Practically Classics Forum

I mentioned this briefly in another thread and Autoshite is having great fun finding out which celebrity owners (Paul Daniels, Jimmy Tarbuck, etc.) - as well as regular folk - have the least love for their four wheeled friends, so how about we all spend a few minutes checking MOT histories on eBay old motors? I'm on about the listings where the vehicle description reads "mint condition, never welded, flew through its MOT" and so forth. Imagine reading that, buying a shiny car that seems to have decades left in it, then finding that it's had some poorly executed bodgery carried out and some worrying advisories left alone to appear year after year!
Not all eBay sellers are aware of the new site yet, so there's a glorious window of opportunity to wratch about in their P&J's murky past, asking questions designed to catch out the cowboys who think that throwing away a car's previous test certificates means that their dodgy trading will go unchallenged!

I found dozens of eBay, Car & Classic and Gazette old vehicle listings that seemed strangely at odds with the information held by VOSA, so sit back, strap in, sign in to your eBay, fire up https://mot-history.net/ in a second tab and get hunting for the Delboys and Arfur Daleys who flog their wares on the www..


I've said this before, and was accused of making this up, but my Volvo 340GL once picked up an advisory for "horn emits slightly poor tone" well now, anyone can enter F163JGT in the box, Volvo below that and see the opinion of the UK's most musically minded MOT tester>

i had a car fail because of the 2 inch thick layer of mud...

I just tried the Jeep I'm sorting . Still, most of the issues seem to have been addressed....

A former colleague had his MGB fail so badly it was issued with an immediate prohibition. Among the failure items listed was "remains of hedgehog in one tyre tread"

suffolkpete wrote: "remains of hedgehog in one tyre tread"

Now I would have challenged that one. Unless the tester was a zoologist or a vet, how on earth could the exact number of squashed hedgehogs have been determined?

I found a weird advisory this morning, in an eBay listing for a (newer shape, transverse engined) Renault 5 that had been kitted out with a GT Turbo body kit having failed a test for corroded sills... The car had been retested a day after the fail, but had acquired an advisory saying that "standard wheels are fitted", Eh? Perhaps the (pee'd off) tester just had to write something when a car had been presented so soon after a big rusty failure with the parts that had been the problem neatly covered by side skirts. Go figure!

That car is under classics, is red and looks pretty straight, naturally my suspicions may be completely unfounded but equally, I haven't just pedalled up the Tweed on a Raleigh Chopper and am not a total eejit.

I just found another of the most pointless advisory notes ever, open this eBay listing and check its test history..
(No, I won't be going for it as it's a manual but if anyone has a similar vehicle with the auto option sat idle on their lawn, I don't charge much to remove such things.. )


Is it acceptable to create a demerit that needn't be there by mentioning the undertrays and engine plastics? These things are annoying, I can understand that, having come from a split new modern car to a vastly superior 1990 one, and having found that a single particle of any known substance wouldn't have a path to the floor through the engine bay of the Golf, whereas the Corolla's [engine bay] would accommodate many more things before becoming even slightly full.
Why on earth would that tester have bothered to state the bleedin' obvious? 'Tis a funny old world and no mistake.

arceye wrote:I just tried the Jeep I'm sorting . Still, most of the issues seem to have been addressed....

It's a scary thought, but imagine not being competent with tools and welding gear! We all know that buying any car (used or otherwise) is a potential minefield, so if this new availability of information saves just one poor soul from shelling out their hard earned cash on something that has a valid test certificate but will still need some metal stitching before it has any hope of passing another MOT, then it will have satisfied its purpose. Its main purpose at any rate, the secondary purpose; providing entertainment for a bunch of people who have nothing more useful to do, is a good thing too.