OT: buying a car on ebay with no road tax or MOT

If it was a relevant item , then yes they would have. However as the normal penalty is to be given a seven day wonder then it's fairly irrelevant.

These different terms have overlapping but distinct meanings in law.

And a lot of elements of C&U are not covered by the MOT.

I suspect the law on MOT certificates is as claimed -- no limits on distance to the test station. You might want to go to one of the manufacturer's dealers, rather than a nearby garage with little knowledge of the details of a vehicle.

But if you use the procedure to take a vehicle half-way across the country, and you get checked, I'm sure the Police would find some other law to apply. And what would the insurance company say?

You're saying it's not an offence not to have a current MOT?

failing an MOT does not make a car unroadworthy, for

I know that, but until it's checked, who's to say, the brakes, suspension, steering etc, are mechanically sound, and the car is safe to drive? Most drivers would be unable to make that assessment beforehand with any degree of certainty.

So. Are you saying that the driver of a car without a current MOT, who drives to a testing station where it fails on brakes or suspension ball joints etc, 'has' committed an offence, and could be prosecuted? I don't think you are as clear about the situation as you'd have me believe. Mike.

Indeed. For example, if your fail was as trivial as a blown bulb, that's enough to nick you anyway, isn't it?

cheers, clive

That is also what others have said. So far to my knowlege, no one has offered anything to support their interpretation of the law regarding driving to a prebooked MOT. The act might not specifically exclude driving great distances, but IMO it is a mistake to assume that that means unlimited distances are allowed. I'd be interested in more than just opinions. You say it's true. Show me the evidence. Mike.

Mike G ( snipped-for-privacy@lycos.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

It certainly is not an offence. It is usually an offence to use a car on the road without a current MOT, but there is an exemption - for taking it to/from a pre-booked test, which also exempts from VED. If you pass the test, though, you have to have a VED on the way back.

"Any reasonable efforts" is, I suspect, the standard that would apply. That will vary according to the driver - I'd expect a little ol' lady to get away with far more than somebody with mechanic skills and experience.

If he could reasonably have been expected to know, yes - and that would, I'd expect, include if it was driving horribly enough that you could be expected to guess something was wrong.

If it's on the way back from a fail for them, definitely - although if the tester didn't make it clear, I'd think you could pass the buck that way..

Clive George ( snipped-for-privacy@xxxx-x.fsnet.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Anybody who fails an MOT on a blown bulb deserves to be nicked for gross stupidity anyway - unless it's *genuinely* gone "on the way to the station" - and you'd have to do a lot of persuading...

Judges don't make laws, but they do define laws. Our legal system is based on precedent, and how one particular judge interprets the meaning of a particular aspect of a law, can become the basis for any subsequent rulings. Mike.

The description "would sell for spares or repair" seems to suggest that everything isn't quite right. A pity.

Volff ( snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

That may just be a cover-your-arse phrase, knowing that it's got no ticket but not knowing if there are serious issues lurking.

It's a Volvo 360. Scrapping it would be a favour.

So you can't even drive it from the testing station to the Post Office when it passes?

Volff ( snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

AIUI, no, you're not meant to.

You sure about the last bit? Surely that's covered by the 'from a pre-booked test'?

cheers, clive

It's not a very complicated bit of law, it makes no comment on distance, reasonable or otherwise.

You can be prosecuted, you have the defence of reasonable open to you. Whether or not it's got an MOT doesn't affect the legality of driving with faulty brakes tyres or anything else.

They have their aficionados. It would be better if it were the injection GLT rather than the carb GLE model. A 2 litre B200E engine in such a small car makes quite an impression.

Volff ( snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Yes, well. There's an Allegro owner's club, a Maestro owner's club, and there's TWO Marina owner's clubs...

The message from Adrian contains these words:

The first two deserve it - but the Marina was a dog from start to finish.

With the availability of dodgy ones? Not bloody likely.