One of the things peculiar to the UK, and which the Brits love to moan about, is the dreaded MOT. This is basically a certificate of roadworthiness which all vehicles over 3 years old must have in order to be registered and taxed so you can drive it. This is the stuff they test:
Basically, you can't renew your vehicle's registration if you do not have a valid MOT - the MOT certificate lasts for 12 months. There is a bit of a way around, perfectly legal, which is to do this: get your MOT and pay only 6 months road tax, then, when the road tax expires, renew it - but this time for 12 months. This way you will get an extra 6 months before you have to do your MOT again.
Ruby, my car, being some 13 years old, having achieved mileage of some 117000 miles, is becoming a bit of a grand old dame, so I decided last year to have a go at doing this extendable MOT type idea. The problem was, when I came to renew the road tax after 6 months, the silly government put the 12 months fee up so much that there was just no way I could afford to pay it - so I only renewed for 6 months again. The long and short of all of this is, Ruby needed a new MOT and road tax by 31st March or she has to come off road.
Now the MOT test usually costs £50 something, and if you fail it first time, you have to pay something like £27 to have it re-tested - but most garages don't really bother with the retest fee. At least, that's what I was told.
Knowing Ruby was going for her test (and a service) on Monday, I went round to Ken's on Sunday to get him to have a bit of check through, just to make sure she wasn't going to fail on something stupid - so he checked all the bulbs and so on, and did a quick repair of the headlight cover which had fallen off. So, if she was going to fail, it was going to be for something major, like something structural, or brake pads, or something.
In she goes on Monday, Ken's number given to the mechanic (as my 'husband' - so they won't try to rip me off with something unnecessary, as they are wont to do with females) - and off I went to school, trying not to worry too much about it.
Alas, she failed. On something stupid too - they said that Ken's repair on the headlights, which he knows was legal, wasn't - so they failed her immediately. They quoted £70 to repair it - seriously, £70? to repair a headlight cover? What a rort! But I need the car, and £70 is better than £700, so I went for it.
It took them TWO WHOLE DAYS to repair the car. TWO!!! Which meant buses and tubes for me to get to school, smelly armpits and stinky people, loud headphones and so on... ick.
I kept phoning the garage to find out when she would be ready for pick up - because by now, she's no longer legal, her rego has expired - and the way you renew it is by taking your MOT, insurance and renewal notice to the post office (which closes at 5.30pm!). 4.30 comes and goes - still not ready. 5.00 - not ready. 5.15 and finally I could get her, pay their exorbitant fee - the blighters went and charged me for the retest even though they carried out the repairs themselves, and what with the cost of the MOT's, repairs and labour - the whole thing came to £240!!!! What a joke!!! And then the road tax was £185!!!
I guess I wouldn't mind so much, except for when I got home later I took a closer look at my MOT certificate and saw these wonderful words - "Warning: A test certificate is not evidence that the vehicle is in a satisfactory condition."
Well what on earth is it evidence of then, huh?!!
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