All cars - MOT History Check

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Sat 4 Feb 2017 08:16
All cars - MOT History Check - cdbr

Looking at used cars at present and how to check the history, I came across the Government website that shows you the MOT history with the reasons for fail and advisory notes. It also shows the mileage and date.

www.check-mot.service.gov.uk/

A quick scan can tell you quite a lot, for example; an aquaitance with a local garage was offering me a pristine car with low mileage for a 10 year vehicle and a credible story but when I checked it out them mileage had gone down 16,000 miles the year before. On another car from a dealer the reasons for failing (headlights alignment, suspension coils) suggested it might have been in a front end collision.

The site doesnt guarantee you get a great deal but it can tell you quite alot reading between the lines and at least you can steer clear.

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Sat 4 Feb 2017 09:55
All cars - MOT History Check - FoxyJukebox

Indeed an excellent site--as is the Check if a Vehicle is Taxed site( Gov.UK). I am no detective--just using common sense . Thus am instantly suspicious if

1) there is no "history" available. Used car sites that "hide" the numberplate are the big give-away here. Trade and private sales both guilty

2) big gaps in test dates, exceeding the 12 month limit

3) The same Advisables that re-occur over a three year period--why?

4) cars failed due to major tears in side walls!!

3) a car parked outside my house for a week or so with no MOT( or tax!)?

....and two that have utterly stumped me - a 15 year old car with a new MOT pass, followed 2 months later by another pass. The local owner still driving that (taxed) car to this day. Planning to sell--then a change of mind?

Another being a local untaxed vehicle with a private plate reverting to the original with the same owner-but both the private and original plates displaying no MOT OR tax history. Odd?

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Sat 4 Feb 2017 09:58
All cars - MOT History Check - FoxyJukebox

re point 4) above--TYRES with tears.

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Sat 4 Feb 2017 11:04
All cars - MOT History Check - Fishermans Bend

re point 4) above--TYRES with tears.

Very upset tyres!

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Sat 4 Feb 2017 11:14
All cars - MOT History Check - pd

It is a very useful site but you have to earn to interpret it a bit and realise how the MOT system works.

Advisories in particular are a lottery with few, if any, real guidelines. Some testers just put silly advisories on random cars or minor fails like "headlight alignment" just to get their quota up and then immediately pass them without doing anything.

Testers are humans with opinions like anyone else which is why advisories can come and go. I often put cars in for MOTs and disagree totally with the advisories - sometimes amazed somehting I think warranted it is ignored and annoyed by something similar.

For example, I had a Pug 407 with "airbag light does not illuminate" advisory the other day. A 407 does not have an airbag light. A fault is indicated in the central display and can't be ignored. I even showed the tester another 407 to demonstrate! Because he'd done the MOT he couldn't change it. Things like this happen all the time.

Similarly watch odd mileages as testers have fingers and often transpose numbers, read off the trip mileage or read the mileage and then walk to the computer to put it in and remember it incorrectly. Often happens.

So, yes, it is very useful but learn to read between the lines.

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Sat 4 Feb 2017 11:39
All cars - MOT History Check - martint123
3) The same Advisables that re-occur over a three year period--why

I've had the same avisory about low tread depth for four years now. Each year, before the mot, I go to the local tyre emporium and ask for replacements but they say there's plenty of miles left.

I tried to insists but they said they didn't want to be thought of as rip off merchants.

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Sat 4 Feb 2017 12:51
All cars - MOT History Check - Wackyracer

3) The same Advisables that re-occur over a three year period--why?

I had the same advisory for years, Offside Front Macpherson strut has slight movement at the upper attachment (2.5.A.1c)

Each time I got the car home I jacked it up and found nothing. Then they just stopped putting it on the MOT. I replaced the front shocks a year ago and re used the top mountings as there really was nothing wrong with them. Still on the car today.

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Tue 2 May 2017 11:36
All cars - MOT History Check - BimmerFan

Any idea what happened here ? happy fingers in 2013 or foul play ?

I am guessing he had a private plate in the first period of its life

MOT Date Mileage+/- Difference

03/08/2016 95,756 Miles +4,079 Miles

20/06/2015 91,677 Miles+1,173 Miles

22/05/2015 90,504 Miles-8,356 Miles1

9/03/2014 98,860 Miles+13,202 Miles

16/03/2013 85,658 Miles+466 Miles0

5/03/2013 85,192 Miles+10,056 Mile

23/02/2012 75,136 Miles+1 Miles

20/02/2012 75,135 Miles+12,895 Miles

09/12/2010 62,240 Miles

Edited by BimmerFan on 02/05/2017 at 11:37

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Tue 2 May 2017 13:11
All cars - MOT History Check - Engineer Andy

Any idea what happened here ? happy fingers in 2013 or foul play ?

I am guessing he had a private plate in the first period of its life

MOT Date Mileage+/- Difference

03/08/2016 95,756 Miles +4,079 Miles

20/06/2015 91,677 Miles+1,173 Miles

22/05/2015 90,504 Miles-8,356 Miles1

9/03/2014 98,860 Miles+13,202 Miles

16/03/2013 85,658 Miles+466 Miles0

5/03/2013 85,192 Miles+10,056 Mile

23/02/2012 75,136 Miles+1 Miles

20/02/2012 75,135 Miles+12,895 Miles

09/12/2010 62,240 Miles

Sounds like somebody didn't want the mileage to go to 6 figures....the private plate shouldn't, in my view, make any difference if the system is good enough, which should surely record the mileage for that car only, not any other, and perhaps denoting a reg change at some point. Really the service should be about VIN numbers, not registration plates.

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Tue 2 May 2017 14:29
All cars - MOT History Check - SLO76
Fat fingered Mot tester 9/3/2014 has put a 9 instead of an 8. Likely should read 88,860. Does happen so it pays to check your Mot printout when you get it.
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