The Essential Pre MOT Checklist – words Alan Woods

None of us like that time of year when we have to think about sorting the next MOT test out for our car. It has to be one of the most heart sinking things to do.

It feels like you’re spending money on nothing. It’s the law though so we faithfully go through it each year. If your car is over three years old then you’ll know the feeling.

Of course it is all entirely right and sensible. We all know we have to have a car that is in a roadworthy condition. The MOT was brought in back in the 1960s and actually stands for The Ministry of Transportation road test. Before that many cars were literal death traps and it was brought in to bring the number of fatalities on our roads down. And it worked. What began as the 10 year test evolved into today’s test for vehicles over three years old.

Of course we all know it’s for our safety and the safety of all who travel with us but all that money and no visible gain. We can though bring down the cost of our MOTs by doing a lot of the obvious donkey work ourselves. If we just carry out a simple pre MOT checklist and make sure your car is ready we can save money especially if you bought a used car. You should also do a pre MOT emissions check. An MOT pre check means the MOT itself is less likely to fail which is very expensive but should make the initial MOT test itself cost less.

If the MOT testers find even the teeniest fault then the costs start to mount up quickly. So it’s worth doing all we can ourselves with an MOT preparation checklist. You don’t need to be an experienced mechanic or have any expensive tools. The Pre MOT checklist can be carried out easily by anyone who owns a car.