‘Easily avoidable’ MOT failures increase by 133,000 in four years – study
Some of the most common causes of MOT failures have to do with tyres, headlamps and windscreen wipers.
It has been revealed that ‘easily avoidable’ MOT failures have risen by 133,000 in four years.
New data found that in the last financial year, a total of 2.59 million vehicle MOT failures could have been resolved beforehand, compared to 2.4 million between 2019 and 2020.
That’s according to motor insurance company, Go Compare, which gathered testing data from the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) and spoke to 2,000 drivers about their MOT experiences.
The insurance company says that 1.4 million failures were due to headlamps, reflectors and electrical equipment. A further 710,000 vehicles had problems with their tyres and 461,000 failures were from poor visibility with windscreens and wipers.
Tom Banks, car insurance expert at Go Compare, said: “Taking your car to get its MOT is a nerve-wracking experience, so it’s important that you prepare for it properly to avoid incurring any needless extra costs. Our research shows that millions are lost every year just because drivers fail to do a few simple checks before the test, so make sure you don’t make the same mistake.”
“Check that all the bulbs are working properly and replace any that you need to, then measure the tyre pressure and take a look at the tread depth to see if it meets the minimum requirements. You should also look for damage to the car’s windscreen and wipers, before testing the washers. Remove any parking stickers, like those from festivals, and from the windscreen too.”
Furthermore, the data found that one in 10 motorists missed the slot to get a free MOT retest within two weeks of the first failure. That means that the annual amount lost to avoidable retests might have increased by £770,000 over the last four years.
