Vehicle recycler calls for three-yearly Classic MOTs

A nationwide vehicle recycling specialist is calling for a three-yearly MOT for classic vehicles, after receiving over 500 disposal requests for cars registered before 1988, in the past 12 months.

The Department of Transport is currently considering changing existing MOT legislation to make any vehicle manufactured before 1988 exempt from MOT testing, instead of existing rules that state vehicles manufactured before 1960 are MOT exempt. However, Remove My Car believes that all vehicles, regardless of age should be made to undergo some sort of inspection and refers to its own statistics to demonstrate that pre-1988 vehicles are being considered dangerous by the British public, and responsibly disposed of.

The company believes that a three-yearly MOT for vehicles older than 30 years, similar to the law regarding new vehicles, which don’t require an MOT for the first three years, will ensure that only safe and fully working vehicles are in operation on the country’s roads.

Remove My Car’s Managing Director Steve Queen explained: “Many classic cars that could potentially escape the MOT test are likely to have faults and defects. Vehicles manufactured between 1960 and 1988 are typically left sitting around for a long time and sold on for numerous restoration projects. Are we saying that cars left sitting around for 10 years do not require an MOT?”

Remove My Car works closely with the garage and MOT sector to offer a disposal route for vehicles that fail an MOT test and are economically better off being recycled.

Official figures from Remove My Car released earlier this year demonstrate that the Ford Fiesta is the most scrapped car in the UK, with 1,691 models being recycled by the company in the period between May 2012 and May 2013. Compare this to a single Volkswagen Touareg, which was recycled during the same period; a vehicle only introduced to market 12 years ago. The statistics show that cars over 15 years old are typically being sold for scrap.

Steve Queen believes that safety plays a big part when it comes to a driver deciding to scrap their car: “It’s important to note that it’s potentially very dangerous to drive old cars in bad weather, as their tyres and brakes often struggle in wet and icy conditions. With the extreme winter weather this country often experiences, people are rightly deciding to take that risk away and invest in a newer and ultimately safer car.

“What we don’t want to happen is that an un-roadworthy scrap car sits parked up in 2014 but once it becomes categorised as a classic, it suddenly becomes roadworthy again, without an MOT, and that is the danger we currently face.”