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NCT - nearly half of the 1.5 million vehicles that did the test last year failed

aidanodr

I think the one revealing stat NOT MENTIONED would be an AGE PROFILE of the 750,000 cars that failed

https://www.newstalk.com/news/people-say-its-a-money-racket-should-the-nct-be-scrapped-1628709

In saying that my own car is an 08 MX5 roadster ( 16 years this year ) and has passed with flying colours so far. Not gloating, its that kind of car that, in the main, one looks after well if you have one. I am trying to keep it on the road beyond it being a classic. Shes an Irish car and was lucky to get it hardly used in 2014.

I have an aquantance with a 92 Starlet, same thing, flys through the NCT annually. I suppose not much can go wrong with it, very simple and mainly old style mechanical w/o much electronic stuff :D

Any way - still, it would be informative to see an age profile of the cars that fail. Is it mainly those over a certain age OR is it a mixture of newer / older?

Of course as article implies, it could be the NCT really pushing the boundaries of its terms of ref with regards to what it checks or not

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whisky_galore

Garages practically encourage people to just throw the car in NCT and then come back with a list of stuff to repair rather than look at the car twice. The stat isn't at all surprising.

Besides bulbs, tyres and levels there isnt a whole lot else that a lay person is going to be qualified to maintain anyway, certainly not the out of sight innards. Many drivers aren't mechanically minded and dont really have a clue about their cars and what makes them go.

bazz26

If some people believe handing this over to private entities will some how not be a licence to print money, they really are sheltered from the real world.

Del2005

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121570971#Comment_121570971

We had private garages doing the DoE on commercial vehicles and it was such a corrupt sh1t show that the UK had to embarrass us into reforming it, nearly every Irish truck failed their roadside inspections even with a fresh DoE. The UK MOT is also riddled with corruption and extortion, Northern Ireland followed our system instead of the rest of the UK for their car checks.

There is some corruption in our system but with private garages doing the test it would be way worse.

Marcusm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121570971#Comment_121570971

Which private garage is going to invest in the required equipment for €55 per test?

Del2005

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121570672#Comment_121570672

I don't know anyone who called or went onto the priority list online who didn't get an NCT before their current NCT expired. If you are waiting months for an appointment it's because you want to.

User1998

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121571528#Comment_121571528

A new requirement? That article is 18 years old. NCT testers know how to find a VIN number. Theres only two or three possible locations. I’ve never once failed an NCT over this and I do over 50 of them a year.

MakersMark

Hmmm, how come there werent 1.5 million deadly crashes last year so?

Red Silurian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121571151#Comment_121571151

A lot of people send a car in to see whats wrong with it.

I'd say nearly everybody does this at this stage. A retest is €27. If you've to spend €500 on a service it's small change to get anything else fixed

There's also a new requirement for the NCT to be able to see the VIN number stamped on the chassis. This is causing many failures (albeit with free retesting) as most drivers don't know where to find this number stamped

https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/motors/nct-criticised-over-test-1.1036075

[Deleted User]

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121571317#Comment_121571317

If a car passes an NCT & still has problem’s that make it unsafe then whats the point of it?

I think the garage were just looking for a soft paycheck. Car drove away the finest anyway for a few months until I could afford the repair’s.

Padre_Pio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121571317#Comment_121571317

But that doesn't matter. The purpose of the nct is to get polluting and unsafe cars off the road, not to make sure your car won't suffer engine trouble.

mk7r

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121571151#Comment_121571151

That doesn't mean there is nothing wrong with your car though.

The next is a basic check of certain basic safety items, it's not a comprehensive test of the entire car.

[Deleted User]

A lot of people send a car in to see whats wrong with it.

Last year before the NCT, my main dealer had a couple hundred euro worth of stuff needing to be done.

So i sent it in to see what else it would fail & see was it worth doing.

The car passed the nct without a spanner being touched!!

gossamerfabric

RSA levy NCT

see page 82 of https://www.rsa.ie/docs/default-source/about/rsa-annual-report-and-accounts-2021.pdf?sfvrsn=915de985_7

Should they be receiving so much?

I consider their Advertisements offensive and depressing and have zero effect on those who live chaotic lives resulting in accidents.

I also feel they take credit for reducing injuries when road improvements and improvements in active and passive safety of vehicles are really what is helping most.

It has been suggested that the new Asian testers are testing with much gusto but I only have anecdotal evidence to support this.

elperello

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121570810#Comment_121570810

No excuse at all but most of the cars driven by people who are short of money are over 10 years old.

With the annual test the faults are picked up on and then they either get rid or find the money somewhere.

boardz

Is this failure rate out of sync with previous years? I didn't do a pre test inspection other than tyres and bulbs and it failed on headlight alignment. Garage told me the alignment measurement changed in the last year and loads of cars failing on it. The new standard for me (and him) makes the lights point down too low in my opinion. He told me on his and his wifes cars he aligns to pass the test and then re aligns them to the old standard. Makes a huge difference. Wonder if it has any impact on the increased fatalities last year?

DaveyDave

I'd say a fair amount of the fails are people putting the car through to see what needs to be fixed. Likely due to bring ripped off in the past and not wanting to pay for unnecessary repairs or just being cheap and wanting to spend as little as possible.

Every second car on the roads has misaligned headlights or missing bulbs, it's clear people just don't give a shite about maintaining their cars. Cars here seem to fall into a cycle of neglect, a lot of 10 year old cars aren't even washed let alone serviced properly.

Plus you have people driving around in things they can't afford, too many people get their secondhand Audi and BMW then refuse to service it and repair it properly. They live a life of €20 diesel fills. They'd be able to afford it if it was a Dacia or bog standard Hyundai. Loads of people are happy to put GTI wheels on their diesel Golfs that look like they're about to fall apart if they hit a speed bump too quickly.

I understand motoring is expensive in Ireland but everything has been on cheap tax for the last 10 years and are fairly fuel efficient. What are people driving that doesn't have generic service parts, cheap tax and decent fuel economy that they can't afford to fix?

oceanman

Its a licence to print money for the operators, private garages should be allowed tender for the business.

Viscount Aggro

The test is much more vigorous, since it started.

I do think they are out to fail people. If you show up for the test in a petrol or diesel car, be wary.

Govt. agenda is to get more people driving EVs.

Cienciano

I think almost everyone at this stage uses the NCT as a shopping list to see what needs done. Just get the basic service if it passes.

Buffman

As usual somebody just cobbles together the statistics to suit their own headline grabbing needs. Remember there are two different types of fails, major and dangerous, with a big difference between them. It looks to me like they pulled the 750,000 number by adding all the fails together, when IMO only fail dangerous stats are relevant to the safety side of the NCT discussion.

The actual stats for last year on the NCT site appear to be 1588003 tests, 638233 fail majors and 109587 fail dangerous. Which is about a 7% fail dangerous rate, a lot less than the near 50% headline figure used in that 'article'.

https://www.ncts.ie/1155

Kaisr Sose

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121570672#Comment_121570672

The more vehicles that have to go back for a second test (except visual inspection) utilising test machinery is surely impacting on the waiting times where centres are at or near capacity. Take some or the retests out of the equation and automatically there are more slots available, thus shorter wait times for all.

Padre_Pio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121570578#Comment_121570578

Tough luck then. Motoring has always been expensive and it's no excuse to drive a dangerous vehicle because you can't maintain it.

antodeco

I put my cars through every year (ranging from 9+ years old to 30+ years old). Cast majority of the time they fly through. If they do fail, it's on something weird like the bulb not being orange enough (yet has always passed with the same bulb/lights previously), one time it failed because the indicator stalk was broken. Turned out the tester broke it and didn't know how to fix it (basically pushed it the wrong way)

rob316

My attitude is I'll just put it through and see what they say. I'll check the basic's before hand but anything under the body I'll live and hope.

Pre NCT checks you pay for are a waste of time, garages don't have the rolling roads

Kimbot

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121570578#Comment_121570578

well my thoughts on that is if you cant afford to maintain a car properly then you shouldnt have a car at all. I do get that sometimes things can go in cars that are expensive etc and you may have to hold off fixing it until you have the money but safety issues should not be put on the long finger either.

The Continental Op

A mechanic I used to use always said to get take an NCT test and get a "shopping list" of what needs doing before bringing it to him.

Often easier to fix just what the NCT tells you is wrong rather than fixing stuff you think might fail.

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121570620#Comment_121570620

...so does pointing the finger at customers actually do much for issues such as lengthening waiting times etc?

brokenbad

IF you bring your car in for an NCT and it fails for bulbs or bald tyres resulting in a failure - then it's your own fault for not going through the pre-test checklist. Every year when i bring in the wife's 2006 Micra it flies through the test - mainly because i have taken the time beforehand to check and fix any of the basic failure issues.

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121570445#Comment_121570445

again, some people simply dont have time or money to keep up with all of that....

some people truly dont have 100+ quid to fix stuff, hence why theyre driving around in death traps, failed tests, false tests etc etc

Padre_Pio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121570075#Comment_121570075

Most of the top failures are poor maintenance. Tyres, alignment, lights and suspension.

The NCT is a safety check and it's usually cheap to fix issues.