Scrap the NCT

colm_mcm

Point is, the nct isn't a racket. Applus don't make the rules either

Sitec

goz83 wrote: »

If the NCT worked properly, it would be fine, but it doesn't. It fails cars for things that have nothing to do with road safety. Loud exhausts and non-factory sun-visors for example. There needs to be some sort of safety check in place, but the NCT has shown itself to be incompetent on many occasions. My car recently failed for some corrosion on the rear of the chassis. I happen to know that the year previous, there was lots of corrosion and some holes needing welding. They passed it as it was...I then got lots of work done and they failed it in December (10 months after the previous pass) for the rear corrosion/holes. When I was getting that fixed, 2 more holes were spotted by the mechainic, which were not seen by the NCT inspector. Total joke of a system. God knows what other defects they miss while failing cars on a f**king sun visor!

Sun visors block the drivers vision so that is a safety concern. Loud exhausts are annoying, especially in a built up area at 2am.

redhot

Sitec wrote: »

Sun visors block the drivers vision so that is a safety concern. Loud exhausts are annoying, especially in a built up area at 2am.

Safety concern...my arse

Eric Cartman

To be fair the nct is mostly a good idea, I remember being in vans and cars with damaged B/C pillars, collapsed rear suspension, holes in the floor you could see through when I was a kid, im glad those are gone.

The exhaust volume, front window tinting, and reg plates I dont agree with the nct rules on , aside from that its a fairly good idea. Irish people unfortunately wouldnt look after cars otherwise , the nct is a good way to ensure a car is probably seen by a mechanic atleast once every 2 years.

CJhaughey

The main suggestion I would make is that there should be more than one testing organisation.
Having a monopoly is no good for any industry, be it car testing or selling fuel.
If there was three licensees like there is in other countries of a similar size then there would be better competition and service would likely improve.
Despite what they say, its a fair drive to some NCT stations.

monkeypants

meoklmrk91 wrote: »

Yes the NCT has its place and is saving lives and that is a good thing but why do they have to turn everything into a money racket?

Probably something to do with capitalism. Don't agree with it myself. The testers should just get a bag of onions to share, with a cooked chicken for the centre manager.

OldmanMondeo

redhot wrote: »

Safety concern...my arse

So, what your car fail on?

CrowdedHouse

OP be like me - never did an NCT

Never had a car old enough

dgt

Sitec wrote: »

Sun visors block the drivers vision so that is a safety concern.

Now this is a part I don't fully agree with... In my car for example, I can have the sun shades down to block the sun. However, where the mirror is the sun shines in and blinds me at times. A very small visor would stop that but I'm not allowed to have one under some law. Marvellous!

frozenfrozen

In fairness you see a load of ****ebuckets driving around and if you don't leave a tenner in the glove compartment you get held up on 0.1mm wheel alignment and have to repeat, instead of just being told everything else was fine and to get the alignment fixed

redhot

my car passed actually, even with a defective brake light (which I noticed later that day), but they didn't spot that. My other car passed last year, I have a couple of shock absorber dust covers missing, that's a new test area according to the 2012 NCT manual- my test is due soon. Its not going to cause any accidents or injury IMHO, just a hole in my pocket as the struts will wear a little quicker than usual (no drama, I only do around 1000km per year in that car),

coolbeans

The NCT isn't all about safety you know. They test emissions and noise for obvious and valid reasons. Suppose air quality and the like are of little concern to the op.

Sure it's all a racket, they're out to get us all, we the ordinary, downtrodden men of Ireland. Poor us.

nct tester

redhot wrote: »

my car passed actually, even with a defective brake light (which I noticed later that day), but they didn't spot that. My other car passed last year, I have a couple of shock absorber dust covers missing, that's a new test area according to the 2012 NCT manual- my test is due soon. Its not going to cause any accidents or injury IMHO, just a hole in my pocket as the struts will wear a little quicker than usual (no drama, I only do around 1000km per year in that car),

incorrect

slimjimmc

nct tester wrote: »

incorrect

So why does Section 46 (page 74) of the May 2012 state one of the reasons for failure as

Dust cover is missing or severely deteriorated.

Does that only apply to suspension components other than shock absorbers?



[Edit] Perhaps I misunderstood. Are you referring to the bit that says its a new requirement in 2012 (which I'd agree with you) or the bit that says the dust cover is a fail?[/edit]

Supergurrier

Keeps s*itbox cars off the road = Good thing

ardmacha

The exhaust volume, front window tinting, and reg plates I dont agree with the nct rules on ,

These are not "NCT" rules, these are requirements for vehicles to be on the road. It is quite appropriate for the NCT to check any requirement imposed on vehicles.

This is an especially useless thread, as the EU require vehicle standards, which is why the NCT was introduced. There is a case for making testing more consistent, and that's about it.

OldmanMondeo

OldmanMondeo wrote: »

............

Methinks op failed and is a little pee'd off...

Forgot to take his wheeltrims off I'd say.

awec

This post has been deleted.

JimmyCrackCorn

Before NCT i saw cars with holes in the floor on the road.

NCT while not the best test in the world at least it removes neglect heaps from the road and at least forces people to service the car once every 4 years....:D

Andrewf20

Another advantage of the NCT is the piece of mind it offers when it comes to buying privately 2nd hand.

Although its a bit of a pain sometimes, im happy to keep it.

CJhaughey

Andrewf20 wrote: »

Another advantage of the NCT is the piece of mind it offers when it comes to buying privately 2nd hand.

Although its a bit of a pain sometimes, im happy to keep it.

It means absolutely nothing when buying a secondhand car.
0, Nada, Zilch.
Think of it as a snapshot of the car, not as a guarantee that the car is good.

gizmo555

If testing cars older than four years makes any significant difference to road safety, why did the insurance companies never offer any discount for newer cars or apply any loading to older cars pre-NCT?

meoklmrk91

monkeypants wrote: »

Probably something to do with capitalism. Don't agree with it myself. The testers should just get a bag of onions to share, with a cooked chicken for the centre manager.

Nothing wrong with capatilism or the premise of the NCT just don't understand why cars over 10 years need an NCT every ****ing year and thats why I think it is a money racket.

corktina

in fairness, a whole year is a long time to leave a car without inspection, anything could go wrong or wear out in that time. Most countries have a one year test applicable from 2/3/4/ years old and rightly so.

monkeypants

I remember when it common enough to see cars with bonnets and boot lids held shut with string and seriously wobbling wheels. If the NCT has gotten rid of those, then I'm happy.

meoklmrk91

corktina wrote: »

in fairness, a whole year is a long time to leave a car without inspection, anything could go wrong or wear out in that time. Most countries have a one year test applicable from 2/3/4/ years old and rightly so.

If it wasn't so expensive then I wouldn't have an issue with it, I service and look after my car so that's not the issue, if it was say around €30 for the test I wouldn't mind. €55 is a lot of money and if it fails on something small then you have to shell out another €28, it's very expensive to do that yearly.

Bodhran

Karsini wrote: »

I noticed a massive drop in pre-87 cars when the NCT came in. I wouldn't agree that it should be scrapped, but some of the things they fail you on are ridiculous. The one which comes to mind is if you have a reg plate that doesn't have the county name in Irish on it.

Someone mentioned failing you on exhaust noise, well we're not the only ones. I just saw an episode of Wheeler Dealers last week where they were trying to get a kit car through its IVA test, and that had a limit of 100dB on exhaust noise. They scraped past it (99.8dB I believe).

The specification for number plates is prescribed in law. Therefore if your number plates do not comply with the law, your vehicle must fail. It's no different to having only one headlight when the law stipulates two.

BrensBenz

Instead of "yes it is /no it isn't" stuff, could we list the strange or stupid decisions or advice we've been given at NCT centres? Maybe this would help to identify and correct the weaknesses in the current NCT regime. For instance:

• "Your indicators are not yellow enough" - Longford;
• "Your wheel alignment is wrong". Immediately had an independent check done and was told that the alignment was so good that any adjustment would worsen it. Retested next day (with no adjustment) and passed. "Oh, you must have hit a pothole and corrected the error" - Longford;
• Your headlight alignment is off". The adjuster on the dash had been rammed past "0" by the NCT guy, leaving the lights too low. "The report is printed now so we must see a receipt for re-alignment" - Ballymun Northpoint;
  Etc.

Personally, I think the system is OK, although I would prefer if the result could be seen and discussed before the report is printed. It's those few, moronic NCT employees - perhaps badly trained or badly monitored - that give the NCT a bad name.

Bodhran

Bodhran wrote: »

The specification for number plates is prescribed in law. Therefore if your number plates do not comply with the law, your vehicle must fail. It's no different to having only one headlight when the law stipulates two.

It's completely different in fairness. One headlight is a safety issue whereas a county name on a number plate is not.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the NCT is a bad thing. I don't think that Irish people can be trusted to maintain their own cars. I don't know how many times I've seen cars with one headlight out and the other on full beam to compensate.

Chris_Heilong

Id say do an NCT check every 3 years would be reasonable, Did a Guarda report recently not say that Death due to mechanical failure was less than 1%.