In the past month I had to get both the X-Type MOT'd and the XJ - XJ was the one that worried me as it was the first MOT on it by me..

The X-Type needed one front lower suspension arm, rear shocks, breather tube and a sill needed welding - total bill £879

The XJ needed water pump replaced and gasket under the conning tower replaced, and rear wheel bearings tightened (never knew wheel bearings could be adjusted till now) - total bill £379

Roll on next year :-)

How about everyone else?

 

£37.50.

My local MoT Test Centre offers a discount on the standard £54.85 fee.

However, I do go right through the car and check everything before taking it for the test to avoid any nasty surprises on the day.

Graham

 

You guys do MOT every year?

 

Steve, not too bad considering age / mileage I guess, still more than you'd like to pay with Christmas just around the corner I suspect though
All good for another year though, barring anything unforeseen opf course


For me around £40 just the test fee really, as per Graham, I try my best to look ahead and do things as and when they come up, just spent around £1700 on my XJ, some needed and some I wanted to do.
I usually take my car in as early as possible, around 30 days BEFORE the MOT is due......this way, if anything is thrown up I have plenty of time to deal with it.


Yes Yarpos, tested every year after the vehicle is over 3 years old

 

Hello Steve my s type sailed through this year, also last year, cost of MOT was £29.50 at my local Formula 1

 

I usually go to Formula One as well.. it's a place I trust compared to some other garages I have tried, that are within walking range of my workplace.

Jaguar dealerships are beyond my reach especially for cats of the age I have.

It was just an expensive year it seems :-) and it's just me :-)

The 'master' plan is we will try to keep the X-Type running for another two years of the school runs without too much more spending, & concentrate on getting all those little jobs on the XJ done over that time - keeping the XJ, and maybe get a small runaround for any short runs..

Meanwhile I am hoping for cheaper MOT's lol

But it is interesting to see that generally our cats aren't too bad when it comes to MOT's

 

Steve,

Walking distance - do you leave the car for testing? I go round mine with the tester.

I've run two cars for many years and hate having the MoT's due at or around the same time. When this has happened, I've had one tested several months before it's due to subsequently get them six months apart.

Graham

 

I knew the X-Type needed rear shocks from the last MOT, so left her there for that to be done then the MOT, thinking that would be it.. unfortunately there was the breather pipe, front suspension strut and welding needed leading to four days of it off the road..

As for the XJ I was in and out of the garage during the MOT (which was aborted part way through due to a water leak), then took it home as a fail as they had run out of time to sort the leak, and get it back in for a retest.. took it back mid week for the retest when they found the rear wheel bearings were worn, which they managed to tighten up and then reran the MOT all OK.

But to put this in perspective, the last couple of MOTs on the X-Type have generally gone smoothly, and this was the first MOT on the XJ since we got it..

soooo I was interested in seeing how everyone elses cat gets on with MOT's :-)

 

NZ has it every 6 months, but were fairy relaxed about it and told you what you would need before the next one. Body rust was passable as long as it wasn't structural .
The guy would say 2 new tyres before next time,or brakes need attention soon. At least you had 6 months to sort some things.

 

6 months!

Does someone in the government have a chain of garages?

Graham

 

£40 for me too - been going to the same place for the last 8 years and the price has never gone up - they don't do repairs (apart from bulbs and wipers if you need them) so you know they won't fail something just to get a few extra quid out of you - top lads

 

Another cheap year £40.00 no advisories

 

Is there any hope at all of the UK scrapping the MOT inspections since they do not contribute meaningfully to road safety?

 

I'm in two minds about this - on one hand you get the stress of a potentially expensive fault causing a fail but on the other hand if it passes you do have the confidence of knowing your car doesn't have any major problems and you have at least a year to sort out any advisories - I agree that the majority of the things checked do not impact actual safety but things like tyres, shocks or steering that could potentially go very quickly and cause a crash are a must IMO

Maybe they should bring in a two tier system where a basic check on the above things are compulsory and a more expensive tier two check that would give you a discount on your insurance and/or breakdown cover?

 

£30.
Bought her Christmas time from BCA 50,000 on the clock and not a mark on the bodywork inside and out. Tester had a good search round for me and says motor is in excellent condition.

 

£35 for the test. Only advisories were the undertray blocking access and a slightly corroded brake pipe.

First MoT in my hands so I was ever so slightly twitchy.

I have to say I wouldn't be in favour of scrapping the test. I know far too many people who have cars that only see a garage at MoT time. They never get serviced, just patched up annually to get a pass. If there was no test, they'd just run them until something catastrophic went wrong. Fine if it's an engine with no oil but I don't want to share the road with people whose brake pads have been down to the metal for 2 years.

 

The above is an example of putting undue faith in an annual inspection and presuming that all other drivers are idiots.

1) Does an inspection of the pads guarantee they will last another 364 days?

2) Do many people drive their cars despite brakes making all sorts of awful noise due to pad wear?

3) Do many people continue to drive their car despite the brakes making awful noises and not being able stopping the car adequately?


The answer to 1) is 'no'. Brake pads can wear out at an accelerated rate due to a seized caliper or pins. An MOT is not intensive enough to find an impending caliper issue nor is annually a frequent enough time interval to eliminate all caliper issues. Even a simple change in driving style can accelerate the rate at which pads are consumed. It's not unusual to see rear pads on some new Jags lasting only 15K miles with aggressive driving. Many people drive more than 20K a year.

The answer to 2) is only a tiny minority of people tolerate brake noise especially if it overrides their radios. Even the punks have pride in their junkers.

I'd like to say that answer to 3) is absolute zero but I'm sure there is an exception somewhere. I live in a country that has no safety inspections yet accidents/injuries attributed to vehicle defects are virtually unheard of. I know my fair share of punks with junk but none with noisy or non-functional brakes

Drivers in the UK have no comparative experience to draw upon as there's always been annual MOT's and can naturally attribute the low accident rate to the existence of the test- as opposed to the vast majority of owners simply being responsible drivers.

It can easily be demonstrated that brakes can wear out at less than an annual interval. Is there data that indicating that such owners take no action on their own to repair the defect? Your local MOT station could answer this by observing the number of vehicles they see coming in for a test that already have noisy and non-functional brakes.

If the number is significant, is there data that suggests that this results in accidents? If so, the annual interval should be reduced to perhaps monthly to have any real effect.

If we want to still believe that people are irresponsible idiots, it can be presumed that some naively think that a car only needs to be looked at once a year and that if a vehicle passes an MOT then there's no need for them to do anything else. I know for a fact, having spent considerable time in the UK, there's lots of owners who think this way. They're the real danger on your roads.

Thanks for letting me rant

 

I'll let the opinions go unchallenged but not misrepresentation of FACT.

The MoT was introduced in 1960 for vehicles over 10 years old it was not until 1967 that the annual test was introduced for cars over three years old. Items included in the test and acceptable standards have gradually increased over the years.

I won't be the only member here who was driving vehicles in the 1960's which had never been subject to the requirement for an MoT. I can easily recall what was considered 'roadworthy' by some owners and dealers in those days.

Graham

 

Factually correct, but what percentage of active members here are in your age and experience bracket vs. the obvious intent of my broad statement of 'it's always been that way'. There was no MoT before cars existed, but is that relevant?

The net answer is probably similar to the number of irresponsible owners whose wilful act of neglect results in an accident.

 

I hate MOT's as much as anyone else but I would never have known about the sills rotting on the X-Type, or the suspension strut supports rusting on the X308 without the MOT being performed and either could have proved dangerous..

For people who are mechanically minded and often under their cars there is close to no real need for an MOT other than to verify their maintenance knowledge but for the average owner/driver I believe it does help guarantee dangerous issues are picked up and possibly saves lives.

Don't get me wrong the MOT absolutely terrifies my bank balance every time - usually when I am worried nothing crops up, and other times when I think all looks clear I get a mega bill *but* I do believe the MOT has a place in the world of car maintenance.