No (N)CT, no sale

Mr. Nice

I know that there are lots of cars advertised in Ireland as "will fly through NCT".
The system here in France is great, and should be introduced in Ireland.
The French equivalent of the NCT is the CT (controle technique). It is illegal to sell a car with less than 6 months CT, or 2 months if a re-test was required.
If you buy a second hand car with no CT, or less than 6 months left to run, then you cannot register it in your name.
Surely this would be easy to implement in Ireland too.
Interested in hearing the boards motoring community opinions on this.

corglass

Sounds like a great system.

My only concern is people selling cars that are clearly projects, damaged repairable etc. How would it work for those?

Atlantic Dawn

Would be too hard to implement, it would mean if your car was 5 months 28 days from the NCT due date you wouldn't be able to sell it until you waited for the NCT which would be 3 months before the due date. Thousands of cars would end up in a limbo especially those with the annual NCT.

Giving the public access to NCT reports and fail sheets of any car would be a better option to give people an idea of the general health of the car at the last test.

Nino Brown

But sometimes there's more value in buying a car with no NCT. Seems stupid to ban selling a car with no NCT, because buyers are aware it has no NCT when they buy it.

Mr. Nice

Nino Brown wrote: »

But sometimes there's more value in buying a car with no NCT. Seems stupid to ban selling a car with no NCT, because buyers are aware it has no NCT when they buy it.

But why not put the onus on the seller to test it?

Mr. Nice

corglass wrote: »

Sounds like a great system.

My only concern is people selling cars that are clearly projects, damaged repairable etc. How would it work for those?

There is a "workaround" for this situation. It must be clearly stated that the car is for spares or repair only. And there's a lot more paperwork, re-testing etc. to go through to get it registered/change ownership.

Nino Brown

Mr. Nice wrote: »

But why not put the onus on the seller to test it?

Because then they'll put the price up, a car with NCT is worth more than a car without it. Sometimes people want a good deal, and will get the car NCT ready themselves.

Atlantic Dawn

It is a case of buyer beware, if someone is selling a car as "ready for NCT", "will pass NCT" yet they will not arrange for the car to be tested, something that can easily be done with less than 2 weeks waiting list most places in the country it should set off alarm bells for any potential purchaser.

corktina

exactly. If the car had less than 6 months, I imagine you could then get a fresh test done in order to sell it. It would cut out a lot of the dodgy cars sold.

Mr. Nice

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Would be too hard to implement, it would mean if your car was 5 months 28 days from the NCT due date you wouldn't be able to sell it until you waited for the NCT which would be 3 months before the due date. Thousands of cars would end up in a limbo especially those with the annual NCT.

Giving the public access to NCT reports and fail sheets of any car would be a better option to give people an idea of the general health of the car at the last test.

AFAIK, you can test the car before the due date in Ireland.
And I fail to see how it would be "too hard to implement", the rules are simple and straightforward.

timmy4u2

Mr. Nice wrote: »

But why not put the onus on the seller to test it?

Not possible in Ireland with the NCT system. You cannot test it more than three months in advance and when you try to get a date you have to waitvmonths.
In South Africa you car only becomes due for a test on resale

Atlantic Dawn

Mr. Nice wrote: »

AFAIK, you can test the car before the due date in Ireland.
And I fail to see how it would be "too hard to implement", the rules are simple and straightforward.

6 months prior for a 4 year old car getting its first NCT and 3 months prior for subsequent tests. Problem with those rules is if your car has just less than 6 months to test left you can't sell if for 3 months because you are not allowed test it early (unless it's a 4 year old car for first NCT).

Mr. Nice

Nino Brown wrote: »

Because then they'll put the price up, a car with NCT is worth more than a car without it. Sometimes people want a good deal, and will get the car NCT ready themselves.

This point would become moot, and prices would self-regulate, if this rule were applied across the board.

Atlantic Dawn

If you could get a test done at the same time as they prevented you from selling it because it didn't have an NCT that would be fine. Issue I see is around older cars and anniversary dates for NCTs that might then need to be changed, say I have a 10 year old car due for NCT on 1st June 2014 and as it's less than 6 months to the test date I need to get it done now, if it passes, does that then mean I get a year on to my current due date or a year from the test date?

Nino Brown

Mr. Nice wrote: »

This point would become moot, and prices would self-regulate, if this rule were applied across the board.

They would self regulate upwards. It would take away peoples choice. And for what? The NCT is not a comprehensive test, it checks that the car is safe, but mechanically it could be a disaster, you could pass the NCT and the gear box, clucth, engine, or a hundred other parts could go on the way home.

Mr. Nice

Nino Brown wrote: »

They would self regulate upwards. It would take away peoples choice. And for what? The NCT is not a comprehensive test, it checks that the car is safe, but mechanically it could be a disaster, you could pass the NCT and the gear box, clucth, engine, or a hundred other parts could go on the way home.

I'd rather have the clutch burn out on the way home than lose control due to a failed suspension component and have a catastrophic crash.
The system I mentioned only takes away people's choice to buy untested cars.
I don't think that prices of second-hand cars would see a big jump as a result.

bigboss1986

If Garda will be more strict any car by law must have NCT if its over 4 years old.They dont give a f*ck , so some owners wont bother to NCTd..Try to drive in Germany or Poland without test.Fine on the spot.NCT should be normal thing like insurance not ''price booster''

Sam Russell

All NCT tests should have a minimum validity of 12 months, this is particularly important for 9 year old cars and older.

The NCT test should be available 'on demand' - that is there should be at least a test centre where a car can be tested if you queue. It would have to be a large centre, or a special centre, perhaps operated by a diffent company.

These two requirements would make the suggested regime possible.

Currently there is not even a requirement for a valid NCT for change of ownership, or to tax the car. You do need a valid NCT cert to register an imported car.

Silvera

timmy4u2 wrote: »

In South Africa you car only becomes due for a test on resale

The same system applies in New South Wales, AUS (test only required before re-sale). Personally I wouldnt agree with that system.


More importantly, the following should be implemented -

- NCT required before taxing a vehicle (as was the case here many years ago, and as is still currently the case with commercial vehicles in Ireland)

- Vehicle mileage should be required to be inputted each time a vehicle is taxed (either on paper or online). This would help reduce incidents of 'clocking' vehicle mileages.

- If a vehicle is listed as 'stolen' on state records, this should be instantly communicated to cartell.ie, motorcheck.ie, etc etc etc
(This is not the case at present...i.e. car check websites have NO details of stolen vehicles)

Nino Brown

Mr. Nice wrote: »

I'd rather have the clutch burn out on the way home than lose control due to a failed suspension component and have a catastrophic crash.

I didn't realize we had a problem with catastrophic crashes due to failed components.

I think the current system is fine, if you don't know enough about cars to check a suspension, then only buy a car with a valid NCT.

If you know a bit about cars, and can spot a bad one, then buy without NCT and save yourself a few quid. I don't see what the problem is to be honest. If it's not broke, don't fix it.

Mr. Nice

@Nino Brown, nor did I realise we had a problem with clutches, gearboxes, engines and hundreds of other things going wrong with NCT'd cars on the way home.

corktina

Sam Russell wrote: »

All NCT tests should have a minimum validity of 12 months, this is particularly important for 9 year old cars and older.

The NCT test should be available 'on demand' - that is there should be at least a test centre where a car can be tested if you queue. It would have to be a large centre, or a special centre, perhaps operated by a diffent company.

These two requirements would make the suggested regime possible.

Currently there is not even a requirement for a valid NCT for change of ownership, or to tax the car. You do need a valid NCT cert to register an imported car.

no you don't

timmy4u2

Mr. Nice wrote: »

I know that there are lots of cars advertised in Ireland as "will fly through NCT".
The system here in France is great, and should be introduced in Ireland.
The French equivalent of the NCT is the CT (controle technique). It is illegal to sell a car with less than 6 months CT, or 2 months if a re-test was required.
If you buy a second hand car with no CT, or less than 6 months left to run, then you cannot register it in your name.
Surely this would be easy to implement in Ireland too.
Interested in hearing the boards motoring community opinions on this.

I think yousuggestion is good but unworkable in Ireland with the current NCT system.
BTW I hope you know who the real Mr Nice is:o

bazz26

In an ideal world with proper planning this could work but this is Ireland and under the current system it would just encourage more NCT forgeries.