I would have thought, and I may stand corrected, but if you appraise the car with the dealer and the car is fitted with his trade plates then any insurance/roadworthiness etc aspect/liability would be down to the dealer?

Many dealer cars have no mot they buy them at auction or are dealer trade ins as cars are normally sold when they reach three or four years old the old mot will be ready to expire or has expired they will not re mot till they sell.You are fully covered by the dealers trade plates in a test drive.

ok, trade plates will not cover anyone driving the car without an mot, the only instance when you can drive without an mot is taking to or returning from a pre booked mot appointment the deale will try to avoid spending money on the car prior to it being sold as it may sit there another year ! however, it is illegal to sell or OFFER for sale a car in an unroadworthy condition, so the dealer may be already be breaking the law. but remember, he will have to mot it before you drive it away and as long as you get him to agree IN WRITING that he will put all faults right including advisorys, then don't worry.

For £20 - £50 (depending on who he knows) he could get it tested and make it 100 times easier to sell.

The fact that he hasn't tells you all you need to know. It will fail, and fail expensively. And he knows it, the sly git.

Run a mile.

I'm surprised nobody has suggested this idea yet, but I did it with a car in a similar situation a few years ago

Agree to the test drive with his plates on the proviso you take it for an MOT test and pay for it.

Admittedly it might show up that you dont really want the car. Although theres also a LOT that can be expensive to fix that wont even be picked up on an MOT

But you sound like you would really like to own this car within reason, so to spend the 20-40 quid on an MOT isnt bad really to have a better idea of whether you want to buy it. Its no different to paying for things like HPI checks or AA inspections after all

If the car is just sitting there anyway and you are prepared to pay for the MOT then the ONLY reason he would object is if he knows theres a serious and expensive or tricky fault to fix like horrendous emmissions etc

If hes being straight with you, but simply tight/business like then he shouldnt have an objection as its you footing the bill for the test

Then if he agrees just pre book the appointment drive there with his trade plates on and youre sorted

When I did it I just arranged a long test drive saying I wanted a garage to give it a once over and left my car and some cash as a security and they were fine with me taking an hour long test drive

Just a thought, and good luck

Glad to hear that

I was intrigued by what you said about the "certificate number" how were you able to check previous MOT reports though? Is it an online feature they've added as I've never heard of that before

Cheers