The importance of the DVLA MOT history site

[Welton]

Weird thing is the car doesn't look that good for a low-miler.

[TheLeeds]

Originally Posted by capt jack

.........What amazed me was the number of cars that failed an MoT on "severe corrosion" one day, only to be given a "Pass" the very next day, and then was being advertised as "mint"...............

With the best will in the world I find it odd to think that a car can be so rusty as to fail an MoT on Monday, and then repaired and back on the road on Tuesday............

As with many things, the question of the level of corrosion on a car is subjective.
For example, I used to go to an MOT place a bit off the beaten track, and the proprietor (now sadly departed) was very fair, but his pet hate was rust. One day, I was sitting in a series 3 jag on his MOT ramp and he said, "Oh dear, found some rust here."
I asked him how bad it was. His reply was, "Bad enough to get me in trouble if I don't fail it."

Now that's how it should be. However, one week I took 3 different cars up there, and the interesting thing is, he put the same advisories about corrosion on each of them.
Two were Audis for customers, and the other was a 525e I had at the time. If you look at the MOT history for that car, it's quite interesting, amusing, and utterly implausible.

(same testing station, same examiner every time !) ...
In August 2007, it allegedly had 11 spots of corrosion.
In July 2008 it had 50.
Then in 2009 it didn't have any !
In 2010 it had 20.
In 2011 all the rust had disappeared again.
I never did any welding or undersealed the car, so basically, what that says to me is, take the advisories with a skip of salt. The only rust of concern on that car was on the sun roof and I'd have replaced it with a glass one off a Saab if I'd been keeping it.

[Pandamedic]

Mines not due for an MOT yet, so i've used the site to have a quick check of my previous cars, and one of my previous Volvos had 213,222 miles on it last year, and the other one 153k miles lol

[biggbn]

I always use site when buying a car, it's a good test of owners honesty if nothing else

[xsaab]

The site is useful to determine if the car you see in films etc are still roadworthy or just used on private roads. You can also see how much work has been done on them to keep them roadworthy.

[TheLeeds]

Originally Posted by xsaab

The site is useful to determine if the car you see in films etc are still roadworthy or just used on private roads. You can also see how much work has been done on them to keep them roadworthy.

That's a good point. Although with some film vehicles, you need to know if it's the actual number of the car, or just a cover plate. One example is Arthur Daley's yellow Daimler Sovereign they used in some episodes of Minder. The number on the car is DYO979V, but according to minder.org, the actual car used was VDU342X.
I entered the TV times competition to win it, but someone else got it. It's still showing as MOTd. Unlike DYO979V which doesn't appear to exist.

[P4]

If you read the DVLA MOT's on my Citroen XM all you will see every year is rust on the sill area. The sills are rotting from the inside out and need patching every year. It fails one day and passes a couple of days later.

It needs all the sills replacing but none are available, cannot even get the drawings from Citroen to have them fabricated, so it's a matter of patching up every year until the inevitable happens.

[biggbn]

Originally Posted by Eddie Nuff

If you read the DVLA MOT's on my Citroen XM all you will see every year is rust on the sill area. The sills are rotting from the inside out and need patching every year. It fails one day and passes a couple of days later.

It needs all the sills replacing but none are available, cannot even get the drawings from Citroen to have them fabricated, so it's a matter of patching up every year until the inevitable happens.

What xm do you have? I loved those cars, only owned one, a 2.5td estate with 330k miles!!! Drove like new. Would love a 3.0 24v in black with black leather, sophisticated hooligans car!!

[P4]

It's a 2.0Si 4 pot non-turbo. There are only about 300 XM's alive and on the road of which about only 90 are Series 1. Mine is one of only six 1989 UK registered cars left, butchered by Citroen UK to fit a non-standard sunroof, completely different headlining and trim but with grey exterior trim instead of black. It's taken me five years to get her in present condition including complete engine and suspension rebuild, and a complete refurb of the interior back to the original design. I've just managed to find the exterior chrome strips after five years. But unless I can source new sills she'll never be tip top.

As for the 24v in black, good luck . . . in any colour! (Although I do know where there is a late model S2 with a knackered gearbox - at a price).

[GreenBrick]

Originally Posted by biggbn

What xm do you have? I loved those cars, only owned one, a 2.5td estate with 330k miles!!! Drove like new. Would love a 3.0 24v in black with black leather, sophisticated hooligans car!!

A friend of mine is desperately after an XM, I guess this is not for sale!!

I have had to take the approach of taking the sills off a donor car to repair the ones on my Proton as nobody makes them, thankfully they are the same profile the full length so I have a lot of metal to use as replacements, even made use of the panel join to great effect.