Legal for another year

[RogerPorter]

The Athena may have met it's maker but the TGS continues to give good, reliable service and now stands at 66K. It pased its MoT ten days ago with NO expenditure apart from the £30.50 Test Fee. Now that's what i call a result....

[Tim Leech]

Great stuff, £30.50! rather cheaper than over here.

[Mickey taker]

I wish we had mot discs , and indeed insurance discs over here , stop all those dodgy illegal drivers at a stroke

[scarecrow]

I wish we had mot discs , and indeed insurance discs over here , stop all those dodgy illegal drivers at a stroke

I wonder if it would make a huge amount of difference, Sue? I should think forging one wouldn't be beyond an average cretin with a computer, scanner and printer. The Police here can confirm vehicle legality via an in-car computer thingy.

I'm surprised that there are different regulations for Northern Ireland, but then something tells me that I shouldn't be.

[kiwi]

I wish we had mot discs , and indeed insurance discs over here , stop all those dodgy illegal drivers at a stroke

We have WOF stickers on the top of the drivers side windscreen. Not that it makes much differance getting causght no WOF is just a $200 or 28 dyas to get the WOF done in. If it passes then Fine waived if it fails well most the time $200 gets written off at 50c per week because they cant afford the repairs in the first place.

Insurance not compulsory.

Dont make any differance to dodgy illegal drivers those that in that situation tend to ask to pay the court off at 50c per week or just keep adding up the fines.

[electrokid]

I wish we had mot discs , and indeed insurance discs over here , stop all those dodgy illegal drivers at a stroke

I wondered why we don't have MOT disks - I keep the tax disk right in the LH lower corner of the screen so it doesn't interrupt any line of view so an extra disk would star to clutter the place up.

We could of course just have a small crystal on the front of the car that glows red if any of the three essentials are not up to date - like the crystals in the palms in the film Logans Run - as long as all the young ladies have to wear skimpy outfits like Jenny Agutter

The Police here can confirm vehicle legality via an in-car computer thingy.

And handheld devices now as well ! Technology will eventually be used here - if there's either no tax or insurance or MOT then the car will be prevented from starting !

A mate of mine recently had the first routine service done on his Volvo - he was told the additive tank would need refilling this time - presumably a cetane improver - technology gets everywhere !

[kiwi]

Thats what we have for a MOT sticker

[Stinkwheel]

And handheld devices now as well ! Technology will eventually be used here - if there's either no tax or insurance or MOT then the car will be prevented from starting !

Dammit, that will be a bugger when you have a fixer upper to move around on your farm land


sorry, being obtuse.

On topic, tax insurance and MOT should all be displayed on screen in my opinion, OK some fools will still cheat the system, but surely its better than the current system?

[mat_fenwick]

How about: MOT tester checks your insurance, then issues you with an MOT disc. Road tax is moved to fuel so those who drive more pay more, and those that have more than one vehicle don't have to pay tax on something they may only use at weekends.
As long as I was better off then I'd vote for it, even if it meant slightly more overall it would be handy to spread the cost of the tax disc out.

[Linegeist]

The 'road tax on fuel' thing is something I've never been able to understand in the UK. What's the problem?

It seems so obvious, enabling the scrapping chunks of the ever useless DVLA as well, the tax could be recouped using the same mechanisms as VAT. It also acts as an incentive to smaller, more fuel efficient engines.

This system works perfectly in many other Eurozones, so why not here.....?

[Stinkwheel]

I'll tell you what the problem is Bob, there are so many students, little old ladies etc etc that simply would'nt/dont drive enough miles to cover the current tax disc cost, so the government gets less, they wont put a system in place where they could risk having less coming in overall will they now.

[electrokid]

This system works perfectly in many other Eurozones, so why not here.....?

At one time that was suggested it was found that the tax on our fuel was already more that other countries charged covering the road tax as well - our governments are just too used to getting loads of money from motorists. The worst aspect is the increased tax for 'gas guzzlers' - they use more fuel so automatically pay more tax to start with - double taxation !

On topic, tax insurance and MOT should all be displayed on screen in my opinion,

Can't argue with that - would be much better all round.

[Mickey taker]

I think the reason they dont put it on the fuel is it would almost close down the DVLA putting thousands out of work in Swansea , that would snowball affecting jobs in local dvla's and post offices , unemployment isnt the best vote catcher especially in areas wher there is already not a lot of work

[Mike E (uk)]

The problem with the UK system is it relies on reading the car number plate.

So the dodgy car owners simply steal a set of plates from another car, and the computer systems says the car is OK when scanned.

They can change the plates every day, and the chances of getting caught are tiny.

My friend has CCTV in his drive, and has a video of his number plates being stolen. The crime only took 15 seconds!

Even if they are caught, the fines are less than the combined cost of car tax+MOT+insurance+the speeding+parking fines.

I would have these people sent to a Soviet Gulag for 20 years. Longer for the 2nd offence.

Mike

[mat_fenwick]

So the dodgy car owners simply steal a set of plates from another car

Maybe you could use a set of foreign plates, to make it more difficult for the UK authorities to trace...but who would do a thing like that?