A 'reader's letter' in my local rag today reckons that there are far more MOT failures here in britain where the test is done when a car is 3 years old, rather than in France where the first MOT is done at 4 years old. The letter can be read here (scroll to 5th letter down):
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My limited experience is that the French where far more paranoid about giving plod an excuse to pull them over.
On Thu, 24 Nov 2011 22:49:43 +0000, Pete stammered:
Our roads are absolute s**te compared to French ones.
People here don't give a toss about driving with lights not working.
I worked with a French guy who lived here. He ran a battered Peugeot that was registered in France.
It was cheaper for him to drive back to his parent's place in France for the weekend and have his car tested whilst there, than pay out to fix all the things it would have failed on here.
Bear in mind that he only had to do this very other year; France has the minimum EU "four-two-two" testing schedule. It would seem that the French don't take things like vehicle testing too seriously...
Chris
It's always been my understanding that a vehicle that is in the UK for more than 6 months has to be UK registered, has this changed?
You can use it here for up to 6 months in any 12 month period.
BTW, I didn't mean to imply what my colleague was doing was legal; it clearly wasn't. However, if stopped by the police, you only have to produce a ferry or train ticket that has the car reg on it, that is dated less than six months ago. As he used to go back to visit every few months, it wasn't a problem.
Chris
On Thu, 24 Nov 2011 22:49:43 +0000, Pete stammered:
From regular trips to France, I've noticed that although French cars often bear more scars than those here, it appears the French don't subscribe to the "changes tyres as a last resort" scenario that we see in the UK. I also see less cheap crap Chinese tyres on cars, either because the French aren't stupid enough import them or the buyers know value for money when they see it and don't buy them! Even old 205s/309s, Renault 19s and Citroen ZXs still rumble around with quality footwear - or am I just visiting the posh bits?
Possibly, but my personal experience with Peugeots and Citroens is that if you don't fit Michelin tyres, the back end *will* try to overtake the front if you go round a corner on a damp road.
My wife and I have had 5 Peugeots (206, 306 and 307) and 4 Citroens (AX, ZX and Xantia.) They are no worse than any other car in respect of handling, in fact the ZXs were fantastic with their rear wheel steering set up. The only scary one was the 1.5D AX with skinny tyres.
If you fit Teflon tyres to any car, the back will go wandering on a wet road.
Maybe they don't just put it in and hope. Then when it fails declare it to be the fault of the garage that last changed the oil and lubed the locks for £50, as they didn't fix the brakes. Maybe they check it will pass before putting it in for the test.
Does France have the same proportion of company and lease cars in the new fleet as UK?
On Fri, 25 Nov 2011 17:37:55 +0000, John Williamson stammered:
Bollocks.
I've had 3 ZXs, 3 XMs, a Xsara and 6 Xantias. I've also had 2 Pug 306s. I've never fitted Michelins, and I drive them hard. I've never had one behave in the manner you suggest.
I have, you haven't. As they say round here, YMMV. Please don't call me a liar unless you were in the car with me when it swapped ends.
What a load of utter s**te.
Some people just spout utter bollocks.
It's happened to a car I was driving, as against it being a story about one a mate was driving, more than once. The problem was always completely cured immediately by fitting Michelin tyres. *My* experiences, yours may differ.
Then again, you think it's clever to overtake on the inside.
Not clever, but it works OK in the USA.
Spouting s**te is your game.
Pugs swapping ends usually has a common root cause - failure in the linkage between seat and steering wheel.
[snip]
FWIW the best tyres on the BX GTi 16V were Goodyear NCTs. The Michelins originally fitted were awful and tended to "tramline" on even mildly rutted road surfaces. The NCTs sorted out the handling nicely.
Lifting off in a slippy corner provokes some pretty wild snap oversteer in the Peugeots I've owned/used/abused. I killed a 205 that way.
Later in life I learned that pointing the front wheels in the desired direction of travel and flooring yeilds better results than changing the brand of tyres.
My 106 had Michelins on the back when I got it. Changing them did not lead to any reduction in tail happiness.
I've not had the same problem with other makes. Just Pugs and Citroens on cheap tyres, and even then, the back end probably only got a foot or so out of line before I caught it.
From the subject line, I though you meant 3 year intervals rather than annual. This is how it's done in Denmark. The main reason for this is that MOT (Syn) are only carried out by the government, so there is often only one place in each town for the MOT.
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