Vehicles being refused an MOT due to being '˜disgusting'

More than 7,000 UK drivers failed their MOT's for crazy reasons during the past 12 months, according to research undertaken by Scrap Car Comparison.
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Forgetting the UK’s most common MOT failures – which are tyre tread depth falling below the 1.6mm limit, worn out brake pads falling to less than 1.5mm thickness and poorly aimed headlamps – British drivers are now failing for simple reasons.

The study discovered 2,416 people found themselves in the embarrassing situation of having a ‘Refusal to MOT’ because their vehicles have been so dirty and non-accessible to allow an MOT to even take place.

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Alarmingly, many vehicles are also getting a ‘refusal to MOT’ because of environmental health grounds.

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The hygiene of some vehicles has been so poor with UK motors left full of fast food leftovers, cartons and cans of drink.

Some drivers have even risked their own health by growing mould on the interior and windows.

And many MOT stations up and down the country see vehicles, and especially 4x4s pull up covered in mud and although they get registered in, the MOT test will be a ‘refusal’ – avoiding the failure stage.

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A list of 20 UK MOT testing stations revealed four cars didn’t even make the MOT bay during the past month due to the state of the car.

Mike Bradbury, who owns a station on the outskirts of London, said some cars are not accessible.

“There was one car last month that when opening the door the footwell was covered in fast food brown bags and milkshake cartons.

“These can easily get caught behind any of the peddles preventing the car from being safe on the roads.

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“Our MOT inspector refused to even put the car through its MOT due to the mess and smell caused by the heat.

“It’s incredible how some people live their lives!”

The second biggest failure conducted by Scrap Car Comparison from their network of MOT testing stations was a lack of windscreen washer fluid.

More than 1,624 drivers of UK vehicles failed on such a simple maintenance task that would have avoided a retest.

The third highest number of failures was those with registration plate issues.

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An astonishing 1,422 of the most ridiculous fails included those with dirty number plates, wrong coloured plates or illegal fonts.

And amazingly 126 people put their car in for an MOT with a missing registration plate.

Car stickers obscuring the driver’s view came fourth on the list resulting in 914 fails. One car had a reported 14 stickers covering part of the front windscreen.

And finally warning lights was another big instant failure as 856 vehicles entered testing stations with a light on.

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The warning light, often ignored by drivers, is a critical indicator that you may have issues - including dangerous problems with brakes or tyres.

Other reasons of failure that didn’t make the list included car boots inaccessible by being full of sporting equipment or rubbish and the failure of a driver and an MOT tester to unstick a satnav sucker from a window obscuring a drivers view.

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