Scrapping Annual Car Safety Tests Would Be Disastrous

Imagine a society where no car was checked to make sure it was safe and roadworthy. Where people could leave bald tyres on their cars until they burst, where rust was left to run riot, causing catastrophic mid-corner failures, and where windscreens can get cracked, smeared and otherwise obscured with no one to put the owners in their place until it’s too late.

That’s exactly what the UK government, backed by at least one major daily newspaper, is calling for: the abolition of the annual MOT test. The Ministry of Transport test has been Britain’s standardised annual used car safety check since 1960, covering an ever-increasing number of parts and systems along the way.

It makes sure that a driver can see out of the windscreen properly. It checks that the brake pedal isn’t wired to the reversing lights (I really did see that once), and that the headlights aren’t angled straight into oncoming traffic’s eyes. There are dozens of safety issues that the MOT test covers. Without it, the potential for all sorts of avoidable carnage is limitless.

Surely it’s better to pay the £25-£50ish fee and know that your car is basically safe. We all know that the MOT, and the EU and US equivalents, aren’t foolproof and don’t cover everything, but getting that certificate saying your car is in good health is still a vital – and always satisfying – part of car ownership.

It’s absolutely crucial that we keep the test. It’s the only barrier stopping society’s corner-cutters from stopping paying for essential maintenance. Many of us have mental libraries of anecdotes featuring friends, family, strangers who couldn’t give a monkey’s about stuff like tyres, brakes, lights, windscreen wipers, exhausts, suspension or anything else on a car, and only pay for repairs when they’re essentially forced to.

A friend of my brother’s turned up at his place once, where we were all getting together for a movie and a takeaway. She parked her Peugeot 206 on the drive and came inside. After a while she said to him: “Steve, you know a bit about cars, don’t you? Mine feels really funny, especially in the rain…”

Out he went. From the front door he could already see that both tyres on the closest side were almost flat. Same the other side. All four tyres were different brands and three were totally bald. The car had no MOT certificate because the dopey owner knew neither what it was nor that she was obliged to have one. She was lucky she hadn’t ended up in a wall, or injuring someone else. These people inspire a cold fury in me – and I’m sure the same goes for you.

Remove the annual checks, where those too ignorant or cheap to fix their cars of their own volition are legally forced to comply with roadworthiness standards, and how many dangerous faults will go unfixed? How many accidents waiting to happen will become accidents that have just happened? How many years down the line, and how many lives lost, will we reach before we realise what a ridiculous mistake scrapping the MOT test was?