Avoiding the NCT?

Our man in Havana

What the longest period of time that anyone has avoided the NCT for? I am just curious.

Dcully

Just curious eh ??
lol

Our man in Havana

Dcully wrote:

Just curious eh ??
lol

I have been avoiding it since January this year. Just want to know if there are any more NCT fugitives out there!

lomb

Bond-007 wrote:

I have been avoiding it since January this year. Just want to know if there are any more NCT fugitives out there!

why avoid it? everyone else does it, why not you? if its to save a few euro, its a false economy. not having an nct, means your insurance is null and void, if u kill someone accidentally god forbid, the judge will throw the book at u, the value of your car is lower, and ur car is possibly unsafe etc.

Our man in Havana

means your insurance is null and void

Nope, I checked this with insurnace company.

Nothing wrong with my car, The NCT is a govt scam.

FX Meister

Girlfriends pops has been without it for over a year now. I've been driving my car with the disc in the glove box for years and only one has a Garda commented on it. Any other time I've been stopped they say nothing.

lomb

Bond-007 wrote:

The NCT is a govt scam.

so is income tax, vrt, vat, social welfare payouts, pension payouts, free education, etc etc.

Our man in Havana

But it is funding a foreign run company. Thats the scam.

leeroybrown

Mine is out by a bit but not through any deliberate effort to avoid it and it's booked in for the test now. Theres not point in defering it as it only increases your chance of failing for something non-critical but expensive with no real gain.

Theoretically you can be fined up to 1500 for driving a car without a valid NCT disc but I've yet to meet anyone who has been fined or a Garda checkpoint that gave a crap about it. I'm by no means saying that it's a good idea to drive around without one but the lack of enforcement does speak a volume...

lomb

Bond-007 wrote:

But it is funding a foreign run company. Thats the scam.

the way the tendering process works for government contracts is based on price, and experiance. the company that has it has more experiance than anyone else. yes its a german company or whatever but they have more experiance than anyone else so that puts them on a winner to begin with.

the other thing is if this were the uk, ud be
1
taking ur car into a garage EVERY year rather than every other year
2 the garage doing it would have a conflict of interest because they also fix the cars which is ridiculous. its in their interests to fail u.
3 its dearer than here afaik
4 its highly illegal to drive there without it unlike here

so basically the nct isnt all that bad when u weigh it up against the alternative. anyway most of the money probably 90% goes back to the irish economy providing a return to land as rent, a return to labour thats spent in ireland even if they employ alot of non nationals, and vat and corporation tax. the rest gets repatriated and if its to germany then so what, they have pretty much funded the celtic tiger economy we have thru ridiculously low interest rates (because their economy is $hit )that have generated massive employment and wealth here.
this really is a global world:D

Victor

Bond-007 wrote:

But it is funding a foreign run company. Thats the scam.

Let me guess, you are using oil from off the Waterford coast, rubber from the rubber trees of Roscommon, your car is made in Cork.....

Our man in Havana

Victor wrote:

Let me guess, you are using oil from off the Waterford coast, rubber from the rubber trees of Roscommon, your car is made in Cork.....

Touche!

greglo23

if you have an accident involving an NCT compliant vehicle the roadworthiness of your car will be called into question. you know what insurance companies are like, any excuse etc,etc. it's very difficult to check the roadworthiness of a crashed car so very hard to prove your case.

69 mustang

Avoiding your NCT makes no odds they will just back date it
I'd prefer the MOT than the NCT at least they have real mechanics.
That's the way the DOE is done.
NCT is a scam, it should be more like the DOE as the gaps between testing is too long a pot hole can make a car unsafe the day after the test.

commited

NCT isnt a scam - I welcome it - means you know your car is roadworthy, you know all the other (law abiding ) cars are road worthy and it's got all the horrible smelly cars off the road.

Interceptor

In answer to the OP, I have currently have four cars (my wife drives one of them) and none of them have NCT. The one I have had the longest has been without NCT for five years, the others were bought with NCT but I haven't renewed them. I supported the test for the first few years, I put several cars through and did the retests where necessary but I change cars so often it became just a tedious waste of time. I am a competent spanner twiddler with several mechanic mates who ensure my cars are roadworthy. I failed for not having the county in irish on my plates, not having 'orange enough' indicators, emissions on a car which when tested two weeks later with NO intervention then passed - the list goes on and on. The last straw was when they passed a car that I knew to be dangerously defective but was testing for someone else and money had changed hands. I've researched the insurance question and found no evidence to suggest it will be an issue, I have never been pulled for it at checkpoints - I keep tax and insurance on the cars (well maybe not taxed all the time) and I don't have any car which will have its value affected by not having the test at For Sale time.

We need car testing, but we need it to be a closed-loop process where you submit it and the faults get fixed by the person who finds them - too many issues are open to interpretation. There is no provision for modified cars and the regulations seem designed to punish (read 'gather revenue') rather than educate and improve. I recommend everyone not bother with the test, write to your TD and petition for the system to be changed. In the meantime I continue to boycott an inefficient system which failed my sister-in-laws '97 mondeo because one of the rear door handles didn't return to the 'down' position when operated - this had no effect on the functioning of the lock/clasp bu the tester insisted it wasn't acceptable and failed her. You make your own mind up.

'cptr

lomb

Interceptor wrote:

In answer to the OP, I have currently have four cars (my wife drives one of them) and none of them have NCT. The one I have had the longest has been without NCT for five years, the others were bought with NCT but I haven't renewed them. I supported the test for the first few years, I put several cars through and did the retests where necessary but I change cars so often it became just a tedious waste of time. I am a competent spanner twiddler with several mechanic mates who ensure my cars are roadworthy. I failed for not having the county in irish on my plates, not having 'orange enough' indicators, emissions on a car which when tested two weeks later with NO intervention then passed - the list goes on and on. The last straw was when they passed a car that I knew to be dangerously defective but was testing for someone else and money had changed hands. I've researched the insurance question and found no evidence to suggest it will be an issue, I have never been pulled for it at checkpoints - I keep tax and insurance on the cars (well maybe not taxed all the time) and I don't have any car which will have its value affected by not having the test at For Sale time.

We need car testing, but we need it to be a closed-loop process where you submit it and the faults get fixed by the person who finds them - too many issues are open to interpretation. There is no provision for modified cars and the regulations seem designed to punish (read 'gather revenue') rather than educate and improve. I recommend everyone not bother with the test, write to your TD and petition for the system to be changed. In the meantime I continue to boycott an inefficient system which failed my sister-in-laws '97 mondeo because one of the rear door handles didn't return to the 'down' position when operated - this had no effect on the functioning of the lock/clasp bu the tester insisted it wasn't acceptable and failed her. You make your own mind up.

'cptr

good luck when the new amendment comes in, 6 points and a 3 grand fine:D

Our man in Havana

lomb wrote:

good luck when the new amendment comes in, 6 points and a 3 grand fine:D

Will never happen, no votes in it for FF. All the old farmer boys will not be happy.

Interceptor

lomb wrote:

good luck when the new amendment comes in, 6 points and a 3 grand fine:D

Oh I'm sure they won't just switch it on overnight, if I really have to do it then fair enough but while the regulations aren't enforced I choose not to bother. For all you 'Oooh you are breaking the law/flouting the regulations/ costing me money in taxes' types I would like to point out that I bought, used and promoted the use of condoms when they were illegal here too - the NCT is an Irish solution to an Irish problem and I don't have to take it.

I'm tempted to get trade insurance and trade plates and continue on my merry way....

Our man in Havana

Interceptor wrote:

Oh I'm sure they won't just switch it on overnight, if I really have to do it then fair enough but while the regulations aren't enforced I choose not to bother. For all you 'Oooh you are breaking the law/flouting the regulations/ costing me money in taxes' types I would like to point out that I bought, used and promoted the use of condoms when they were illegal here too - the NCT is an Irish solution to an Irish problem and I don't have to take it.

I'm tempted to get trade insurance and trade plates and continue on my merry way....

Good on you 'ceptor!

unkel

Interceptor wrote:

I failed for not having the county in irish on my plates

See my sig

Squirrel

unkel wrote:

See my sig

I can under-stand failing for your car not being fit for the roads, but that's not on IMHO. Also, a car not road-worthy can legally drive it away from the test centre

BrianD

Bond-007 wrote:

But it is funding a foreign run company. Thats the scam.

What a ridiculous statement! Ireland is an 'open economy' - our entire economy depends on foreign companies.

Our man in Havana

If it was run totally by the state and state employees I might have some respect for it. In the USA these matters are totally within the control of the state ie the DMV.

Cond0r

In reply to the OP, I've had my NCT out since July.. been through 1 checkpoint so far and they just waved me on. From the sound of things they don't seem to care at all.

I've been meaning to get it done and just haven't got round to it, but after reading this thread i'm thinking I might not bother. Obviously just another money making racket when you hear about the stupid and blatently unnecessary reasons they use to fail you.

Guy:Incognito

Bond-007 wrote:

If it was run totally by the state and state employees I might have some respect for it. In the USA these matters are totally within the control of the state ie the DMV.

Well the unfortunate part of it is that no company/body in this country was competant enough to win the contract, thats hardly the Governments fault.

Boggle

Was 2+ years without NCT before I left..

Gave up on it when I found out that there was no provision in law to enforce it.
(Old info - an ex was a gard and they were wold to stop pullin because of this. Was quite a while ago though so things may have changed - or not!)

I'd be interested if any gard that visits this site could verify or deny it though...

Seth Brundle

commited wrote:

NCT isnt a scam - I welcome it - means you know your car is roadworthy, you know all the other (law abiding ) cars are road worthy and it's got all the horrible smelly cars off the road.

The NCT does not automatically make a car roadworthy. the test checks for certain things and the outcome can largely be different between both testers and test centers. However, there is mountains of anecdotal evidence where the tester failed to notice something, etc.

Also just because you pass the test does not mean your car is roadworthy by the time you get home due to our 3rd world infrastructure.

Anyhow, getting back to the theme of the NCT being a scam...

kleefarr

Well. I'm not intentionally trying to avoid it, but I haven't had one for three years on my 98. :eek:
All of my details are up to date. Current address etc.
I have phoned up the Kilkenny office a few times and asked them when I would get the reminder/date of test and they have told me on each occassion that they are a little behind and will get in contact when they get round to it.
I have often thought, how would this go down with a Garda? Once I was spot checked coming through Carlow and tax/insurance was checked, no mention of NCT disc.

daveg

I'm meeting up with a mate of mine at the weekend. He's a detective so I'll ask him what the story is from a guards point of view.

prospect

Bond-007 wrote:

If it was run totally by the state and state employees I might have some respect for it.

Like the respect we hold for our fabulous, efficient and value for money Health Department!!!

kleefarr

daveg wrote:

I'm meeting up with a mate of mine at the weekend. He's a detective so I'll ask him what the story is from a guards point of view.

Any news daveg?

I read in the Kilkenny People today, that a woman had been fined €400 for not displaying an NCT cert. That was on top of fines for no insurance and tax etc, may be they were just throwing the book at her because she had been caught numerous times before. :rolleyes:

Hotblack Desiato

Bond-007 wrote:

If it was run totally by the state and state employees I might have some respect for it.

Then it'd be like the driving test system - it would take you about a year to get an appointment... :rolleyes:

In the USA these matters are totally within the control of the state ie the DMV.

And I'm sure they have plenty of allegations of incompetence/failure quotas etc. etc. too.

Just as people hate being told their driving isn't up to scratch, they hate being told their cars aren't up to scratch either. No test is infallible, but most of the time people who complain just can't accept the truth and reach for a convenient excuse.

Type 17

My car has never had an NCT - I bought it in the UK in 2003, and rang up the NCTS to see how I could book an appointment - they told me that my (new, Irish) reg "wasn't in their system" - I asked how to get it into the system, and they said that I'd have to go to a centre with my ownership docs, and wait while they manually entered it all. Then I could apply for an appointment!

I hung up and never did anything about it - if they're that efficient, I don't want them near my car...

I've been through many tax/insurance checks, and I've never had to open the window yet...although the car is a family saloon in very good condition, it is over 10 years old.

Before you get the wrong idea, I totally believe in car-testing, but I think that the appointment of NCTS by the gov't was just bullsh1t to comply with EU regs, and "the authorities" (Gardai, Dep't of Transport, etc) don't really care about what goes on, once they can say to the EU that, "Yes, we have car-testing in Ireland". I will only give the NCTS my money if not having an NCT starts being enforced, and points are a risk.

Saying that, my car would most likely pass (unless they could find something wrong with the text on my reg plates!) because I do care about my own and my family's safety, and I service the car regularly myself (eg: I rebuilt the engine and gearbox myself before driving it to Italy on holidays this year...), and I know its condition intimately, regarding brakes, suspension, steering, emmissions (I have a CO meter), tyres, etc...