Pre 1970's Cars To Be MOT Exempt?

[rikrobson]

The MOT has change to reflect the requirement to test modern cars and has left gaps in the ability to test older cars. Alot of older cars are exempt from some of the tests as far as I am aware, talking to the local MOT tester. However the classic insurance market are pushing toward a yearly chack to ensure roadworthness. I presume that the law still stats its an offence to drive a car that is not road worthy whether it is trested or not.

 

[the snooper]

The MOT has change to reflect the requirement to test modern cars and has left gaps in the ability to test older cars. Alot of older cars are exempt from some of the tests as far as I am aware, talking to the local MOT tester. However the classic insurance market are pushing toward a yearly chack to ensure roadworthness. I presume that the law still stats its an offence to drive a car that is not road worthy whether it is trested or not.

you are right any vehicle on the road has to be in roadworthy condition so they are still liable to prosecution and insurance companies will simply not pay out as roadworthiness is a condition of insurance

 

[ronan]

However I would be happy as I have a 1968 Triumph 2.5 saloon.

Alec

Is that the one a lot of uk police forces used ?

 

[slim_boy_fat]

Or, maybe they're just trying to make life a little bit easier for us...

Aye, that'll be it.......

 

[slim_boy_fat]

Is that the one a lot of uk police forces used ?

That's the one. I've driven a friends one many years ago, wasn't a bad drive iirc - straight-6 petrol engine

 

[Paul.]

I had one as well, my 2.5 was fuel injected (2.5 PI) lovely car to drive, no power steering or any of that modern nonsense to go wrong, just an electric overdrive on 3rd and 4th controlled with a little switch on the gearknob, the only real downside was the way that it rotted away in front of you and the amount of fuel it used to burn. I took it to Sweden with four of us on board and skis on the roof in mid winter, and it never missed a beat.
Mine was a gleaming white with red leather upholstery,

A very old photo of it from about 1980

 

[KemppiFrog]

As the EU was mentioned... Over here, classics need a test every five years as opposed to two years for recent cars. Just put Mrs. KF's Twingo through for a re-test after failing the emmisions bit first time. Found a bit of a leak at a joint between the caterliser and the rear box. Re-seated it with Holts's Gun Gum (YES, it is sold here) and smeared a bit more over the clamp, for good measure. Just scraped through, so OK for another two years. Tester thought there might be a small leak further up the system, where it is not easy to see it. Rolling road only for the brakes. Emmisions on a constant rev range for several minutes. Might help to blast it down the local big road, instead of short shopping trips.
Costs here is around €60 for the test and €10 for the re-test. Allowed two months after the first test to fix things and get her in again. I find it quite relaxed, except for the 'will it won't it' on the re-test, as I was a bit dubious about the fix.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

Might help to blast it down the local big road, instead of short shopping trips.

They call it 'the Italian tune-up'.

 

[brightspark]

I love it when I get my van tested it only had an advisory on a drop link but even still u get your vehicle checked over and u know its rite when your tires are flopping over and rolling at 90mph err I mean 70 round bends and have faith that its not going to fall to bits on u

 

[KemppiFrog]

Always liked the Rover 2000, esp the TC. Nice engineering. But it lost in the sales stakes to the Triumph because of the rather crude 4 pot compared to the smooth six of the 2000/2.5 of the Triumph. Both rot boxes. I really liked the Rover 3500, but in those years I was into smaller cars with higher power/weight ratios.

Little story:
My father was interested in a Rover 2000. It was in a garage not too far from the airfield where I worked then. So I pootled over in my Ginetta durin the lunch break to view it. Looked quite nice, being sold by the garage guy for a local customer. Man says I need to move it to the other side of the forecourt, so I will show you how it runs. Fires it up, foot to the floor and tears up a lot of gravel (remember, this is 1974) in an interesting slide that finished in him knocking his pump paybox off its foundations, narrowingly missing the pumps. After the dust had settled... I notice a lot of filler had fallen out of the front of the car, making it look a bit sad. apart from the dents. He looked quite shaken, when I told him that I doubted that what was left would interest my father. hopped into my car and wondered what he was going to say to the owner.

 

[zx9]

As the EU was mentioned... Over here, classics need a test every five years as opposed to two years for recent cars. Just put Mrs. KF's Twingo through for a re-test after failing the emmisions bit first time. Found a bit of a leak at a joint between the caterliser and the rear box. Re-seated it with Holts's Gun Gum (YES, it is sold here) and smeared a bit more over the clamp, for good measure. Just scraped through, so OK for another two years. Tester thought there might be a small leak further up the system, where it is not easy to see it. Rolling road only for the brakes. Emmisions on a constant rev range for several minutes. Might help to blast it down the local big road, instead of short shopping trips.
Costs here is around €60 for the test and €10 for the re-test. Allowed two months after the first test to fix things and get her in again. I find it quite relaxed, except for the 'will it won't it' on the re-test, as I was a bit dubious about the fix.

Interesting that sounds like a more user friendly system. What age does a car become a classic in France?

 

[KemppiFrog]

Trying to remember, but I fixed a Pug 304 for some friends and I think it was 30yrs. They bought her for around €1000 and were not careful about checking the coolant level.... I pulled the head and had it skimmed, since then it perfomed OK. Sold it a month ago for a bit more than they paid.
It was a really nice drive, light steering and the only power assist was the brakes, which worked well, discs on the front.

 

[keithski122]

Great if they do change it as my beetle just misses the exemption at the moment, it will save me fixing the juddering brakes and poorly aligned headlights.

 

[wookie]

Imho, anyone owning/running one tends to look after it anyway, so it would be maintained well enough to pass an MOT.

Totally agree with you on that, I even take mine in to the garage occasionally and get a second opinion, plus it's easier for me to have a good look at it whilst it's up on the lift.

There will always be some people that drive cars that really shouldn't be on the road, there are enough modern cars on the road that aren’t looked after but somehow still manage to scrape through a MOT every year, perhaps the MOT should be stricter ?

The proposed compliment to tax free historic status was that they have to be "historically correct" colour changes, engine swaps, brake upgrades, suspension changes and the like would not qualify and be classed as a normal vehicle subject to normal RFD.

That doesn't make much sense, so if I improve the brakes I loose tax free status but if I continue drive around in a car that can barely stop that's okay ?

Some cars had a range of engine sizes fitted as standard, what if you swop the original engine for another factory fitted option ? Do you then loose historic status ?

 

[malcolm]

As the EU was mentioned... Over here, classics need a test every five years as opposed to two years for recent cars. J

I favour the 5 year rule. Quite often I'll take a car for an MOT and find it has done 300 miles since the last one. It won't have done more than 3000 miles as it's on a classic policy. The idea of testing every year is ridiculous for those cars, but I do plan to take my MOT exempt one in once every 5 years or so they can find things I've missed.

 

[KemppiFrog]

Yes, 30 years in France.

Do they still do the thing where you have to book in advance if you want to take a classic reg'd vehicle out of your home department?

?? Not heard about that.

Still, while both our cars are are about 20 yrs old... I might be hearing about it soon

 

[malcolm]

I think that limitation was related to the no MOT thing and was abolished when they went to 5 year MOT in around 2009.

 

[Gareth J]

That doesn't make much sense, so if I improve the brakes I loose tax free status but if I continue drive around in a car that can barely stop that's okay ?

Some cars had a range of engine sizes fitted as standard, what if you swop the original engine for another factory fitted option ? Do you then loose historic status ?

I agree, very odd. I can't remember the exact details but remember that originality was king. Plenty of info online, at the time there was a lot of concern about it, not to mention Euro-fear.

I can't imagine they'd want to outlaw unleaded conversions or ditching asbestos brakes. Get the feeling they definitely don't want to include heavily modified or even slightly modified vehicles though.

No restrictions yet though. Time will tell.

Edit; here is an online synopsis:
news/general-classic-car-news/brussels-demands-tighter-restrictions-for-historic-vehicles

I doubt that the status of old bangers is top of the political agenda right now.

 

[malcolm]

There is a lot of scaremongering in the classic car world. I keep an eye on the FBHVC newsletter as they seem fairly rational. I have only 2 'completely' original cars, and neither of them are tax or MOT exempt.

 

[ronan]

There was a big discussion about it a few years back, and a particularly 'lobbyistic' classic vehicle association was proposing things along the lines of restricted annual mileage (in the hundreds, not thousands), no mods at all (including colour changes from factory spec), excluding certain makes (because they don't consider them classic enough) and quite a few other things including which days you were allowed to drive.

When the question was raised (by someone ) about what would happen if your old vehicle didn't meet their criteria, the answer was pretty much along the lines of "hand in your v5 and buy a compliant classic vehicle instead".

btw, this wasn't a 'euro-fear' thing, what this uk based association said was they wanted to take the eu regs and ideas and extend them...

You get the same sort of rubbish with shooting organisations wanting to lobby government as to what is licenceable and not, over here anyway. The jobsworth know-all, creeping jesus type.