Kick Those Shoes Off and Relax. It's the Delta 2017 Tea Break

[grantp]

Originally Posted by Eric Falce

What she needs now is a nice trip to Jersey and a stay at a five star hotel overlooking the beach, highly recommended , wish her all the best Ian.

Surely that ought to be Portugal Eric?

Next month.

[Eric Falce]

Originally Posted by grantp

Surely that ought to be Portugal Eric?

Next month.

Her choice.

[terence]

Speedy recovery for Gill Iain.Hope all is now ok for her.
Let me know where you are in Spa please.

[bauble]

Iain, I will pray for a swift recovery for Gill, and for yourself, from personal experience I know it works.

Love to 'er in doors.

Bauble Bob

[delta]

Originally Posted by terence

Speedy recovery for Gill Iain.Hope all is now ok for her.
Let me know where you are in Spa please.

Had to pull out of Spa .

[MGDavid]

Best wishes to Gill for a quick recovery, and best of luck to you if you're being a house-husband for a while!

[gary396]

I think this was mooted before but it would appear the Government plan to exempt cars that are 40-years old from the MoT as well as the payment of VEL duties from next year (on a rolling year basis):

http://www.classicandsportscar.com/n...tion-from-2018

[VIVA GT]

Originally Posted by gary396

I think this was mooted before but it would appear the Government plan to exempt cars that are 40-years old from the MoT as well as the payment of VEL duties from next year (on a rolling year basis):

http://www.classicandsportscar.com/n...tion-from-2018

The official document can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consul...toric-interest

[Lancsbreaker]

Originally Posted by VIVA GT

The official document can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consul...toric-interest

Apparently taking effect from May 2018 - my 78 Alfa Spider will be eligible soon!

[zefarelly]

I think this is a bad idea, every 2 or maybe three years perhaps, but not a complete wipeout.

younger people are generally less practical and don't do maintenance, these are the ones more likely to have cars in the later period, and more so moving forward. Even if you're a bonafide mechanic, we all make mistakes from time to time, The one thing an MOT does is confirm a second opinion on safety critical items . . . . not many people can test brakes at home, and the MOT rig will thoroughly check steering/suspension as well.

Although it does mean I can take the race car for a quick road test

[Riley Blue]

I entirely agree. I've been reading people on other forums whooping and hollering, "No more MOT!" as if it somehow absolved them of any responsibility for the roadworthiness of their cars.

It doesn't, it simply removes evidence that once a year a basic safety check was carried out and even though neither of my two Rileys will require an MOT test from now on, they'll both be having one. As has been stated - how do I check brake efficiency at home?

One thing about the proposals that I think hasn't been thought through is the maximum 15% power output increase - I suspect that there may be a lot of pre-'88 modifications declared by owners...

[Colin McKay]

The 15% thing...how is this going to be arrived at? My Mk2 Jag for instance has had a number of mild upgrades which help to make it more driveable in modern traffic but I have no idea what the output is. Will we all have to trot down the local rolling road to find out? We all know how variable those results can be! On the MoT issue, I've always considered the £45 my village garage charges to be excellent value for money for what is a pretty thorough report with the brake testing being of particular worth. I will certainly carry on having it done.

[PeterMorley]

Originally Posted by zefarelly

I think this is a bad idea, every 2 or maybe three years perhaps, but not a complete wipeout.

younger people are generally less practical and don't do maintenance, these are the ones more likely to have cars in the later period, and more so moving forward. Even if you're a bonafide mechanic, we all make mistakes from time to time, The one thing an MOT does is confirm a second opinion on safety critical items . . . . not many people can test brakes at home, and the MOT rig will thoroughly check steering/suspension as well.

Although it does mean I can take the race car for a quick road test

And given all the electronics etc. on recent cars there are so many systems that are beyond the home mechanic that it can't be good.

Add in the performance of modern cars - a friend told me that his Dino was slower than a standard Golf let alone a GTi...

Factor in people who realise it is a cheap way to run a car and you could have a perfect storm.

In Belgium an "Oldtimer" is over 25 years (going up to 30 soon) has a limited MOT when it is registered and that is it, then you have minimal insurance and tax to pay...
But their use is restricted to pleasure use - no daily commute, collecting the kids from school etc. - this is probably better monitored than it could be in the UK since there are plenty (e.g. far too many!) of policemen, all visits to a garage are logged (e.g. tyre fitters submit the date and mileage) etc. but I'm still worried by the number of 911s etc. that aren't checked...

[grantp]

It probably won't matter for long.

There will no doubt be other ways that the "authorities" can ensure the number of vehicles that drop out of MOT testing regimes it minimised over the next decade or two.

In fact I suspect that if you considered the figures for the vehicles known to exist - either taxed or SORN'd - there are so few of most models from the 70s and into the 80s that it hardly matters - although that could then be argued both ways.

More recent vehicles - from the late 90s onwards but especially from the mid 00s - will probably not survive long enough to meet the age critieria due to complexity of the electronics although the bodies have the potential to last well compared to the 70s and 80s.

Give it 10 to 20 years, if Government policies are to be believed and do in fact get implemented, there will no doubt be a raft of other regulations that will put ICE cars into some sort of restricted use situation and make older cars an impractical proposition for most potential owners.

For example, as soon as cars over a certain age are banned from towns and cities, as is already starting to happen in London for diesel commercial vehicles and Paris too iirc for cars, all monitored automatically by cameras and number plate recognition as a starting point, the number of potential buyers and regular users will likely plummet and so the cars will probably mostly disappear into some scrappage scheme.

The problems that youngsters have seem less to do with whether or not a car can pass an MOT and more to do with whether it is cheap to buy because it's a cut and shut that will split neatly in half in the event of almost any accident. Since the system seem unable to control those sorts of problems I doubt that the removal of 40 years old cars from MOT tests will have much impact. But then one could argue that the cost for the check is a good investment - so long as it does not result in a misapplied interpretation of a problem forcing an expensive repair for something that was not in any way relevant to the way the vehicle was likely to be used.

[Colin McKay]

I wonder if insurers might insist on an annual MoT regardless? Would be a good move IMO

[Riley Blue]

Originally Posted by Colin McKay

I wonder if insurers might insist on an annual MoT regardless? Would be a good move IMO

I can't see how they could insist on something that wasn't required by law.

[Mike Harte]

Originally Posted by Riley Blue

I can't see how they could insist on something that wasn't required by law.

Insurers, like any service provider, are free to set their own terms and conditions. Providing, of course, that they are not indulging in illegal practices.

It would be no different to the condition that many insurers now have of only insuring a driver of a car if they have a "black" box installed. It's not a legal requirement, after all.

[Riley Blue]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

Insurers, like any service provider, are free to set their own terms and conditions. Providing, of course, that they are not indulging in illegal practices.

It would be no different to the condition that many insurers now have of only insuring a driver of a car if they have a "black" box installed. It's not a legal requirement, after all.

In which case they could do it now for existing MOT exempt vehicles but I'm not aware of any who do.

[Mike Harte]

Originally Posted by Riley Blue

In which case they could do it now for existing MOT exempt vehicles but I'm not aware of any who do.

Yes, they could.

[Mike Harte]

Just to dip my toes into politics (of a sort), but it is way past the time that world leaders and security advisers stopped telling Trump anything, because he flaps his lips too much, and he doesn't understand the concept that loose talk costs lives.

He had a conversation with our Prime Minister, Theresa May, today concerning the incident on the London Underground, and no sooner than he was off the phone to her, he was on Twitter and seemingly giving away privileged information.

He should be treated like a mushroom - kept in the dark, and fed on ....

[bauble]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

Just to dip my toes into politics (of a sort), but it is way past the time that world leaders and security advisers stopped telling Trump anything, because he flaps his lips too much, and he doesn't understand the concept that loose talk costs lives.

He had a conversation with our Prime Minister, Theresa May, today concerning the incident on the London Underground, and no sooner than he was off the phone to her, he was on Twitter and seemingly giving away privileged information.

He should be treated like a mushroom - kept in the dark, and fed on ....

Never mind Mike, the International Community has condemned Kim Jong In for launching yet another rocket over Japan, it won't be long now before he gets fed up with being told off, and will start producing ice cream instead.


Mind you I do think a lot of his problem is his name!

Imagine the Kim Jong family going to get their little baby boy baptised.

"What do you name this child?" asks the minister.

"Un" replies Dad.

How would you feel as Un Harte, Un Bell, Un Elwin, or Un Falce?

[morninggents]

Underwhelmed. Unhappy, certainly.

[owrforever]

If you were the leader of the "free world," how would you solve the North Korea problem?

[bauble]

Originally Posted by owrforever

If you were the leader of the "free world," how would you solve the North Korea problem?

Well, as this is the lighter side ..One great big bomb.

[gary396]

Do we have a 'leader' of the free world now?