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

[girlfriend44]

Car passed Mot today, and did last year too. I'm thankful.
Is this normal?

Had my MOT today. Two new tyres, a new wiper blade and a reverse light bulb. It’s 12 years old and I never get it serviced so I’m happy enough with that,

19 years old never failed. The odd advisory on brake pads, tyres which husband does. New clutch last year. The mileage is low.

Happy? How long have you been driving round with unsafe and illegal tyres?

Presumably since some point over the last year.

She didn't say it failed on tyres just that it had 2 new ones. That could have been an advisory and she decided to have them done now

And I’m sure the reversing light only went 5 seconds before she pulled into the garage too.

I always do a double take when mine passes. I also bloody hate MOT day with a passion especially as we share one car so it's a ball ache to have it off the road for repairs

@ItTook9Years I mean it does happen
My drivers side window regulator decided to fail as I went to put my window up at the garage before it's MOT! Annoying

A lot of people have their tyres done when it comes up on an advisory

We always service the car before MOT. Otherwise if you don't check everything over how do you know it will pass? You then waste money on a retest.

Most garages will retest for free. What’s the point in paying for a service then taking it for an MOT and finding out you have to spend a couple of grand on it 😂There are plenty of things which won’t show up on a service.

@Shade17 But that's the whole point of servicing it - the very first thing you do is check it over visually first - see what needs doing and what might need doing, make a list of parts needed and tot it all up before you even spend out on the £40 or whatever for the MOT test??? If you're not doing it yourself then put the car in for a pre MOT estimate to tell you how much it'll likely cost before passing MOT, it'll be cheaper surely as they'll check it over and just come up with a price before servicing and MOT, and you can then decide if you want to go ahead or not? And a good garage should check all the points that might come up on MOT in a service as routine and more in depth what might need doing in time, you don't wait till it fails an MOT as MOT only covers the stuff that is basic requirements for safety !??!
www.rac.co.uk/drive/advice/how-to/what-is-a-car-service-car-service-checklist/

I'd still check all the cheap stuff - lights & indicators, handbrake adjustment, wiper blades, tyres etc that are simple to replace myself with minimal tools and cheaper to buy the parts to DIY, or outsource - we have a fab tyre guy - rather than the garage charge me £50 for a 2 minute task! As well as visually check the seatbelts, no dangerous bodywork holes etc

You need a garage that isn’t going to rip you off.

A good garage will test, ring you and say ‘you need x, y and z. Shall I do it or do you want to take it somewhere else?’ You tell them to do it, they do it for a reasonable price, done.

Skoda fabia passes every year for 20 years ...but know time is limited so replaced with a younger second hand skoda fabia...skoda fabia best car ever...

Our old car sailed through MOTs for the 12 years we had it and it was never serviced. It was a very reliable car.

Mine generally passes, it failed 3 years ago with a broken spring which I guess was caused by a pothole but that is the only major thing it failed on, it's 9 years old

People that don't have a service, do you change the oil yourself

It's 17 years old and never failed it's MOT. It's low mileage, driven carefully and we have it serviced every year by a local independent garage who pick up anything as they're pretty thorough during servicing and tell us whether any issues would cause it to fail and give timescales for things that get worse with age/mileage such as tyres/brakes etc.

Can't actually remember the last time we had a car that failed and we've both had cars for over 40 years. Never had any surprises.

My Honda Jazz has just flown through her MOT for the 10th year in a row. My previous car of the same make, which was 18 when I finally replaced her, also flew through MOTs. I also had an Astra LS that I kept until she was 15 that was the same. I do follow the servicing schedule though and ask the garage to fix anything that may pop up as an advisory on the next MOT, which more often than not means replacing a wiper blade or something equally minor.

I had an MOT fail this month for the first time in years! It was just because a tyre had worn too thin, I vaguely remember it being an advisory last year but as I've been on mat leave and not driven it much it just went out my head!

My taxi driver neighbour has one which was his taxi for 250k miles. He bought a newer car to use for his business and the Skoda has become the family car. I'm a Honda fan myself but Skoda do make very good cars.

And a good garage should check all the points that might come up on MOT in a service as routine and more in depth what might need doing in time,

I can assure you that no garage is doing this. That would mean doing things like testing emissions and putting it through the brake rollers and onto the MOT ramp to use the shaker deck and beam setter.

13 year old Panda and always passed. I do however take it to the Council test centre which I think makes a difference ( plus we get a staff discount). I don't have a full service as I refuse to pay for things like my boot catch being greased but I do pay for oil and filter change before I take it for an MOT and check tyres, lights etc.

Of course there are a few things that a garage can't/won't check in the service, but the vast majority of stuff checked in an MOT can easily be looked at by the garage once the car is on the ramp pretty quickly and easily. I.e. things like tyre condition, brake depth, bulbs, wipers, external damage, obvious "blows" from the exhaust, rust/corrosion, suspension, rubber joints, etc.

Our 28 year old car often has an advisory but always passes. The "new" cars have always passed without a hitch.

Yes, they have called me because it had a bulb out or a windscreen blade needing replacing which they do for me but I've never had one fail. I have had strong advisories eg we aren't failing you but you need a new tyre within 3 months sort of thing