Ian Crowder, of the AA, replies: Your correspondent is right, a new MoT test regime came into effect from March 20 which sadly means that many older cars may well end up on on the scrapheap as repairs may be just too expensive to justify.

For instance, an airbag fault or if the airbags have passed their expiry date would be a MoT test failure and the cost of fitting new airbags is very high.

I've read in a Skoda service schedule - airbags need replacing at 15 years - and seen several things about airbag expiry date stickers on door pillars on Audis, MB etc etc all showing expiry dates at 10 -15 years from date of production

If the bit about MOT "airbag expiry date" is correct, does that mean the majority of modern vehicles will end up being forcefully scrapped after 15 years? (and of course the value of say a 10 year plus car being next to zero)

Edited by brum on 08/04/2013 at 18:02