To ask if your car normally passes it's MOT.

I think it depends on age of vehicle and how many miles a year you do
My 12 year old VW just passed with only one advisory which DP is fixing tomorrow - DD has an older car which again passed a few days ago but was given advisories for brakes and tyres

Hmm... Probably about 70% of the time, but I always get a full service at the same time as the MOT, so if it doesn't pass, it's not a big deal. It gets whatever repair it needs, and is then MOT'd again. IME, garages don't charge for the re-test if you've had a service at the same time.

A service isn’t “prescribed” in the same way an MOT is, so you’ve no guarantee they’ve actually checked all the things you think they may have. As you say, a “good” service might pick some up, a lazy one probably won’t. And it’s still not a fail safe.

My point was the myriad of people saying “mine won’t fail its MOT, I get it serviced just before” as though they are one and the same and that getting a service will rectify any defect that could cause MOT failure. I was simply saying that isn’t the case and not some kind of fail safe.

Which you’ve kinda agreed with in your final point….! That servicing first, while certainly not an issue, also isn’t necessarily the prescribed way to do it.

A good service should include almost everything an MOT would check for & a few things an MOT wouldn't look at, so i would expect brakes/hoses, steering and suspension to be checked and for me to be advised accordingly.

Ok it wont check emissions or brake bias.

Remember also that an MOT technician (who may not necessarily be a mechanic) isn't allowed to take off anything that requires tools, so brake pad and disk wear wont be checked if it cannot be done so without tools.

My car is 16yrs old and I only do about £1k miles a year 😆 so it usually passes.

what a redundant question? every year “your car” gets older and has done more miles so it’s likely to have more faults unless you’ve changed your car whereby it doesn’t need an MOT; brand new up to 3 years or other therefore it’s a different car so there’s no “normally” applicable 🤔

Obviously. But to say they’re not linked is just wrong. A service should include a lot of checks as well as the replacement of the service items. I wouldn’t expect a car that’s just been serviced to fail on bulbs, tyre tread depth of brake pad thickness for example.

Although, as I said previously, the best option is to MOT first then pick up any fails during the service.

It may well pick up some, but certainly not guaranteed to cover all of it or prevent a failure.

They’re not the same thing and not really linked whatsoever.

They’re not, but a service will pick up a lot of things which could be MOT fails, there’s a lot of crossover.

22 years of Toyotas.

1 fail for a bulb.

I expect my Toyota to never fail. It is 5 years old. I expect it to last until it is 12 before it fails even a small thing.

A service won’t stop you failing an MOT. Service looks at changing your oil, oil filter, fuel filter, air filter etc to keep the engine running well.

MOT checks for road worthiness - is it going to fall apart? Are any load bearing parts rusting through, do your lights work, do your doors open etc. They’re not the same thing and not really linked whatsoever.

Both should be done for different reasons. If you maintain your car and keep on top of any advisories then no reason for it to fail.

And critically - an MOT doesn’t mean there’s nothing wrong with your car! It does specific roadworthiness checks only.

I've been driving since 2000 and never had a car fail its MOT......... I assumed this would be the norm but judging by this thread there are a lot of poorly maintained and potentially unsafe cars on the road

You don’t have to transfer a warranty to a new owner, it’s a manufacturer one with a new car. Usually 3 years

@jasflowers it was ridiculous! It's a common car. However they got me a lovely hire car that I would never be able to afford to buy, and I did enjoy driving it. It was brand new!

OK then.

Our old Toyota did for 21 years. Never serviced it.

Mine is old but never has. My husband makes sure there is nothing obvious it will fail on before he takes it in. One year he had to make a new exhaust pipe because there were none available in the UK.

You quite simply do not "have to" at all. I've never had a new car, so never had a warranty to invalidate (a total scam anyway!) as they don't transfer to new owners.

This comment tells us you don’t have a clue what you’re talking about.

It's failed once. But it's an 12 year old car so I don't think that's too bad.

Because nobody has a magic car.

It depends entirely on the age and condition of the car! If you maintain it well (check tyres, lights, replace broken wiper blades etc) and have it serviced, you stand a better chance of it passing but it's not guaranteed.

Yes a garage i use has said that SE Asian cars have have really issues getting parts, they recently had to wait 3 months for suspension parts for a Hyundai Santa Fe, required to pass an MOT.... there also isn't the after market OEM parts that are readily available for say a VW group car.

You don't 'have to' at all! It's not a legal requirement. I would never buy a new car so the warranty is no concern of mine.

It's serviced annually.