Drivers are putting themselves in danger by failing to carry out basic vehicle maintenance, it has been suggested.
Analysis of the DVSA’s MoT records, carried out by the consumer motoring website HonestJohn.co.uk, shows that a third of MoT failures in 2017 could have been avoided if drivers made basic checks to their car.
Of the 7.3m recorded failures, 2.5m were as a result of simple defects with tyres, lights, brakes and windscreens.
The number one cause of MoT failure in 2017 was incorrect headlamp aim, with 976,569 failures – followed by brake performance (921,534 failures) and broken registration plate lamps (912,246 failures).
Faulty side lights and insufficient tyre tread depth complete the top five – while thousands more cars failed due to worn out windscreen wipers and missing screen wash.
Daniel Powell, managing editor of HonestJohn.co.uk, told the RAC despite the safety of the UK’s roads drivers are putting themselves in danger by failing to carry out basic vehicle maintenance.
He said: “We all know how annoying and dangerous badly-adjusted headlamps can be, yet in 2017 more than 970,000 cars failed the MOT because of this serious but easily remedied problem.
“These figures shows that the majority of failure items are down to the owner, rather than an inherent fault with the car. Drivers can now use this information to ensure their car is not failing on something that can be easily and cheaply fixed beforehand.”
How “false” are these figures?
What MoT garages seem to do now:
I leave vehicles in for a service and any repairs needed e.g. I knew the brake discs and pads needed replaced – they MoT vehicle with a “fail” because of worn discs and pads – then carry out replacing the discs and pads and then re MoT the vehicle with a pass.
Trevor Baird
+3
I’ve come to the conclusion that many of the defects which may cause a MOT fail would only be relevant if and when the vehicle was already being driven in a dangerous and reckless manner. Driven sensibly and carefully the ‘defects’ should never be of concern let alone cause and accident and yet year after year, we meekly take our cars to be inspected and if unlucky, have to pay for repairs that arguably would never be a safety issue.
The new regulations now mean that one could be driving around in a car which has been officially designated as ‘dangerous’ (according to the tester’s manual) but in reality may not be at all, in fact it would be an automatic offence to drive it away even if the previous MOT had not expired.
It’s as though the government has given up trying to remove the dangerous drivers from the road so has opted to remove their cars instead.
Hugh Jones
--1