MOT: millions of drivers late to get their car tested

There is a significant financial penalty for driving without a valid MOT in place, which is why you should get you car checked if your MOT has expired or is due to soon.

A new Freedom of Information (FoI) request from MoneySuperMarket has revealed that huge numbers of drivers may be hitting the roads without a valid MOT in place.

The FoI request for the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) revealed just how many cars were retested for their MOT on time last year.

It found that a massive 7,622,653 cars underwent their MOT after their previous pass had expired.

In other words, at various points last year, there were more than seven and a half million motors on UK roads, which may have been unsafe to drive.

Encouragingly, this is likely more the result of simply being a bit tardy rather than actively trying to avoid the test, as the FoI found more than four out of five drivers who didn’t get their MOT on time, did at least get their car checked within three months of the expiry date.

And for whatever reason, May seems to be the most common time of the year for forgetting about an MOT, as more than 760,000 of the late MOTs last year had been due that month.

Cheap runners: cars most and least likely to pass an MOT test

The penalties for driving without a MOT

A MOT is a really important test for any motor. It’s a case of the experts going over your car with a fine-toothed comb, checking it really is roadworthy and won’t put you or any other drivers at risk. 

That’s why failing to have one is serious. If you are caught driving a vehicle, which does not have a valid MOT in place, then you could be fined up to £1,000.

The penalties are even more serious if you hit the road with a car which has been declared dangerous in a MOT test and hasn’t had those issues corrected.

In this situation, you’ll be facing a fine of up to £2,500, three points on your licence and even the potential to be banned from driving altogether.

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COVID-19 and late tests

The sheer number of late tests last year is pretty extraordinary, but it seems to me there’s a high chance that figure will be higher for 2020 as a direct result of the confusion sparked by COVID-19.

At the start of lockdown, the UK Government announced a six-month extension to MOT dates.

In other words, if your car was due to go in for its test at some point after late-March, that deadline was being pushed back by half a year.

It was a sensible move, given many garages were closed and we were all told to stay at home except in extenuating circumstances.

After all, if you weren’t driving to work or the supermarket, you shouldn’t have been out in the car at all, meaning far less risk of any car which may have had an issue or two actually leading to an accident.

But the extension was then scaled back last month, with mandatory MOTs reintroduced on 1 August.

The move followed pressure from motoring groups who saw that lockdown was loosening, leading to greater numbers of cars on the roads, and an increased threat of dangerous vehicles putting drivers, cyclists and pedestrians at risk.

After all, the numbers of MOTs carried out in April and May this year were drastically down on the same period in 2019, falling from 7.1 million to just 2.1 million.

Given that enormous fall, and the shifting tone of messaging around MOTs, it seems fair to conclude that we are likely to see many more cars arriving for their MOT after the previous one has expired.

Those seven million cars on the roads last year that were potentially dangerous? 2020 is likely to see far greater numbers of problematic vehicles out and about.

Visibility: the cars that offer the worst view for drivers

Raising awareness

As a result, it’s really important that the Government and motoring groups do more to raise awareness of the change in the MOT extension and encourage drivers to check precisely when they need to take their car in again.

Back in March, we all had no choice but to follow the COVID-19 news ‒ quite simply there was nothing else going on, so it was easier to inform drivers of the MOT extension.

But things are different now, and there’s a danger the change to the regime has not got through to sufficient drivers.

It’s not enough to rely on drivers to read publications like loveMONEY or WhatCar for example ‒ we need the authorities to be proactive in highlighting the need to get your MOT.

Surely the Government bods can come up with a snappy three-word slogan, as they do for everything else?

As for drivers, it’s crucial that you are proactive too in making sure you know when your MOT is due and booking it in good time. It’s really not worth dragging your feet and landing a four figure fine.

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