Crazy dopey selfish ignorant stupid moron thread

[504GL]

Not a thread for crazy dopey selfish ignorant stupid moron's to post in, but one to just discuss examples of the above

 

Exhibit A

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/5340

 

Whilst I could perhaps agree about not charging bikes road tax, not having an MOT for bikes? Yeah that's going to end up well!

 

Exhibit B

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/2194

 

I don't like trucks in the middle lane, please ban them k?

 

Exhibit C

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/15255

I don't care if my car is safe to drive, I want motoring to be really cheap.

[DSdriver]

Exhibit A: not much support, would have been a good supply of organ donors though

Exhibit B: Educate, don't legislate, some lorries will only be doing 30mph up hills and it would be unfair to other truckers.

Exhibit C: I was reading about this country becoming as daft as Germany and France yesterday somewhere. MOT tester was saying telling horror stories about cars tested annually - was it you Scary?

[504GL]

Exhibit C: I was reading about this country becoming as daft as Germany and France yesterday somewhere. MOT tester was saying telling horror stories about cars tested annually - was it you Scary?

 

I first heard about it on Radio 2 last week. Just seems completely daft. Enough people see the MOT as the only safety check they need to do on their car so having it as a once every 2 year thing just seems madness. Where I come from in Australia there is no yearly or 2 yearly or even 10 yearly check...... If the Police pull you over they can give you a yellow sticker which means you have to take the car to be checked, but other than that it's up to you to make sure your car is safe.

 

I don't want to turn this into a Political thread or anything, but a lot of the coallition policies seem to be really simple ideas aimed at pleasing fugwits.

 

It's the credit crunch innit, a lot of lower income (read LABOUR) voters are probably having trouble getting their cars through their MOT's. Lets help them by simply making the interval longer! Perhaps if people took a more autoshite approach to car maintenance as in shopping around for parts and getting things done on the cheap, but well, then motoring would be a cheaper experience all round. I did the discs and pads on my 500 for £44, when the stealership wanted almost £130. Now I can afford to pay to get my brakes done, but I'd rather have the £80+ quid in my pocket thanks.

 

People always want to drive faster. Let's raise the speed limit. That'll win us some votes!!!

 

Perhaps I'm just cynical and the Condem's actually think these ideas are good ones and it's not just a campaign to win over easily pleased voters.

[scaryoldcortina]

Exhibit C: I was reading about this country becoming as daft as Germany and France yesterday somewhere. MOT tester was saying telling horror stories about cars tested annually - was it you Scary?

 

If you mean the pack of idiots on RR telling "tester" tales and moaning the 2 year MoT, no. Not me. I read it, couldn't be arsed. FWIW the 2 year MoT is a BAD THING because I get half as much work. VOSA agree with me. The law says the driver is responsible for maintaining the car in a roadworthy state and the MoT isn't a guarantee of that.

[eddyramrod]

We have two-year MoTs here, and MoT-free bikes. Every day you can see cars that shouldn't be on the road, and in every village there are unlicensed, uninsured, unregistered untested teenager-ridden bikes tearing up the peaceful roads. People will die, and they do, but nothing changes.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

IKEA TRÄBY ASH VENEEER SHELF UNIT, £65

 

http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/90105069/

[504GL]

IKEA TRÄBY ASH VENEEER SHELF UNIT, £65

 

http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/90105069/

 

I prefer a good bit of rekdal thankyouverymuch!

 

[Felly Magic]

Well I fear Ikea

 

[gtd2000]

The MOT is just a money maker and a "tax" at the end of the day - it does not guarantee that the car is roadworthy on at least 364 days of the year....

 

Our 1995 Nissan 240SX has never had any annual inspection here in Florida..if it needs something doing ti gets fixed - end of story.

 

My 1986 GSX-R750 never had a single inspection during it's time in Hong Kong either - it's been sitting in the shed in Scotland for a number of years now (10) only because it needs an MOT...if it wasn't for that I'd have it out every time the sun shone - which isn't very often in Scotland!

[Negative Creep]

2 year MOTs would be a stunningly stupid idea. All the testers I know have plenty of horror stories about bald tyres and unroadworthy cars (normally the type used to ferry the kids to school). With no traffic cops around imagine them driving around in that state for another 12 months

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

Double the MOT fee and do it every other year. Employ traffic police with the savings. Too sensible an idea.

[whitevanman]

so how does having a few more traffic cops make the roads safer? didn't they try that with the Vosa plod? or am I just being a bit to simple?

[504GL]

so how does having a few more traffic cops make the roads safer? didn't they try that with the Vosa plod? or am I just being a bit to simple?

 

I think there should be more unmarked traffic cars on the road. In Australia if you see two people in a Commodore or Falcon on a freeway or highway.....

[whitevanman]

Sadly I doubt it would make any difference....it aught to but it won't.

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

so how does having a few more traffic cops make the roads safer? didn't they try that with the Vosa plod? or am I just being a bit to simple?

 

You have to stop people and check cars at random for construction and use etc, with high fines and points on licences. The only time I have ever been through such a check was on a holiday in Senegal, and that was because I was the "wrong" colour (they didn't fine me though)! Do VOSA stop cars or do they just check lorries?

[Craig the Princess]

The MOT is just a money maker and a "tax" at the end of the day - it does not guarantee that the car is roadworthy on at least 364 days of the year....

 

No but it does (or should) guarantee that the car is roadworthy on one day each year so problems are spotted an fixed. People like you gtd2000 aren't the problem (fixing problems as they occur, mechanical knowledge of problems rather than ignoring things) but a large number of people fail to even check tyres washer fluid and lights. It's these people the MoT makes take action, leaving them for another 12 months would be a bad idea.

[theorganist]

 

How about employing a few extra police in general with the money if we are going down that route!!

 

There does not seem to be a shortage of police racing around in cars pulling motorists over in Stourbridge. However it would be nice if the police would put some effort into catching the knife wielding muggers who have mugged two teenagers at knife point at the bottom of my road over the last few weeks !!

[OwdChina]

so how does having a few more traffic cops make the roads safer? didn't they try that with the Vosa plod? or am I just being a bit to simple?

 

You have to stop people and check cars at random for construction and use etc, with high fines and points on licences. The only time I have ever been through such a check was on a holiday in Senegal, and that was because I was the "wrong" colour (they didn't fine me though)! Do VOSA stop cars or do they just check lorries?

 

VOSA stop every thing and anything, especially the older chod that we drive round in.

Some months back last time i was in blighty, they set up a check point in a hedged off layby just outside Garstang, Lancs on the A6. It's a regular event so the locals know to look out for it, and you can turn off the main drag and get past on the country lanes if you spot them in time, which we did. Then doubled back an parked up by the butty van for a brew and to spectate.

Along with VOSA there was 2 squad cars, a police motorbike parked on a garage forecourt a couple hundred yards before the layby radioing ahead owt that looked like it needed a looking at....and HM Customs looking for cherry and owt else they could think of.

They'd pulled a mitz shogun running on red, driver arrested and car being loaded for impound or crush.

A farmer in disco pulling a cattle box with dodgy lights, made him get an auto leccy out to it there an then to fix it before he could leave.

An oldish Audi saloon, was made to get local tyre fitters out and change rear tyres before he could leave.(Tyre fitter is a mate and reconned tyres were just legal but VOSA weren't having it)

A local carpenter in a fooked looking transit(another mate) but they were mightily pissed off, couldn't find owt wrong.

 

All in all VOSA was having a good day out.

ps. There is nothing wrong with my truck, i just don't need the tossers bothering me.

[whitevanman]

Vosa can and do stop anybody, the problem you have is you would need to have areas set aside for the checking all over the country, pulling cars regularly and a huge workforce to cope with it. Now some folk might never get stopped in two years and others constantly, like us shitters, now I could be wrong but yearly MOT checks would cover all cars and be cheaper and fairer than a shit load of Rozzers and vosa testers and all the extra equipment you'd need picking on anybody they fancy......and where will the extra money come from?

[gtd2000]

I still consider that in the 21st century the MOT is a load of cobblers and simply another tax for the easy target - the motorist.

 

As I mentioned before, I've lived in a number of places where annual or even any inspections are not required and I simply have not seen anything like the number of vehicles that one might expect to see in an unroadworthy condition. I'm sure there are exceptions of course.

 

I'm not sure about the statistics today but in the past the majority of cars on the road were company cars, this was one of the reasons we had such high prices for cars compared to other countries. In the past 10 years or so the economic climate meant that most people were not driving around in old clunkers like the ones we all lust after - everybody was getting into a new car or at least something new looking.

 

When I started driving in the 1980's even a 5 or 6 year old car could be decidedly ropey - this isn't the case now - hell most folks would bitch if their 10 year old car was starting to rust!

 

I know from experience that my fathers cars in the 1970s were very rusty at the time of aproaching the first MOT!!!

 

It's my opinion that a tiny minority of people may well drive around in unroadworthy cars and they will continue to drive around in unroadworthy cars because they simply do not care whether or not an MOT is required.

 

Remember a 2 day old car can be unroadworthy - but you've got nearly 3 years of it being on the road until the first MOT

 

I'm all for a 2 year MOT - but why should it be two times the price - they will just check the same shit and take the same amount of time - certain items are not actually related to safety at the end of the day.

 

I helped a mate replace his driveshafts and did a complete brake service on his Citroen Saxo - it failed the MOT on a corroded brake pipe - we just replaced it and took the original one to a mate that owns a garage that does MOTs - he asked why we were replacing the pipe - and explained it had failed the MOT. He stated that he didn't agree that it should be failed and said it looked perfectly serviceable - it looked serviceable to me as well but it was a 30 minute job to change it and not worth arguing over from our point of view.

 

My opinion and that of the owner was that the garage simply wanted to carry out repairs to the vehicle....

 

I think any place that undertakes an annual inspection should not be able to profit from performing repairs and be completely independant.

 

Whenever possible, I always take my own cars in at the 11 month point, so that if the car does fail the MOT, I can still drive away - that way they really don't have you over a barrel with an expired MOT certificate for silly repairs.

[whitevanman]

/\ YUP...in a nut shell on the MOT stations doing the work

[DSdriver]

When I started driving in the 1980's even a 5 or 6 year old car could be decidedly ropey - this isn't the case now - hell most folks would bitch if their 10 year old car was starting to rust!

 

Sorry to knock out the foundation of your argument gtd but someone I know has had rust perforated panels replaced on their Merc whilst it was still under warranty.

 

EFA.

[Guest]

so how does having a few more traffic cops make the roads safer? didn't they try that with the Vosa plod? or am I just being a bit to simple?

 

You have to stop people and check cars at random for construction and use etc, with high fines and points on licences. The only time I have ever been through such a check was on a holiday in Senegal, and that was because I was the "wrong" colour (they didn't fine me though)! Do VOSA stop cars or do they just check lorries?

 

 

vosa were stop checking every 4x4's and vans for cherry derv in my local asda carpark the otherday

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

How long is the anti-corrosion warranty on Mercedes cars? I seem to recall it was part of the 30 year mobilo-life programme!

[warren t claim]

It's a PHAKT that banger racers who have NOT FOR HIRE OR REWARD written on their Ford Cargos have diplomatic immunity from VOSA.

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

Those red diesel checks really are useful for road safety...

[Craig the Princess]

When I started driving in the 1980's even a 5 or 6 year old car could be decidedly ropey - this isn't the case now - hell most folks would bitch if their 10 year old car was starting to rust!

 

Ummm ?

 

Is the MoT really that bad, if I didn't trust the local garage I'd use one of the council MoT stations that don't carry out work.

 

The figures given by the Association of British Drivers in a BBC story on the M5 crash are interesting: 1.2 fatalities per billion vehicle-kilometres on British motorways compared with 2.2 in Germany, 2.5 in Denmark, 4.2 in Austria and 4.5 in the USA. I'd say that some of this safety is down to the MoT, even if the system whenup to two years a mini-Mot (Tyres/lights/exhaust/brakes) every year would give me some piece of mind (not for my cars but for the others).

[ruffgeezer]

Double the MOT fee and do it every other year. Employ traffic police with the savings. Too sensible an idea.

 

Err... Charging twice as much half as often? Where are the "savings" there, that surely just nets the same amount saving the princely sum of fuck all.

 

 

There does not seem to be a shortage of police racing around in cars pulling motorists over in Stourbridge. However it would be nice if the police would put some effort into catching the knife wielding muggers who have mugged two teenagers at knife point at the bottom of my road over the last few weeks !!

 

I think the trouble is, the Police have to spend so much on resources for covering the bullshit crimes that there isn't much in the pot for the bigger stuff. It's all very well saying (and I'm not suggesting you are, but it is a widely held opinion) "haven't you got something better to do?" but if there weren't people running with no mot/insurance or driving around with the phone in one hand and their dick in the other, then we wouldn't need those resources to police them in the first place, ergo there would be more bods out looking for little scrotums with blades.

 

Personally I'd like a task force who, on finding anyone with weapons, could disarm them and stamp on their nutsacks until they explode like a pair of eggs in the microwave.

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

Double the MOT fee and do it every other year. Employ traffic police with the savings. Too sensible an idea.

 

Err... Charging twice as much half as often? Where are the "savings" there, that surely just nets the same amount saving the princely sum of fuck all.

 

Presumably, the operation of the MOT scheme costs the state something. Having 50% less work should make the scheme cheaper to operate by at least a third. Given no changes in income, these are the "savings" that I was talking about.

[freebird]

Am I getting my Maths all cockeyed? If you go to 2 yearly tests you will be reducing MOT frequencies to typical MOT stations. If their workload is halved ( in theory) then will they still feel the need to maintain staffing levels? In effect, it COULD lead to more unemployment which would, to a very small degree negate any advantages/savings. Im not suprised the Garages dont want the proposal, they could be doing themselves out of jobs.

All of the above assumes that my Maths isnt w*nk..