Please explain this to me

Cass

Parents are looking for a car. They asked me to search for a few for them so onto Donedeal and the likes i go.

There is one condition they need, an automatic. Both are disabled and manual gearbox is becoming a huge deterterrent to them driving.

Found a couple of cars, and one in particular. One thing stuck me as strange and i'd love for someone to explain, what may be the blatantly obvious, to me is the NCT due date compared to the reg.

When you look at the reg of a car you can tell approx. how old it is by the number after the county. IOW a Dublin car with a reg of XX-D-1234 would be January. XX-D-123456 would be late in the year, such as October/Nov or later..

Depending on the year and the amount of cars sold this can change with some years having lows sales and other year high sales so i understand it can change.

The confusing part for me when looking at this one car was the nct due date is late in the year, October, but the reg number is mid five figure (eg. 15,000). Other cars i've checked with regs well into the 50 and 60 thousands have NCT dates of May, June, etc.

The car is not imported, according to car check, and i always thought NCT due dates were directly linked to registration dates of the cars?

So am i missing something obvious? How can a car that is due for NCT, and seemingly first registered, in late 2008 have such an "early" reg?

alias no.9

You're no longer tied to the registration date, you can do a voluntary early test and get a cert for 2 years from the test date

punisher5112

That wouldn't be a worry once it's legitimate.

Go into ncts site and input reg, it will tell you if test is correct and next due date.

Put up a few links we may be able to help out.

Are they looking for something newish?

Cass

alias no.9 wrote: »

You're no longer tied to the registration date, you can do a voluntary early test and get a cert for 2 years from the test date

Thanks for that. I do my tests early most every year and they always expire on the registration date of the vehicle, the following year.

I used your info and done some more checking and found this on the RSA website:

Since July 2014 vehicle owners and members of the motor trade can book an NCT voluntary test at any point throughout the year prior to their next mandatory test. (Previously NCT tests could only be booked within 90 days of a vehicles test due date)

By booking and passing on a date prior to this 90-day period, vehicles will be given an NCT certificate that expires on the anniversary of their voluntary test.

I didn't know to look for this, and my searches last night before starting this thread were asking the wrong questions. So thanks for that.

Cass

punisher5112 wrote: »

That wouldn't be a worry once it's legitimate.

Go into ncts site and input reg, it will tell you if test is correct and next due date.

I done the checks on the NCT and it all came back as legit. It just confused me (the reg to NCT date), and i didn't know about the early voluntary thing above. Thought it always reverted back to the registration date.

Put up a few links we may be able to help out.

Appreciate the offer, but the above info has cleared it up nicely.

Cass

One other thing, and sorry if this is flogging a dead horse. The NCT might be different to the registration date, but if the reg number is low figures signifying an early registration how does it have the "cheap" new tax rate that only applies to cars after June 2008?

As i said above another car i checked with a reg of XX-D-54321 had a registration date of June and was in the old tax bracket, so if this one is XX-D-12345 it has to be much earlier in the year, meaning old tax system based on engine size not emissions.

selectamatic

Aim for a torque converter "slush box" type automatic if you can or a toyota hybrid cvt automatic. These would normally be the most reliable autos in the cheapish price range.

Off the top of my head ones to Avoid would be:
Toyota mmt boxes found in the late noughties yaris
Early vag dsg's
All vag cvt boxes
Honda civic fn i-shift gearbox (found in 1.8 petrol hatchbacks the saloons have a torque converter box)

Gumbo

Cass wrote: »

One other thing, and sorry if this is flogging a dead horse. The NCT might be different to the registration date, but if the reg number is low figures signifying an early registration how does it have the "cheap" new tax rate that only applies to cars after June 2008?

As i said above another car i checked with a reg of XX-D-54321 had a registration date of June and was in the old tax bracket, so if this one is XX-D-12345 it has to be much earlier in the year, meaning old tax system based on engine size not emissions.

Jan-June has the option to pick what they wanted. So essentially they could pick the cheaper option.

Cass

Excellent. Thanks to everyone for their help.

This has been wrecking my head, and it doesn't help when you don't know what questions to ask to find an answer.

Thanks again.

bazz26

UK imports first registered in 2008 were automatically put on the cheap tax system. Best thing to do is stick the reg into the motortax website.

Cass

Done that last night and it comes back as an Irish car, never imported. It's why it started all this confusion about the reg -v- NCT.