Bearing in mind, even if I was to drive mine with the holes that I have in it, which isn’t going to effect its steering, breaking, starting or anything else, and I A. Hit a pedestrian, cyclist etc B. Roll down an embankment(?). C. Have a head in with a car,lorry.It’s still just a couple of mm of bendable steel in front of me that will either kill me or cripple me. I.e, with an mot or not, they are tin box death traps either way, compared to a modern vehicle Am I right? But we still choose to drive around in them! Only takes a decent side/front impact at the lowest national speed limit, and it’s goodnight Irene! Just saying. Sleep well campers!
Why did you bother asking the question when you already made your mind up ? Each of the scenarios you mention will all result in Police activity and a vehicle exam.. regardless if the incident was related to the rust issues or other defects, the simple fact that the vehicle was defective in some way rendered it unroadworthy .. IE it shouldnt have been on the road in its current condition. Therefore If you hit and kill a cyclist, even if its there fault, you are probably going down as well since the vehicle should never have been on the road in the first place.. "Due to the presence of a motor vehicle on a road" a collision occured.. you need to be legal to be on the road. It would be great to know we were all going to be safe andreturn home at night .. but as it happens collisions happen in a nanosecond, if its your fault and you survive at least you have the rest of you life to reflect... if only I wasnt there that day in a vehicle that wasnt road worthy.. At least if you Kill the cyclist in your roadworthy vehicle there is a chance your only gonna get a fine and a few points.. ironically probably less points than you would if stopped and busted for the defects .. Then you say it only takes a moderate impact at a slow speed and its lights out ... so why then not provide yourself with a much chance as possible and fix the rust to resist the impact.. no brainer really, but im begining to think that for some across the classic car community no brains is the normal..
Probably right, but I’ve owned these vehicles for at least 23 years, now, and I can understand what you are saying with some of the death traps on the road, and god knows, I’ve seen them over the years at bug jam, run to the sun, etc. But they still are only little tin boxes, weather they are concours condition, or ratty, so to speak. But we still choose to drive them...know what I mean?
And, personally speaking, I know the dangers of driving in this day and age, and with all the other idiots on the road, but that’s the chance I take! I ride a motorbike, ffs, same as my brother, who know has his hips pinned together, a Kevlar sheet in his stomach to stop ruptures when he coughs, and bars in his legs so that he can wear 2 shoes! The ‘faults’ I have on MY van dosnt make it anymore dangerous to drive than a fully restored one. It’s just a dangerous vehicle in this day and age. We all know this, but we still drive them! And yes, mines going back out there on the road this year, among the numptys that will more than likely kill me in there vehicles, than I would in mine!
Some folk might think im preaching, but to be honest its not my problem and I dont really care. What worries me is that some folk really do think that the MOT exemption means zero maintenance.. There is a lot of confusion and I admit I do try to make it clear what our responsibilities are ... and the potential shortfalls of ignoring those responsibilities.. It was bad enough seeing an motd motor buried in fibreglass and filler, imagine how bad some are now that there is no test .. I mopped folk up for a living and examined the carnage for 30 years. It scares me to see the standard of driving these days and kinda concerns me for my saftey, the MOT exemption for classics.. cause we all know that there are irresponsible owners flaunting the rules .. an that can have a knock on for the rest of us..
I'm MoT except ( so is my bus) and to be honest despite spending loads of time under her checking all is well, I'm still in 2 minds about getting an MoT. I have an old Herald, that passed it's last MoT with no advisories.....but it's not moved in 6 or 7 years....there's no way I would get in and just drive it.
Me either. And like my van,it's been st for 2 years apart from driving it backwards and forwards every few months to operate the brakes. I'll give it a good going over before I take it out on the road.Either way, I would still have to drive it on the road to a mot station...
If the police can’t be bothered when someone in east Grinstead is robbed and they have CCTV footage of the offence, the chances of being stopped are slim especially as your vehicle will flag up on their system as being Exempt, just drive it
Don't MoT exemption threads get us talking ! Think I might put one on Blunderbus and see what response it gets.
To be honest i think the MOT is even more relevant to old classics than the modern day vehicle ....this exemption is a danger to our hobby . Only takes the press to destroy as it does with anything that pricks up ears .
No one cares about us we are such a tiny proportion of the traffic on the road. The government is much more interested in getting the 10-15 year old cars off the road so they make money selling new cars.
Knowing the quality of some CCTV it shows the act and often wont provide enough detail to ID the perpetrator.. Its a shame they dont respond though, probably busy picking off easy cases like dodgy motors, no insurance , no mot, that kind of thing or tied up arguing the toss with folk that think there free men of the land, seems to be the latest thing..
