Hi all
Currently shopping for transport and trying to get a feel for the local “banger” market, (say vehicles around the 10 year mark)
In the UK, vehicles are taxed annually, and you need to show an “MOT Certificate” for an increasingly picky “safety” inspection, which also lasts a year. This means that a bangers value/saleability is significantly influenced by how much MOT validity is left, and this is usually mentioned in an advert.
Here, as I understand it (PLEASE CONFIRM/CORRECT) vehicles are re-licensed every TWO YEARS, but an old vehicle must be inspected every SIX MONTHS. Unlike in the UK, where you can declare a vehicle off-road (practical with a motorbike) and later re-tax it for road use, licensing has to be continuous or the vehicle is scrap.
Most of my cars in the UK were eventually scrapped because it wasn’t convenient to fix (often fairly trivial) faults at MOT time, and with a six-month inspection interval here this seems more likely to happen.
So my questions are:
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What happens (both at the time and when you come to re-register) if you miss one or more of the inspections? - Worst (and therefore most likely) case would seem to be that the vehicle license becomes permanently invalid as soon as an inspection is overdue a certain amount. Best case would be that you get it inspected on re-registration, pay the fees for the inspection(s) you missed, and a hopefully less-than-massive fine.
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How come people dont quote time remaining on the registration/inspection in advertisements for old cars/bikes, since it seems even more critical than in the UK?
regards, Ed Lithgow