For those who may think that I am not safety

To get back to the original thread, in considering whether or not cars should be tested at given mileages, rather than merely on an annual basis after three years, it has to be borne in mind that most high mileage company cars clock up 90% of their miles, travelling at high speed up and down the motorway network. Modern motors thrive on this kind of usage, indeed mechaically speaking these cars have an easy life. Those components of the vehicle which are subject to MOT inspection will, after 3 yrs have been subjected to considerably less wear and tear in a car used in this way, over and above one that clocks up an average 10/12k a year being used mainly "for social, domestic and pleasure purposes only", in give and take conditions.
Indeed,provided that an authenticated service record was available, I would prefer to buy a 2/3year old company or lease car with 60k + on it that had been used mainly on M-ways, rather than a similar low mileage private vehicle that had been driven every day in commuter traffic or worse used on the school run!
So, on balance, and always provided that said motors are serviced regularly and correctly, I see no advantage in basing test intervals on mileage. Lets face it, there are enough bits of paper in the system already!

Regards
Olaf The Blue

There are too many bits of paper in the British system, I agree, and there is no communication between departments, but that is for a different thread. I also agree with buying the high millage lease car, but ONLY if it has the paper work.....

With the high millage thing, I think the phrase "Assumption is the mother of all....." springs to mind. You assume that people are going to do service and repair their cars. And yes for the most part it may be true. But for the few that don't, who knows what is happening. We have a similar situation here in Holland with motorbikes. There is no MOT equivalent, with the assumption that a biker is going to look after his bike due to safety reasons. Some of the bikes I have seen and had to misfortune to ride whilst mine was serviced are deathtraps.

And an MOT cert given each x miles isn't going to cause too much extra paper, and if you keep them all then when you sell the car you have yet more proof that it was looked after well, and the department of Transport has proof of millage making clocking more difficult....

Stu

I understand the point you are making, Stu but MOT tests based on mileage could be a double edged sword. It depends at what mileage you are going to demand that cars are tested because there are plenty of cars out there, often owned by the elderly, which cover ridiculously low annual mileages. My mum-in-law, for instance, has done less than 3k in the Pug 106 she bought new in March! Cars such as this could go for years without being tested unless you set the mileage interval between tests so low that some cars would be in and out of the testing station every couple of weeks.
Anyway, I wonder if anyone has access to stats showing how many accidents are caused each year as a direct result of mechanical failure of a component covered by the MOT - apart from tyres, that is- and how many of the vehicles involved fall into the high mileage, never been tested category which were the ones we were talking about at the beginning of this thread. Just a thought.

Regards
Olaf The Blue

[sheerwater]

There are Govt statistics for the REAL causes of accdents on www.abd.org.uk One interesting statistic is that vehicle failure does case accidents but so does a driver being unfamiliar with the vehicle. i.e. does not know the dials,switches etc. If this is a cause of accidents then why doesnt the Govt accpt this and insist that certain controls are placed in roughly the same position. Back to the thread. Yes there is to much paper floating around. Take for example the new plasic driving licence. Hi tech....nope as despte the technology of the magnetic strip you still have to have a paper one. The simple answer (and remember Im not suggesting this is enforced) is for the MOT to be based on mileage or time. his happens wth car servicing!!
Cheers Nige