While out tonight I was told about plans by the government to hit motorist again, 1st they want all cars to be insured whether your driving them or not same as road tax. Basically if a car is not insured and you don't have simuler to a Sworn then you get £1000 fine. 2nd is the new MOT they want to computerised all MOT's and only allow mot centres to do a set number per day eg 10 per day, and all retest will be a full retest and charged again no free retests. Ok is this correct or just someone talking crap.

I took my car for the MOT today. According to the mechanic the new computerised test will take 40 minutes and cannot be shortened as this time is dictated by the new machine. As it is now most of them scan be manually completed in about 20 minutes (even though government guidelines say it should take the allowed 40 mins).
Apparently the re-test as it is has always been discretionary but any failures in the new system will need another 40 mins testing as the computer goes through the same routine.(At the full cost again)
The computers are being installed free to partaking MOT centres which means the cost will be passed on to us with higher charges.
He also said that the MOT certificate will be phased out as a central register will hold all details of vehicles that have passed. A receipt will be issued to take to the Post Office for taxing.

He told me all this and passed the car. Good man.

The law has for many years been that if you have a car driven or parked on a public road then it must be insured. If you have a car parked off the road, then you will not need to insure it.

Originally posted by Patchy
The law has for many years been that if you have a car driven or parked on a public road then it must be insured. If you have a car parked off the road, then you will not need to insure it.

Yes at the moment, but Bikertec had heard this as a rumour - a change in the law. Any truth in it?

I understand the MOT changes are already to come in. If you leave the car to be fixed after a failure, without taking it away from the garage, would the full retest fee still apply?

If it removes some of the uninsured, dangerous rust buckets off the road then what's the problem?

If it's the extra costs that the motorist will incur, then we're in familiar territory. After all, what's another tax when we've had 66 new ones under this shower?

Originally posted by Bikertec
While out tonight I was told about plans by the government to hit motorist again, 1st they want all cars to be insured whether your driving them or not same as road tax. Basically if a car is not insured and you don't have simuler to a Sworn then you get £1000 fine. 2nd is the new MOT they want to computerised all MOT's and only allow mot centres to do a set number per day eg 10 per day, and all retest will be a full retest and charged again no free retests. Ok is this correct or just someone talking crap.

Don't know about the MOT stuff, but what's the problem of having to get the equivalent of a SORN if you're not insured?

That way you're acknowledging that it would be illegalto drive the car on the public roads without insurance, just like you currently acknowldeg with a SORN that the car is off the road and that it is illegal to park it or use it on the road while the SORN is in effect.

I honestly don't see the problem.

MOT - if it's computerised, it's completed to the same standard all the time. It's a pain in the arse to have to pay for a re-test, but again should lead to consistency in terms of application of the rules. In other words, you know that the car that passes it's MOT in a dealership and the one that passes it's MOT in a small garage have both been tested to the same degree and that there's been no interpretation of the results as to what's pass or fail.

Joe