SORN nightmare

[Man at B&Q]

You can book it when you get to the testing station, lots of places do "while-u-wait MOTs". Pre-booked means you have already booked it before setting out.

MBQ

[Michael Kilpatrick]

You can "book" it...if they've got space to fit you in. The word "book" in that context is then meaningless. It just means they know who you are only after you've walked through their threshold. Whether they then write your name in their book and add you to a certain position in the queue, means sod all!

If they haven't got time to fit you in you've most definitely been driving illegally. If they can fit you in then you've still broken the law because you set off on your journey not having phoned them to say you were coming, not having given them your details and registration number, not having been assured that they would fit you in.

An appointment is an appointment, and no appointment is no appointment.

Michael

[The Natural Philosopher]

It cant be done by a normal garage.

Far less chance of abuse that way.

appointment for an MOT and I'm not sure if the (accident) repair centre would hold it for me.

Ah. Well phone em up and ask em.

They should be able to drive it to you on trade plates then.

Most garages would I have thought return the car to you with an MOT they had got for it themselves as proof that it was in fact repaired.

Unless its a bash fill and spray repair,.

[Unbeliever]

"OoooH," I do hate the pedants who think perfect use of the "English" language far outweighs the actual solving of practical problems - bloody idiots the lot of 'em!

Rather like the 'career' politicians of today - who would rather criticise the written word than to get their hands dirty and actually solve a problem (which they usually make in the first place anyway).

BTW, I have a university educated (old school) BiL who funnily enough is called Michael, and he has the same annoying habit of correcting the written words of others (just like you), and whilst he's rather good at writing, he's total crap at anything practical - and I take great enjoyment extracting the urine out of him when I see his rather woeful attempts to 'repair' or 'make' anything - for which he generally 'phones me up to go and sort out.

Can't complain though, in his time, he was a bloody good lawyer and helped me on many occasions, saving me a great deal of cash in the process - (one of the best things I did was to marry his sister).

[Tim Streater]

Ah shove off.

Ah so he was good at something practical then.

[SteveW]

There are many failures that are not immediately dangerous or illegal. The law allows for this as there are specific exemptions for driving an untaxed car to and from an MOT and for driving an MOT failed car to and from a repairer. My mistake was only in assuming that as you *CAN* drive an MOT failed car somewhere for repairs, you would also be able to do so for repairs prior to taking it for the MOT in the first place. For instance a rear door that will not open using the outside handle is now an MOT failure, as is a faulty 13-pin trailer socket or an insecure

7-pin one; these are not in themselves dangerous and do not contravene the construction and uses regs. Having failed an MOT, you could drive home and then book into another garage and drive there and back for repairs, however it appears that you can only do this *AFTER* putting your car in for an MOT and having it fail, even if you knew it would fail in the first place - rather silly really, don't you think?

SteveW