mot advisories. Good or bad ?

[taxi paul]

Last year when my son was putting his latest shite purchase, a Bmw 3 series in for its mot. The tester asked if he wanted the advisories listing on the test certificate or not. I wrongly assumed they went on a certificate regardless, like by law or something. So with that in mind when I bought my 75 recently it had an advisory on mot for rear discs. I now find when looking at cars and I see "12 months mot with no advisories ". I think well it might have a bloody shedfull , they just aren't wrote down. What would other people rather have a list or not ?

[Alexg]

The guy is probably used to dealing with dodgy traders

[LabRat]

Personally I'd rather see the advisories.

 

I know they're usually the testers opinion, but it's handy to see if there's any potential headaches or bits that might want fettling at some point.

 

 

 

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[purplebargeken]

Rather see them to be honest.

[beko1987]

I like advisories. I like them even better when Ive ticked the last one off the previous MOT in time for the next one!

 

Been doing this with the Meriva, the tyres were the last advisory it had from the last MOT (1 outer edge worn and a small nail in the other). When cavcraft the next potential owner has a look through the history when we move it on, they should see a small list of advisories (a joint or 2 on the front, tyres and I think an exhaust blow), then a trickle of receipts for fixing/replacement parts for said advisories throughout the year.

 

Saying that, I'm aiming for none this year, although I havent sorted the tiny hole in the front subframe so that could be one.

 

I'd view a <£600 car with no advisories more suspiciously than one with a few. Unless sold by a shiter of course!

[Bear]

Much prefer to see them. Actually, I've never really thought that a tester would not list them, since they're not a fail and are a good heads up that safety things will need attention soon - vital for non-car savvy people, I think. I know most MOT places will be very patient/generous with the emissions - but the amount of effort needed to get the SLK through was a strong indicator of problems that would eventually have seriously damaged the car - the PCV and MAF oil fouling for example.

[taxi paul]

I would rather see them as well. When looking for a 2.0 ltr 75. I was drawn to the one i bought because the old chap who was selling had all the old mot's with the receipts for rectifying the odd advisory now and then. My lad had is listed and it ran to 3 pages. He had bought it for £250.00 of someone who had no use for it anymore. He then swiftly moved it on to one of his mates who was happy to do the work and is still running round in it.

[scaryoldcortina]

As a tester I always put them on, even when asked by a dodgy car trader not to. Reason being that it covers my arse for the time six months down the line when the proud new owner goes to Kwikfit for some tyres and they point at the leaky shocks, scabby brake pipes and rustholed crossmember exclaiming "OOOOH, lookit that! This should never have passed a test!!!! OMG I've NEVER seen anything this bad before."

[colino]

I strongly suspect that the,"advisories" will go the way of the certificate itself and be abolished.  You know when a cretin/new/under-warning NT has been near a car when they become Roger Irrelevant in the advisory box.  Unfortunately the "Pass and Advise" mantra is taken far too literally by bad testers and can make a great car read, to the uninitiated, as if it has just scraped an MOT, with a box full of nonsense with the tester apparently covering his backside over items that have nothing to do with safety, or need no attention whatsoever.

[scaryoldcortina]

^ There was a special notice recently asking people not to advise things like "undertrays fitted" on cars that have them from factory.

 

 

PS, I'm neither new nor under notice and hopefully not a cretin either - when I advise it's because of something that is going to fail soon but hasn't yet.

[Mr A Lawrence]

You can look up the mot history on line now

 

Almost everyone has a smartphone with Internet access so when looking at a car with no advisories it's easy to check.

[taxi paul]

That's my point though Andy. If they are not listed on the certificate . Are they listed online ? Its like "full history" then when you ask about a cambelt change it all becomes a bit vague, or it did in my search.

[Bren]

They can be good and bad.

 

Good because they flag up potential expenditure on the horizon.

 

Bad because some fucking Mike Brewer/ Dominic Littlewood wannabe who knows nothing about motor cars will use every advisory to try and beat the price down.

 

At which point you lock the car and go back indoors.

[scaryoldcortina]

That's my point though Andy. If they are not listed on the certificate . Are they listed online ? Its like "full history" then when you ask about a cambelt change it all becomes a bit vague, or it did in my search.

If they aren't on the certificate, they aren't anywhere. You don't have the option to advise but not print....

[Jim Bell]

Why on earth would it be a good idea to NOT show advisories on the Cert (or online)?  That helps nobody (apart from shady fuckers).

 

All info is good info.  I'm sure some cars have passed 30 MOTs with an advised "oil leak".  Better to know its there and to keep an eye on it/top it up rather than not know and have the car grenade.

[AlabamaShrimp]

While I understand why they are used they're really nothing but the testers opinion.

 

Some are over cautious, some aren't but you have to take each on its merits. I think the key thing for me is that if you do look at the history online if something actually was going to break* or whatever one year but not mentioned the next was it fixed or not? If it's a real problem but not a fail, then I want to see it advised every time

 

On my own cars, stuff I know hasn't been fixed is never heard from again. To me that means it wasn't an advisory but an arse covering exercise

[mercrocker]

Having my cars tested at the same place for more than 10 years makes interesting reading.   Advisory items tend to float in and out of the certificates without actually being addressed at any point.  As Al.Shrimp says - tester's opinion.  If its a fail it would be a fail.   I am sure one of the testers down there puts things on just for the hell of it, almost to justify giving a 50 year old car a pass.   None of it bothers me, I wont be selling the cars any time soon and the garage foreman always tells me verbally if I need to go home and sort something properly.   

 

As to buying a car, yes I would rather the advisories were there than not.....

[captain_70s]

My local garage don't list the advisories. Although to be fair I think that is mostly to save ink/paper as it'd be 20 pages long, the last time my car failed it's MOT printing the fail sheet killed the printer...

[New POD]

Where I go, Gordon and The other bloke, just tell me, and don't put it on the system.

[2MB]

I've had a lot of cars with oil leaks but some without so much as a dribble, but most of the time [oil leak] has been in the advisories. A tester once told me they always put it on old cars but it's fucking annoying when you've traced and fixed a leak.

[PiperCub]

Generally I'm for putting them on if they are actually constructive. I noticed a few years back there seemed to be a bit of a craze for putting the most nit-picky minor little points that were really nothing to do with safety on the advisories section. It suggested to me that it was more arse-covering for the tester/garage than being useful to the customer. Doesn't seem to be so bad now.

[Matt Byrne]

My local garage even added an advisory to my invoice for the cambelt, water pump and alternator I had fitted this week. Better to see them than not.

[bigfella2]

When looking through the MOT history online I prefer to see what problems have gone before, so you get am idea what has been replaced or repaired previously, and also gives some kind of indication whether the owner took time to look over the the car pre MOT, ie actually gave a toss about about the car. But advisories can also take the piss, my car got advisory for corroded brake lines, never changed them, no advisory year after, same tester same place. So deffinately pro and cons. As a seller no advisories, as a buyer deffinately yes. But as said above it depends on who mot's the vehicle.

[Richard]

I'm planning to put the 850 in for a test on Monday and went to look at the Volvo's MOT history online, to see if there was anything specific I should check before presenting it, I know it has had a lot of advisories in the past. It seems you can't do it any more. Shower of arseholes.

 

 

The ‘Check an MOT History’ service is currently unavailable. A new service is being built and will be available soon.

 

So the answer to the original question is that it doesn't matter because you won't be able to access the information anyway.

[sierraman]

I find it a bit wrong how you can hide the fact there will be potentially safety related problems before the next test at the discretion of the person submitting the car.

[taxi paul]

So do I. I know its down to personal interpretation of the individual mot tester but I think they should be listed. Each car I have sold I have had it mot 'd warts and all so to speak sometimes I has lowered the price , like my Mazda 323. Other times I have been able to show 1 advisory so have been able to stand my ground over a price. I now just assume 12 months mot " no advisories" means bugger all.

[xtriple]

I hated it when testers put EVERYTHING down to cover their arses - VOSA being twats I guess. I mean, undertrays fitted obscuring view of components. Means to the average punter you are trying to hide something, but to us, it means SFA!

[diesel=ambrosia]

I used to take the golf to a garage and they would constantly put things like covers obstructing engine, item hanging from rear view mirror removed, damage to various non structural parts of body work and other such things. I think he had I space to voice his opinion about cars and couldn't resist writing something. Sound familiar?   

[sierraman]

I wasn't aware you could dodge the advisory.

[fatharris]

Some of the advisories  make a problem sound worse than they are. My old 75 passed first time at 245k, with 13 advisories, most of them for pointless shit like understray fitted, engine cover fitted, but one made it sound really dangerous - I can't remember the exact phrasing but it went along the lines of "Door corroded", which turned out to be a few bubbles on the door fascia plate, £1 from the local scrappy.

I'd still rather see them though.