Nct question re seats

martyc5674

Hi
I currently drive my car with a seat out(it's a 6 seater 3 up front)
Do I need to put the seat back in for test?( I'd rather not as the other 2 front seats have to come out to refit..then I'd have to do the reverse after the test)
Thanks
Marty.

challengemaster

Is it down as a 6 seater on the log book?

Atlantic Dawn

As far as I know all seats must be present to match what is in the logbook as they will need to verify that 6 seats have 6 seatbelts.

challengemaster

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

As far as I know all seats must be present to match what is in the logbook as they will need to verify that 6 seats have 6 seatbelts.

Yup, and I'd also be willing to bet that driving it as a 5 seater without notifying the insurance company counts as an undeclared modification from factory spec, and would be grounds for them to refuse all non-3rd party claims and recoup any claims made - should it be involved in an accident.

martyc5674

challengemaster wrote: »

Yup, and I'd also be willing to bet that driving it as a 5 seater without notifying the insurance company counts as an undeclared modification from factory spec, and would be grounds for them to refuse all non-3rd party claims and recoup any claims made - should it be involved in an accident.

Jaysus!!
Never crossed my mind they'd be that shallow.
I don't think it would be an issue with the rear seats as they are designed as quick release/easy removal but the front ones are fixed in position.
Cheers
Marty

swarlb

challengemaster wrote: »

Yup, and I'd also be willing to bet that driving it as a 5 seater without notifying the insurance company counts as an undeclared modification from factory spec, and would be grounds for them to refuse all non-3rd party claims and recoup any claims made - should it be involved in an accident.

Does that mean you'd have to inform the Insurance company every time you fold down the rear seat (hatchback or estate) if you so choose to do so ?

macplaxton

Present it for test and see if they say anything.

They might refuse a pass if there is a different number showing on the vehicle file, or they may not . It's some time since I NCT'd a Pug 106, which some data entry chump had down as 3 seats. Never caused an issue at NCT time and I even tried to get it changed, but Shannon didn't do anything...

meathstevie

Don't worry about the insurance side of things if the seat has been designed to be "consumer" removable. If it doesn't need any tools to remove and refit it's been designed that way and it's not a modification if you take out for example the back row of seats out of your typical family seven/five seater. To pass the test though you'll have to present the complete configuration.

colm_mcm

It'll just come up as an advisory that the seat wasn't present.
People with 7 seaters with rearmost seats removed regularly pass.

martyc5674

Cheers lads for all the differing replies.
Just to clarify it is one of the front seats and its a bit of work to reinstall(and a bit of work to remove...6 bolts which are inaccessible unless both drivers and passenger seats are first removed)
So would i be Ok with it out for test?
Martin

Chris_Heilong

My seat belts were cut from the back of my car when I imported it, I had it's first NCT coming up and was still waiting for the new belts to arrive from Japan so I just removed the back seats, No problem and just got an advisory as Colm has said.

challengemaster

swarlb wrote: »

Does that mean you'd have to inform the Insurance company every time you fold down the rear seat (hatchback or estate) if you so choose to do so ?

Nope. Because foldable seats are factory fitted to the car and using the car with the seats folded would still be using it as was designed and as it came from the factory.

It's an entirely different matter than removing a seat that was bolted into the floor.

Del2005

martyc5674 wrote: »

Cheers lads for all the differing replies.
Just to clarify it is one of the front seats and its a bit of work to reinstall(and a bit of work to remove...6 bolts which are inaccessible unless both drivers and passenger seats are first removed)
So would i be Ok with it out for test?
Martin

I doubt you'll get a pass as they are supposed to verify that all the seat belts work, if the car is supposed to have 6 and they only test 5 how can they pass it? Put it should be a free retest to verify a seat belt since it doesn't require a lane. How far is the test centre and is a round trip more hassle than a few hours with a spanner, which you most likely will have to do anyway.

BTW I think removing bolted in seats is a modification that an insurance company would need to know about, it's a fairly big modification to the design of the car.