doesnt surprise me.

I booked mine today. The closest appointment I can get is the end of November !

What a complete joke

Darragh29

I'm waiting for posts to appear saying, "how f*cking dare you skip the queue, blah blah blah", but for trade users of the NCT process, it is completely unworkable to have a car that you have prepared for an NCT, (and you have a 30,000 Euro NCT test lane in your garage), failing for something subjective like a bit of rust at a sill or a tiny crack on a tyre or a brake hose...

The NCT process is used by retailers and trade but they have taken no account of the needs of the trade, which are not the same as the needs of retailers.

Gary ITR

Drummerboy08 wrote: »

TBH, in this country, it doesnt surprise me.

Every country is the same tbh

unkel

rarnes1 wrote: »

I booked mine today. The closest appointment I can get is the end of November !

What a complete joke

That's because many many people in this country never bothered with an NCT. Until recently when the max fine was upped to €1500 and people started sh1tting themselves and booked their cars in for a test by the thousands. No system could cope with a sudden surge of demand like that. But that's off topic anyway...

Darragh29

unkel wrote: »

That's because many many people in this country never bothered with an NCT. Until recently when the max fine was upped to €1500 and people started sh1tting themselves and booked their cars in for a test by the thousands. No system could cope with a sudden surge of demand like that. But that's off topic anyway...

Yeah you can't blame the NCT on that. That was just another bubble waiting to burst in our fairy liquid economy (bubbles everywhere!) but as said, off topic!

leeroybrown

unkel wrote: »

Until recently when the max fine was upped to €1500 and people started sh1tting themselves and booked their cars in for a test by the thousands.

The fine has been €1500 for ages but people suddenly found out about it's existence when the new penalty points were unveiled a while back.

The under the counter passing has bound to have been going on. What system with that many employees wouldn't have it.

amo_09

I work for the Nct, the rsa is 2 blame for the delay, they never contacted the nct regarding the change in law, thats y theres such a deplay

Garages that contact the booking office do be told the same as anybody else who were to ring, the only ppl who get to jump the q is taxi's because without it they can't make a living.

An odd garage do know ppl in the centers from been up there so much, but its mainly taxis that do be on stand-by in the mornings

Senna

Darragh29 wrote: »

I also know of a dealership that drops a few bottles of alcohol up to the NCT staff in his town at Christmas

Every pub and hotel in my town drops a few bottles up to the garda station on xmas eve, so they'd have some cheek to investigate an NCT center for that.

Del2005

Darragh29 wrote: »

http://www.tribune.ie/news/article/2009/jul/12/testers-allegedly-took-bribes-to-pass-unroadworthy/

Am kind of surprised to hear this as I thought the process was fairly robust. As for lads having to account to Gardai for letting garages "skip the queue", I've often been given preferential treatment in an NCT centre as a garage owner. Now crucially no money changed hands for this, but I've often brought a car up at first thing in the morning that should have been "booked in", with a request that if they had a big of a quiet period, maybe they would test it and sometimes I'd get lucky or other times they would be too busy but the idea of someone possibly having to answer to Gardai for this makes me shudder.

I also know of a dealership that drops a few bottles of alcohol up to the NCT staff in his town at Christmas time, but I know that this is only to say thank you for a small bit of flexibility that is afforded to him in relation to booking in cars similar to that which I have enjoyed myself and I make no apologies for having received.

At the end of the day, the trade has been asking for a mechanism to fast track trade re-tests through the process on a "same working day basis", as some parts of the NCT inspection process are so subjective.

Right so, let's see the sparks fly on this one...!!!

Dealers bribing is nothing new. But in saying that it's only the dodgy dealers that are doing it and they need to be taken out, which I assume everyone agrees with. A reputal dealer won't bride someone to NCT a car as they would ruin their reputation when it falls apart.

I've heard off several people that if you knew your car was dodgy somewhere to just tape a €20 to it and it'd pass.

Just look at the mess that is the DOE here, totally open to bribery as it's done by private garages, loads of our HGV's and LPSV's where death traps and it took the UK authorities to tell us this:o

I can't see anything wrong with local garages dropping cars up to be checked when the lanes are quite, and I doubt the Gardai will be investigating this unless they where also getting fails passed.

leeroybrown wrote: »

The under the counter passing has bound to have been going on. What system with that many employees wouldn't have it.

As the old saying goes they're always be a few bad apples that drag the rest of the honest employs reputation down. There's corruption everywhere, look at the UK MP's, and anyone who thinks there isn't is naive. All we can do is catch people at it and try and impose tough enough sentences that it will put others off, like Madoff's sentence, but we'll never do that here.

anno 148

The bride pratice is probably going on at the majority of test centres.

A freind of mine bought a second hand car from a main dealer a few weeks ago, and a week before he bought it the dealer gave it a full service, put it through the NCT and it passed no problem, so he said.

Now my mate wouldn't know much about cars but at the time of the test drive he noticed that the car was pulling to one side. The dealer said this was due to an airlock in the power steering system that was caused by the fluid just after being topped up and that the problem would rectify itself after a few miles of driving.

That evening he calls out to me to show off his new car and I took it out for a drive, straight away I could tell there was problems with it and told him to get it looked at straight away by another garage, so the next morning he did.

That morning (after a trip to another garage) he goes back to the dealer from where he bought the car with a print out of a list of problems, here is what was put on the list:

1. tracking way out and could not be tracked.
2. bushings gone.
3. rear axle knackered.
4. rear shock gone.
5. hole in exhaust pipe.
6. brake pads needed replacing.
7. car needing a full service including timing belt and water pump change.
8. there is no way this car passed or should haved passed an NCT.

After reading the list the dealer walked off and came back two minutes later with a full cash refund no questions asked :rolleyes:

robtri

personally, I think dealers should have a fast track system, to get their cars NCT'd on same working day.....
BUT only if done correctly...
would help dealers out a bit.
car sales and potentially service work....

pred racer

Darragh29 wrote: »

http://www.tribune.ie/news/article/2009/jul/12/testers-allegedly-took-bribes-to-pass-unroadworthy/

Am kind of surprised to hear this as I thought the process was fairly robust. As for lads having to account to Gardai for letting garages "skip the queue", I've often been given preferential treatment in an NCT centre as a garage owner. Now crucially no money changed hands for this, but I've often brought a car up at first thing in the morning that should have been "booked in", with a request that if they had a big of a quiet period, maybe they would test it and sometimes I'd get lucky or other times they would be too busy but the idea of someone possibly having to answer to Gardai for this makes me shudder.

I also know of a dealership that drops a few bottles of alcohol up to the NCT staff in his town at Christmas time, but I know that this is only to say thank you for a small bit of flexibility that is afforded to him in relation to booking in cars similar to that which I have enjoyed myself and I make no apologies for having received.

At the end of the day, the trade has been asking for a mechanism to fast track trade re-tests through the process on a "same working day basis", as some parts of the NCT inspection process are so subjective.

Right so, let's see the sparks fly on this one...!!!

Makes perfect sense to me. If I was up at the Nct centre every other day Id expect the guys there to give me any bit of flexibility that was going. I have no problem either with a bit of a thanks at christmas for being a bit flexible.
I know my local garage enjoys this relationship. I suppose the problem is where does it cross the line into brown envelopes in the carpark.