6 monthly MOT? Taxi?

[Mad Cyril]

Evening all,

I've found a car to go and have a look at (2008 Citroen C5) but there's a bit of the MOT history that's bothering me.

 

It had it's first MOT in Sept 11 at 18500 miles, Second MOT in April 12 at 22000, third in Oct 12 at 25000 then the fourth one 17 months later in March 14 at 38000.

 

Can any of you knowledgeable folk think of any reason for a car to have two MOTs a year apart from it being a taxi? Obviously the mileage between tests doesn't scream taxi at me but I can't think of any other reason.

Looks a bit ropey to me but in the pics the car looks spot on. I'd go and have a look if it wasn't for this.

 

[Skizzer]

Somebody wanted to sell it and thought a full ticket would help?

[skattrd]

A couple of other reasons come to mind:

The car was in an accident, got written off and needed to be MOT'd after the VIC.

Owner was an idiot.

[Pillock]

If it was a taxi, he's done bugger all miles in it. Does the last MOT coincide with owner change? I'd suspect it's been through multiple dealers that have all put a full ticket on

 

Sent from my LG-D855 using Tapatalk

[Mad Cyril]

The guy who's selling it is the second owner but I don't know when he bought it.

[Hendry]

Don't know what's going on with it other than to say that to my knowledge taxis don't require mots any more frequently than private cars, I.E. annually, they just get a "taxi test" by the council at the same time as the MOT which is a lot more stringent, I've seen my dads taxi have its mot passed by the council but fail the Taxi test part, anything that's an advisory on the MOT is an automatic fail of the Taxi test, and some things like slight play in steering/suspension components which are mot passes are taxi test fails.

[overrun]

Up here, they need to be exmained by the local authority twice a year, as well as the regular 12 month MOT.

[hairnet]

might well be

 

found this on gov.uk site

 

Are Taxi and Private Hire Cars examined?

Yes, taxi and private hire cars have to undergo and pass an annual inspection unless

the vehicle is over the age of 7 years when it shall, be required to undergo 2

inspections per year, carried out by or on behalf of the Council. A taxi or private hire

car that is more than 3 years old also requires an MOT to be carried out six months

after the date of the annual vehicle inspection

 

the 17 month thing maybe it got binned and wasnt on road or the driver stopped for a bit

 

3k between the two mots in 2012 doesnt sound taxi ish tho.......

 

but yes they get checked by mot man or taxi bloke every six months

[hennabm]

The policy for any taxi is set by the local licensing authority. Some have their own test, others use just the MOT and some ask for an MOT twice a year. It just depends.

 

In some authorities the car will fail if it is the wrong colour or is stone chipped on the front or a split in a seat. The standards must be equal or above the MOT standard and a lot choose to have a far higher standard than the MOT.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

It's not unknown for cabs to get a haircut between Council tests and MOTs. HMRC have been known to base estimated earnings on the mileages recorded by the Local Authority. Allegedly .

[doobietoo]

Was thinking the same biannual haircut

[Mad Cyril]

The bi-annual haircut theory is a good one.

Am I naive in thinking that such a late car (2008) would be immune to a visit (or several) from 'Digital Mileage Correction Services'?

I rang the seller today and I'm not sure if something was lost in the Polish to English translation but I couldn't get anything approaching an answer about this. If it's had anything dodgy in its past he doesn't seem to know anything about it.

[scaryoldcortina]

Lots of traders put a fresh ticket onto a sold car as part of the deal even if it wasn't due. I'd guess it got tested at 3 years old, chopped in for a newer model, tested when it sold.

 

Hard to explain the next six month test, or the 17 month gap except by assuming it got traded in and sold again, did a full year on the road but got chopped in when the test was due, sat for 6 months before selling again.

 

But that's hardly likely, is it? It's not like it's a huge hard to shift citroen or anything!