UK garages, officially appointed to conduct an annual roadworthiness test, are failing to spot faults that should keep unsafe vehicles off the road according to a report cited by the Reuters news agency.
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The report said an investigation by consumer magazine Which? published on Tuesday found that only eight of 36 MOTs were carried out by garages correctly.
“The results of our investigation couldn’t be more clear cut — cars which should obviously have failed the MOT are getting through,” said Which? editor Helen Parker told Reuters.
According to the reports, the magazine’s researchers bought six second hand cars, gave each of them between one and four faults, and then took each car to six different garages.
In eight instances, Reuters said, the garages actually passed the cars, while 20 garages either missed real failure points or wrongly failed the cars on minor points which they should have only given warnings about.
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By GlobalDataParker reportedly said the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency, which monitors the effectiveness of MOT checks, needed to do more.
“It must find a way to conduct more convincing research and stop incompetent mechanics from vetting the nation’s cars,” she told Reuters.
