There was a car that use to park outside our house the other year. The passenger side was pretty badly scraped, i.e. door and rear side panel caved in a bit with big scratches/gouges.

Then this morning I saw it on the motorway. Particularly surprised to see that it is still not repaired. I wouldn't have thought it would pass an MOT.

Have a quick look online. Since November 2012 there is an advisory: "n/s body has damage but not structual, door can still be opened and closed". Yet in Oct 2015 there is no longer any mention. So, how much damage is an MOT fail? Or as a minimum worthy of an advisory. In the most recent MOT, I can only assume the tester never ventured around the passenger side of the car!

Looking at the MOT history, looks like the owner does not care for the car and has continously kept the car in a state of barely legal/safe.

MOT is a safety and emmisions test only --- reasons for a no-structural body work fail are insecure body work or exposed sharp edges.

I bounced my car off a central reservation, after replacing suspension bits so it drove straight I took it through numerous MOT's and it was fine. The closest it came to being questioned was when they offered to quote for the repair!!

As BT says, I've only seen failures for exposed sharp edges, so an entire side of the car could be caved in and pass, but a mint car with just a tiny bit of metal pointing out will fail.

Errr..... this is the type of car I usually buy/own. Anything with a visible scratch these days is unacceptable to most people, image is everything.

My Transhits normally fail on the corroded wheel arches being a sharp edge, particularly in the wet when it's difficult to get the duct tape to stick over it.

I only wished (another thread today), that it was possible to get hold of one of these environmental disaster areas (VW) that their owners no longer want to drive, for a 'scrap value' sum. Luxury.

As said above, only insecure parts or sharp edges (and broken lights) will cause a fail. Even then, gaffer tape over the offending bit is usually enough to to get through.

I'm glad I read this thread, I've got to put an mx5 in for its test tomorrow and I probably need to get my gaffer tape out!

Didn't realise that the minor bodywork damage on the rear bumper (thanks to my ex) could be an issue at the test. It's only a plastic bumper but there's a little rip with an edge sticking out and up - I'll play with it when I get home tonight and see if I can pop it back in or hold it down with some tape as I've not had a chance to get it repaired in the last couple of months.

Really annoying to have to keep looking at but I'll be hopping mad if it fails the test as well

[Edited on 21/4/16 by ravingfool]

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Originally posted by ravingfool
I'll play with it when I get home tonight and see if I can pop it back in or hold it down with some tape

[Edited on 21/4/16 by ravingfool]

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Originally posted by DJT
There was a car that use to park outside our house the other year. The passenger side was pretty badly scraped, i.e. door and rear side panel caved in a bit with big scratches/gouges.

Then this morning I saw it on the motorway. Particularly surprised to see that it is still not repaired. I wouldn't have thought it would pass an MOT.

Have a quick look online. Since November 2012 there is an advisory: "n/s body has damage but not structual, door can still be opened and closed". Yet in Oct 2015 there is no longer any mention. So, how much damage is an MOT fail? Or as a minimum worthy of an advisory. In the most recent MOT, I can only assume the tester never ventured around the passenger side of the car!

Looking at the MOT history, looks like the owner does not care for the car and has continously kept the car in a state of barely legal/safe.

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Thanks guys. That's clear.

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Originally posted by benchmark51So how was this car or owner harming you?

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